What next after a 996 turbo? Air cooled or GT4?

[DJM]

Can you show me the press release for this? 

Google 718 GT4 and there are lots of articles like this:

http://www.carscoops.com/2016/07/porsche-718-cayman-and-boxster-to-get.html

Achleitner also revealed that the formula for the cars would remain the same - using a naturally-aspirated version of the company's iconic six-cylinder boxer engine. The current Cayman GT4 and Boxster Spyder use the same 3.8-litre flat-six from the 911 Carrera S.

Achleitner reaffirmed the company's commitment to its larger capacity naturally-aspirated engines, the 3.8-litre and 4.0-litre variants, despite the new turbocharged four- and six-cylinder engines introduced in the 718 and 911 Carrera ranges.

[smit2100]

I'm unsure what you want to do with the car which makes it hard.

The TT is fantastic out of the box, you can throw $10k at it and it'll show the door to any stock 997 GT3 or turbo on a race track and put a huge smile on your face.  They are far too capable for you to extract the performance of them out on the road (same with a 997 GT3/TT or a GT4 etc).

If you want a pure road car and weekend whip a 996TT is probably the best bang for buck you can get, if you aren't as concerned with outright speed a 930/356/early 911 could be worth considering from a smile factor.

Of all the cars I've got and driven the 996TT would be the last to go as it does everything very well and provides the best bang for buck.  

+1.   May I suggest you grab the keys to my car  before your do anything rash and experience what throwing 10k at a stock 996 tt can do in terms of improving the drivabilty of the car over stock (exhaust + tune + shifter mechanism) and then go drive a 930 soon afterwoods and report back. I loaded a off the shelf cobb stage 2 tune (previously had the stage 1 file) this Tuesday which comes with the Cobb accessport (great handheld unit for engine diagnostics and extra gauges and cheap as chips even if the off the shelf tunes weren't supplied (tunes  come with the unit) and both myself and mechanic noted a big difference from the stage one file with just our first shifts into second and third after loading the file.  Extra 0.1 bar of boost to circa 1.0 bar and other ECU tweaks really improves the throttle response, power and torque delivery  and more pleasurable to drive on or off boost  ( even worth putting up with the temporary hassle of / unexpected problem of the fuel gauge being knocked out / reading empty))

But as 1q2w3e4r to attest to, the real bang for buck is when you up the boost a tad more and see 1.2 bar plus on replacement turbo's (along with the necessary and required supporting mods) that spool earlier than the stock k16's.  

 

[sleazius]

Not a press release, but was stated in an interview by the head of product development at the 718 launch. A quick google has confirmed it. We'll have to wait for the fat lady to sing but this was widely reported:

"If it makes sense we will do it, but it is not the target to have in say, 2018 10 variants of the 718. It must make sense"

"The Boxster Spyder and the [Cayman] GT4 have been very successful in the market, and we did not know before, because we had not launched both models, and the result has been really, really excellent. So that showed us that there is a specific market. The customer likes this kind of Cayman and Boxster, very sporty, very powerful expression. So most likely we take this feedback and cultivate this also in the future."

After reaffirming the company’s commitment to its larger capacity naturally-aspirated engines, the 3.8-litre and 4.0-litre variants, Achleitner revealed that Porsche examined the idea of fitting the 718 with the 3.0-litre turbo flat-six from the 911 Carrera, but gave up after the engine wouldn’t fit in the engine bay:

"Six-cylinder turbocharged engine wouldn't fit," he said. "Naturally-aspirated we have today, and most likely we will offer versions in the future, like GT4 for example. We keep this line of naturally-aspirated engines in the GT3 and GT3 RS and so on, as well as GT4, we will develop it."

[Chris-p]

Ha ok well lets see but the general consensus is that it will most probably be a 4cyl turbo. It would be the logical step for the first GT car to be a turbo as the GT3 Guys would go nuts if that happened to the GT3 first!  There was also wild rumors floating around that they may even shoe horn a detuned GT3 engine in but apparantly lots of modifications need to be made for this to happen which would be expensive. Still I wouldn't take what was written in that article as confirmation of anything. It has been dismissed pretty quickly as just speculation and that is all it is. I hope they do do something pretty wild but time will tell. One thing that is guaranteed is that the next GT4 will cost a LOT more than the last one as they really did underprice it.

stay tuned and there will be plenty more speculation before we know the truth   

[DJM]

I don't think it's speculation when Achleitner is directly quoted in multiple media sources. It could be deliberate mis information for some twisted marketing purpose or wishful thinking on his part but I don't see how it would help their cause to suggest a GT3 motor and instead offer a tuned 4 cylinder turbo (an engine that has been widely criticised for sound in particular).  Even worse if they jack the price u, seriously who'd pay more for a 4 cylinder over the current car?

But who knows, ze Germans have ze plan, we'll have to wait and see. 

[Chris-p]

No worries Doug. We will all just have to wait and see. I am sure whatever they do it will be epic 

sorry for hijacking your thread Mr X 

[Mr X]

No worries Doug. We will all just have to wait and see. I am sure whatever they do it will be epic 

sorry for hijacking your thread Mr X 

Not at all, thanks to all for the advice and feedback. Think I'm going to hang onto the 996tt for a while and try get my hands on a GT4 and a couple of other Porsche's before I sell or aquire no 2. 

Will be interesting to see what they do with the 718 GT4 as discussed above.

Does anyone know GT4 production numbers and how many have been delivered to Aus to date?

[1q2w3e4r]

There were heaps, I'll get the number wrong but north of 200 from memory

[Jimmy]

Its less than 200

[1q2w3e4r]

You're right, numbers indicate 150-170 from google check.  That is a lot of cars either way.

[sleazius]

170 I was told - either way it's a lot of GT4s, many more than any previous model (GT3).

[GTP911]

Q: Air or GT4

 

Back to the original Q: if it was me it would be; an as new, low KM, CS, (red) GT4.

[Joshstix]

If value for money is important I'd say its impossible to get "more car" for your money than a 996tt.  If you sold the turbo you would need to add the same amount of money again to get a GT4, that would be great drive on the right road but nowhere near as "muscular" as the turbo.

 

I'd say you have the perfect all rounder P car to keep as the basis of your P car garage.  Now to keep it and look at picking up a sharper more focused model that is dedicated to the task you want it to perform.

[tazzieman]

928GTS

[KGB]

You rang?