Tag Archives: Porsche

News

Porsche’s About-Face: The 718 Boxster and Cayman Are Getting Their Gas Back

By any measure, this is one of the most dramatic drivetrain reversals in Porsche’s modern history. Just months after shuttering production of the fourth-generation 718 Boxster and Cayman—and confidently lining up bespoke electric replacements—Porsche is now preparing to reengineer that very EV platform to accept petrol power once again. In Stuttgart, the future just did a clean heel-and-toe downshift.

According to senior sources inside Porsche’s Weissach engineering center, the company is working to adapt the upcoming PPE Sport architecture—originally conceived as an EV-only platform for the next Boxster and Cayman—to accommodate a mid-mounted internal-combustion engine. The move comes as global EV demand cools and Porsche recalibrates a strategy that, until recently, pointed decisively toward an electric-only sports-car future.

This isn’t a minor tweak or a half-step hybrid hedge. It’s a full-on engineering U-turn, motivated by production efficiency, economies of scale, and—perhaps most importantly—customer appetite. Porsche has already acknowledged the shifting landscape with a costly £6.65 billion write-down tied to its EV ambitions. Now, the 718’s return to gasoline power marks the clearest signal yet that Zuffenhausen is listening closely to the market.

Two 718 Futures, One Platform

To understand what’s happening, it’s important to separate Porsche’s short-term stopgaps from its longer-term plan. The company previously confirmed it would continue building “top” versions of the outgoing 718—widely expected to be RS and GT4 RS variants—even as the electric Boxster and Cayman arrive in 2026. Those cars will effectively sit above the EVs in the lineup, keeping combustion alive for hardcore enthusiasts.

But the newly revealed petrol-powered 718s are something else entirely. These will be fifth-generation models, built on the same PPE Sport platform as their electric siblings, and expected to arrive toward the end of the decade. In other words, Porsche isn’t just extending the life of the current cars—it’s attempting to unify electric and combustion sports cars on a single next-generation architecture.

That’s an extraordinarily ambitious goal, and one that presents serious technical hurdles.

The EV Problem: Structure, Structure, Structure

The PPE Sport platform was never designed to host an engine. Like most modern EV architectures, it relies on a stressed, load-bearing battery pack integrated into a flat floor. That battery doesn’t just store energy—it provides a significant portion of the car’s structural rigidity and enables an ultra-low center of gravity.

Remove it, and the entire bodyshell loses strength.

Porsche engineers’ solution, as described to Autocar, involves developing a new structural floor section that bolts into the platform’s existing hard points, effectively restoring rigidity where the battery would have been. From there, a redesigned rear bulkhead and subframe would support the engine and transmission.

Even then, packaging remains a nightmare. The PPE Sport platform has no central tunnel, no provision for a fuel tank, no routing for fuel lines, and nowhere to run an exhaust system. Engineers suggest the rear of the car may need to be completely reworked—an acknowledgment that this platform is being pushed well beyond its original intent.

Still, Porsche insists that this effort is non-negotiable. For the petrol 718s to make sense, they must achieve dynamic parity with the EV versions. That’s a tall order when the electric cars benefit from that low-mounted battery mass, but insiders say anything less would undermine the brand’s sports-car credibility.

Euro 7 Changes the Math

For years, Porsche believed the naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six was living on borrowed time. Early drafts of the EU’s Euro 7 emissions regulations threatened to bury engines like it under oversized particulate filters and complex after-treatment systems, making them impractical for low-volume sports cars.

That calculation has now changed.

The final Euro 7 rules are less severe than initially proposed, and the EU’s post-2035 exemption for e-fuels has reopened the business case for new petrol-powered performance cars. As one senior Porsche engineer put it bluntly, “The electric Boxster and Cayman risked becoming a niche. Euro 7 changed the arithmetic.”

In other words, the regulatory headwinds eased just enough for Porsche to reconsider what it does best.

Flat-Six Revival?

Exactly which engine will power the reborn petrol 718s hasn’t been finalized, but the leading candidate is familiar—and beloved. Internal plans presented by outgoing CEO Oliver Blume point toward a further evolution of the 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six introduced to the 718 lineup in 2020.

In its most aggressive current form, as fitted to the GT4 RS, that engine makes up to 493 horsepower. Whether future versions match that output—or tune it differently to coexist with electric siblings—remains to be seen. But the message is clear: Porsche isn’t ready to let the flat-six go quietly.

What This Really Means

Beyond the technical intrigue, Porsche’s 718 reversal says something larger about the industry’s trajectory. Like Fiat resurrecting the 500 Hybrid or Mercedes-Benz rethinking its EV-first commercial vehicles, Porsche is acknowledging that the road to electrification isn’t a straight line.

For enthusiasts, it’s a rare bit of good news in an era of uncertainty. The Boxster and Cayman—long celebrated for their balance, tactility, and mechanical intimacy—may yet continue to offer the visceral experience that defined them, even as electric versions push performance in new directions.

