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]
Sam McEachern holds a diploma in journalism from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, and has been covering the automotive industry for over 5 years. He conducts reviews and writes AutoGuide's news content. He's a die-hard motorsports fan with a passion for performance cars of all sorts.
More by Sam McEachern
Comments
Join the conversation
God bless Porsche. May the cult of pure driving live forever.