Hear that? It’s a Porsche flat-8 speeding away to the scrap heap of broken promises, occurring right in the wake of an announcement from former Volkswagen AG Head of Powertrain Development Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser. According to Dr. Neusser, the rumored Porsche flat-8 engine is not to be – at least, not in any forthcoming 911 variants.
We’re a bit broken up about it, but not entirely surprised.
According to Autocar, Dr. Neusser has confirmed that a 911-bound Porsche flat-8 powerplant had been in the pre-development phase for some time. So why won’t it ever arrive? Simply put: packaging requirements.
The range of flat-6 engines currently powering various Type-991 Porsches is effectively capped at 4.0 liters of displacement; any volume beyond that would introduce larger components which would create design complications. In order for a Porsche flat-8 to make any sense, volume would have to around 5.0 liters, which Dr. Neusser remarks is “probably too big.”
Of course, while the Porsche flat-8 has been ruled out, the Type-991 is set to debut a new facelift later in the year at Frankfurt. Among the changes we can confirm is a new range of turbocharged flat-6 powerplants to replace the normally-aspirated units throughout the entire Type-991 range. That will bring with it some good, some bad, and some puzzling specifics, such as how we should now refer to the Porsche 911 Turbo.
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