If Porsche pulls this off, it won’t just have saved the 718’s soul. It will have created one of the most flexible—and philosophically complex—sports-car platforms the company has ever built.

Source: Autocar

NEW CARS

Porsche 911 GT3 90 F. A. Porsche — A Birthday Present Worth 510 Horsepower

If Porsche ever needed an excuse to build another special 911, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche’s 90th birthday is a pretty good one. The man who penned the original 911—and later founded Porsche Design—would have turned 90 on December 11, 2025. Stuttgart’s tribute? Not a cake, not a sculpture, but something much more appropriate: a limited-run 911 GT3 90 F. A. Porsche, a 510-hp, detail-obsessed homage to the brand’s most influential designer.

Only 90 units will exist, each hand-finished by the Sonderwunsch (“special wish”) division. One goes to F. A.’s son, Mark Porsche. The remaining 89 are for customers who will get a bespoke commissioning experience before production begins in late 2026. Orders open April 2026—so start sweet-talking your dealer now.

A GT3 With Touring Manners and Museum-Grade Details

Underneath the heritage polish sits the 911 GT3 Touring Package, meaning you get the same naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six pumping out 510 PS (375 kW), but without the shouty fixed rear wing. Instead, there’s a subtle extendable spoiler, keeping the car in low-key sleeper mode—assuming anyone mistakes a GT3 for “low key.”

But this edition is all about craftsmanship and storytelling.

The paint alone, F. A. Greenmetallic, was brewed specifically for this model. It’s a modern reinterpretation of the Oakgreenmetallic hue on F. A. Porsche’s personal G-Series 911. It also debuts a new exclusive Paint to Sample label on the A-pillar—a detail collectors will pore over at auctions decades from now.

Then there are the wheels: Sport Classic rims in satin-gloss black with center locks and the historic 1963 Porsche crest. They’re not typically available on the Touring Package GT3, but exceptions are the whole point of Sonderwunsch. A gold-plated “90 F. A. Porsche” badge on the rear grille seals the exterior with commemorative flair.

Inside: Where Memory Meets Material Science

As with many Porsche special editions, the interior goes deep into storytelling. The key motif is the F. A. Grid-Weave fabric—an intricate five-color pattern using black, green, truffle brown, cream, and Bordeaux red threads. The design comes from F. A.’s favorite jackets, the ones Mark Porsche recalls from childhood visits to his father’s studio.

This fabric appears on the seat centers, glove box, briefcase, and even the reversible luggage compartment mat, all surrounded by Truffle Brown Club Leather with Chalk Beige stitching.

Two more nods to the man himself elevate the cabin:

  • A walnut plywood gear knob with F. A. Porsche’s engraved signature
  • A gold-plated dashboard plaque reading “One of 90,” featuring a silhouette of the original 911

Even the Sport Chrono clock is a tribute, modeled on the one-off Chronograph I F. A. made for himself.

A Watch to Match the Car

No Porsche tribute would be complete without a timepiece. Buyers receive an exclusive Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 911 GT3 90 F. A. Porsche, built by hand in Grenchen.

It features:

  • A patina-inspired luminous treatment mimicking aged radium/tritium
  • The historic Porsche Design logo
  • F. A.’s initials in place of the standard day/date logo
  • A rotor modeled after the GT3’s wheels
  • A titanium case coated in black, echoing the original 1972 design

A matching leather strap—using the same materials as the GT3’s interior—comes with a quick-change system.

It’s vintage in spirit, modern in function, COSC-certified, and limited to—you guessed it—90.

The Weekender and the Wildcard Return of the Porsche Junior

The commemorative package also includes a Truffle Brown leather weekender bag, lined with the same Grid-Weave fabric, and wearing the same 90th-anniversary badge as the car’s rear grille.

And then there’s the curveball:
Porsche is resurrecting the Porsche Junior, a bowl-shaped sled from the 1960s beloved by the Porsche family. This new version is carbon fiber with a Kevlar core and—naturally—painted F. A. Greenmetallic. Production? Also limited to 90 units.

A Tribute F. A. Would Probably Approve Of

F. A. Porsche famously said, “When you consider the function of an object, the form usually emerges by itself.” The 911 GT3 90 F. A. Porsche follows this credo religiously. It’s functional, fast, and focused, yet full of warm, personal details that turn an already iconic sports car into a rolling design retrospective.

Whether you see it as a museum piece or a track car with a grandfather clock’s worth of history, this GT3 is more than a birthday present—it’s a love letter to the man who drew the first line of Porsche’s most enduring silhouette.

Source: Porsche

Story

Porsche, Plaid, and the Highlands: How a 911 Turbo Brought Tartan Home

The Porsche 911 Turbo has always balanced on the sharp edge between heritage and horsepower. But this time, the story isn’t just in the flat-six or the boost gauge—it’s in the seats. Specifically, in a Weathered Dress Mackenzie tartan pattern that has taken the Turbo on a pilgrimage straight to its ancestral homeland: the Scottish Highlands.

