Michael@92 Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 Hi everyone, I was looking at the specs of the latest generation 3.4 water cooled Boxer engine. In a 911 it produces 257KW. In a Cayman S it produces 239KW In a Boxster S it produces 232KW.... The 2.7 water cooled version produces: Cayman 202KW Boxster 195KW The 3.4 versions appear to be the same base spec across all 3 models. Same goes for the 2.7 versions. I cannot imagine a manufacturer would be keen to carry additional expense in bolting together 3 different versions of seemingly the same engine intended for largely simliar uses.... Taking marketing, product positioning and money out of the equation does anyone know what causes these differences...? Is it chip tunes,ECU setups, exhaust related? Is there are technical reason that say a Boxster S could not be fitted with a 911 version of the 3.4? Why is it so? Michael@92 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vas Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 Simple, Michael. No real tech reasons. Porsche are just protecting the 911. They need to justify the price of a 911 over a Boxster. Also need to keep a performance gap between the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael@92 Posted 30March, 2013 Author Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 Thanks Vas - I know this is WHY they do it - marketing and product positioning / protection... but HOW do they RESTRICT or DE-RESTRICT the outputs? Is it only chips and engine mapping?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveT Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 It cold be any number of smallish differences. Maybe smaller valves, not a hugely expensive item to change in different engine versions. Mapping of course. Cams are easily swapped and make a lot of difference. Just for starters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vas Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 Exhaust and other small money saving parts, along with mapping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg944 Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 There can also be differences due to the installation: airflow into the engine bay, exhaust geometry etc. That said, most likely in this case, as others have said, Porsche are protecting the 911. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasserkuhl Posted 30March, 2013 Report Share Posted 30March, 2013 The differences are in mapping, intake and capacity. Thats it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael@92 Posted 31March, 2013 Author Report Share Posted 31March, 2013 Interesting how building performance has changed....No more porting and polishing and re-jetting carbs.... I recently watched a mechanic remap the ECU in Golf GTI. Take one laptop, a USB cable into the passenger footwell of the VW, point your browser at a website and 20 minutes later you have yourself a 20KW plus performance. You can down load multiple maps and cycle through them via the Cruise control stalk....No tools, no grease, no mess. Perhaps there is not the demand yet, but I wonder how long it may be before the car companies introduce this facility to their product lines..... Why not allow a chip driven performance upgrade as part of the standard model range - charged for accordingly rather than drive customers to the after market world. I understand the premise of protecting the 911 range and charging a premium but would a 257KW Boxter S really steal many sales? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Harold Posted 30July, 2013 Report Share Posted 30July, 2013 Having just traded my C63 I can tell you nearly every AMG is chipped. $1k and you have circa 510 HP from 451. Best bang for your buck you can have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Posted 30July, 2013 Report Share Posted 30July, 2013 Interesting how building performance has changed....No more porting and polishing and re-jetting carbs.... I recently watched a mechanic remap the ECU in Golf GTI. Take one laptop, a USB cable into the passenger footwell of the VW, point your browser at a website and 20 minutes later you have yourself a 20KW plus performance. You can down load multiple maps and cycle through them via the Cruise control stalk....No tools, no grease, no mess. Perhaps there is not the demand yet, but I wonder how long it may be before the car companies introduce this facility to their product lines..... Why not allow a chip driven performance upgrade as part of the standard model range - charged for accordingly rather than drive customers to the after market world. I understand the premise of protecting the 911 range and charging a premium but would a 257KW Boxter S really steal many sales? Hi Michael, Yes the world has changed an incredible amount in the last 15-20 years. I still remember mucking around with carbs and jetting like it was yesterday. I guess the thing with manufacturers offering chips to boost performance is reliability, drivability and fuel economy. Huge amounts of money is invested into developing the car itself and then when a performance derivative is introduced a similar amount is spent covering the above. Because at the end if the day it still has their badge on the bonnet and they want it to drive well, not break down and have reasonably good fuel economy, relatively speaking. Yes, plenty of people like us are happy to buy a chip and put up with little quirks here and there but you don't want the masses complaining or even worse suing the company because of poor reliability or is a pig to drive. Which is why the likes of AMG or HSV cost so much as opposed to the more informed people (like us), who arrange the modifications ourselves and understand that performance comes with compromise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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