Boxster to get new name, 4-cyl turbo

Smallest Porsches will be called 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman from 2016 model year.

Smallest Porsches will be called 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman from 2016 model year.

Published Dec 10, 2015

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Stuttgart - Porsche has announced that its smallest sports cars, the Boxster and Cayman, are to get numerical names, as well as four-cylinder power.

The 2016 versions of the company's smallest sports cars, due "during the course of the year" will be renamed 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman.

Porsche will also realign the pricing strategy, with the 718 Cayman coupé becoming cheaper than its open-top Boxster counterpart.

While the current versions are powered by normally aspirated flat-six engines, the 718 models will be powered by new turbocharged flat-four motors. Porsche hasn't released any output figures as yet, but expect them to offer more power than the engines they replace while also appeasing the legislative nannies with lower fuel consumption, at least in the lab.

As Porsche aficionados will know, this is not the first time Porsche has offered a flat-four engine. In fact, according to Porsche the late 1950s 718 that the new models pay nameplate tribute to represented the "highest configuration level" of the four-cylinder flat engine at the time and the 550 Spyder successor proved successful on race circuits around the world.

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