When the door of the 911 Turbo 50 Years swings open outside Castle Leod, the ancestral seat of Clan Mackenzie, 38-year-old Viscount Tarbat—Colin to his friends—breaks into a grin as wide as the castle’s stone courtyard. “I suppose that means we’re now officially the fastest clan,” he laughs, eyeing the green-and-brown tartan inserts like a proud team captain admiring a new kit.

Behind him stands three-year-old Roddy and John, the 77-year-old Earl of Cromartie and current clan chief. Castle Leod may be one of the oldest continuously inhabited buildings in Scotland, but today it plays host to a brand-new Turbo whose interior points to a surprisingly deep Porsche–Highlands connection.

A Plaid Path to Zuffenhausen

The legend begins not in a castle, but in a design studio. Anatole Lapine, Porsche’s head of design in the early ’70s, walked in one morning wearing Black Watch tartan trousers—Bay City Rollers era, remember—and by lunch the idea had ignited: why not put tartan in a 911?

The 1973 911 Turbo RSR concept arrived first with bold blue, green, and black Black Watch upholstery. A year later, the first roadgoing 911 Turbo, gifted to Louise Piëch for her 70th birthday, appeared wrapped in an even brasher Maclachlan red-and-blue plaid. Porsche was hooked.

Dorothea Müller-Goodwyn, a longtime member of Porsche’s styling team, recalls that the company originally tried to source the fabrics from Scotland. The mills were historic, the patterns iconic—but the materials simply weren’t rugged enough for a sports car’s interior. Sunlight and sliding bolsters are far less forgiving than Highland weather. The company eventually relied on an automotive textile maker in Germany’s Swabian Alps, but the tartans remained unmistakably Scottish in spirit.

By 1975, Turbo buyers could choose from three official tartan upholstery options. One of the most memorable found a home in Ferry Porsche’s own Oak Green Metallic 911 Turbo: Mackenzie tartan—a fabric that returns, in evolved form, in the Turbo 50 Years now parked outside Castle Leod.

A Clan, a Castle, and a Turbo

The backdrop couldn’t be more cinematic. Castle Leod is widely cited as the real-world inspiration for Castle Leoch in Outlander, and today the Mackenzies are less medieval warband and more global family. “We can’t just march down the A9 brandishing swords and muskets anymore,” the Earl says with a smile. “But we can show that we belong to a clan in our tartan. Clans unite people regardless of race, religion, or politics.”

In other words: tartan works a lot like car culture.

The clan counts nearly two million members worldwide, spread across Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and well beyond. “People are looking for something that outlasts the transient,” the Earl says. “Not unlike a Porsche, really.”

The castle’s upkeep is a centuries-long project—“My job is as an explosives consultant, but my destiny has always been to be a slave to a castle,” he jokes—but the sense of continuity is clear. And seeing a Porsche interior stitched in Mackenzie colors? That’s a different kind of heritage coming home.

The Fabric of a Nation

To understand tartan properly, you have to go to Edinburgh. Specifically, to Kinloch Anderson, suppliers to the British royal family since 1903 and something like the Geneva Observatory of tartan authenticity.

John Kinloch Anderson, sixth generation in the family business, explains how early tartans were simply local textiles dyed with whatever roots, leaves, and bark were available. Over time, patterns became linked to the regions—and, eventually, to the clans themselves.

After the Jacobite uprising of 1745, wearing clan tartan was outlawed. But by the 1800s, it was back in royal fashion, codified, catalogued, and woven into Scotland’s identity. Today there are over 2,000 commercially woven tartans and more than 10,000 officially registered ones.

And yes, there’s a decent chance Kinloch Anderson made the very trousers Lapine wore to the Porsche design studio. “It was the ’70s—Rod Stewart, the Bay City Rollers,” Anderson says, smiling. “We exported a hundred thousand tartan skirts a year at one point.”

Now the company is working with Porsche again—this time on notebooks in three historic tartans. From Vivienne Westwood to Ralph Lauren, tartan has had a remarkable afterlife in global design. And now it’s helping celebrate half a century of Porsche’s most iconic turbocharged machine.

A Line That Never Breaks

The 911 Turbo has always been about lineage—linking the past to the present with a whoosh of boost and a whiplash of acceleration. But tartan interiors tell a quieter story: of heritage that refuses to fade, whether on the battlefield, in the fashion world, or stitched into the bolsters of a 911.

As the Turbo 50 Years idles beneath Castle Leod’s ancient stone walls, you can’t help but feel the symmetry. A clan pattern reimagined in a German supercar. A castle that has stood since long before the first internal-combustion engine. And a fabric that, like Porsche itself, has never stopped evolving.

It turns out heritage isn’t just something you inherit. Sometimes, it’s something you drive.

Source: Porsche