Porsche Will Appease the Purists With More Driver's Cars

After receiving positive feedback on the Cayman GT4, 911 R and the recently unveiled 911 GT3 Touring, Porsche is considering making more cars aimed at driving purists.

Speaking to Autocar, Porsche’s head of ‘GT’ badged vehicles, Frank Walliser, said cars such as the GT4 are evidence that purist models have a place in the automaker’s lineup. Simplified, stripped out models with manual transmissions have been notable successes for Porsche recently, with the second-hand market for the 911 R inflating to never before seen levels and the hype for the driver-focused GT3 Touring also proving noteworthy. Media and consumer response to the GT4 was also overwhelmingly positive.

“The GT4 showed us there was demand for a pure driving Porsche with a manual gearbox,” said Walliser. “This theme of ‘pure and simple’ is a success in other fields too, like scrambler motorbikes and single-speed bicycles. People like simplicity.”

SEE ALSO: Next Porsche 911 Spied Testing High-Tech Interior

What Porsche won’t do, however, is create stripped out simplified versions of its lesser model variants. That means a driver-focused, purist version of the entry-level 911 Carrera or the four-cylinder Cayman won’t arrive, for example. Walliser says the investment needed makes creating ‘GT’ versions of its cheaper vehicles economically unviable.

“A GT car drives like it does because all the suspension components are changed. And the investment has to be recouped with the price,” he said. “You can’t downsize the idea of a GT car.”

Walliser also said the Cayman GT4, a successor of which is currently under consideration, would remain the lowest-tier ‘GT’ badged car. There will also never be a four-cylinder performance model from Porsche, he said, so don’t expect a four-cylinder GT version of the Cayman or Boxster to arrive at any point. That’s fine by us, and we’re sure it will be fine with die-hard Porsche purists as well.

Discuss this story on our Porsche forum.

[Source: Autocar]