Photo: Porsche
The fact that Porsche was giving the Cayman and Boxster less power in China made headlines yesterday, but we thought everybody knew about that already, since it was reported when the 718 Cayman made its debut in Shanghai. What the headlines should have told you is that the poor man's Porsche is already available in the People's Republic.
You know us, we want to learn the specs first. Both 718 Cayman and Boxster are equipped with the same 2-liter turbo engine, but the output has gone down from 300 to 250 hp. We're a bit more shocked with the 310 Nm of torque, which is appalling.
When equipped with a PDK gearbox, the Cayman coupe is able to sprint to 100 km/h in 5.6 seconds while achieving a top speed of 260 km/h. Sport Chrono brings things down to 5.4 seconds, while the 718 Boxster does pretty much the same thing.
That means the 50 lost horsepower resulted in an increase of 0.7 seconds in the 0 to 100 km/h sprint time and a 15 km/h top speed decrease. In also means something like an Audi S3 or Golf R could have your sweet Ingolstadt tush.
The weird thing is that losing power has had an adverse effect on the fuel consumption, which has gone from 9 to 10.4 liters per 100 kilometers. CO2 emissions have increased by about 10 grams.
So why is Porsche offering a cheaper car in China and not in Europe. Simply put, because the Audi TT had success with its 1.8-liter offering there. That was largely down to price, as the cheapened TT was offered at 543,800 yen or $81,550.
Porsche wasn't able to keep the Cayman that cheap, but it got very close, as the hardtop version of the 178 series stickers for 588,000 yuan ($88,340) while the Boxster is 598,000 yuan ($89,840).
We can't help but notice that the Chinese customers are still getting an aweful deal. For that kind of cash, they should be buying a Porsche 911 or a TT RS. We've talked to a few of them and they know what's going on, but they are willing to put up with huge markups to get cars that are actually made in Germany.
When equipped with a PDK gearbox, the Cayman coupe is able to sprint to 100 km/h in 5.6 seconds while achieving a top speed of 260 km/h. Sport Chrono brings things down to 5.4 seconds, while the 718 Boxster does pretty much the same thing.
That means the 50 lost horsepower resulted in an increase of 0.7 seconds in the 0 to 100 km/h sprint time and a 15 km/h top speed decrease. In also means something like an Audi S3 or Golf R could have your sweet Ingolstadt tush.
The weird thing is that losing power has had an adverse effect on the fuel consumption, which has gone from 9 to 10.4 liters per 100 kilometers. CO2 emissions have increased by about 10 grams.
So why is Porsche offering a cheaper car in China and not in Europe. Simply put, because the Audi TT had success with its 1.8-liter offering there. That was largely down to price, as the cheapened TT was offered at 543,800 yen or $81,550.
Porsche wasn't able to keep the Cayman that cheap, but it got very close, as the hardtop version of the 178 series stickers for 588,000 yuan ($88,340) while the Boxster is 598,000 yuan ($89,840).
We can't help but notice that the Chinese customers are still getting an aweful deal. For that kind of cash, they should be buying a Porsche 911 or a TT RS. We've talked to a few of them and they know what's going on, but they are willing to put up with huge markups to get cars that are actually made in Germany.
Google News