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New 4 doors Porsche GT preview by Autobild |
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Written by Yves
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Wednesday, 14 April 2004 |
German car magazine Autobild previews the new four doors Porsche GT.
The speculations state that the fourth model series of Porsche will be a large Coupé with four doors and a V8-frontmotor. A Gran Turismo, in short GT, is finally in the make.
One hardly believes it, but four-seater sports cars have a long tradition with Porsche. Already in the early 1960's Pininfarina started a study codenamed B17, and ten years later designed the Swabia, a four-seater prototype based on the 911. After the birthday of Ferry Porsche (in 1984) the 928 with four seats followed.
It became then serious at the beginning of the 90's, when under Arno Bohn the project 989 started. The four-door Coupé looked at first sight like a further 911er derivation, but a V8 was inserted in front with rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.
Under the new strong man Wendelin Wiedeking, two new models were directly in the make: the Boxster and Cayenne. But since some time, a fourth may be in the make and at present, these three alternatives are discussed:
• another model on the Boxster platform (Boxster Coupe?)
• a V8/V10-sportscar scheduled for 2010/2011
• a V8-Front engine car, which uses as much characters as possible from the Cayenne
No doubt that the new model receives four seats. Head and leg liberty in the rear do not only have to be sufficient for high requirements, also the liberty to step in and out will be more than average so that an older target group will have it easier to get in. The project, codenamed E2, will be based mainly on the system of the Cayenne, however without any offroad ambitions.
In the ideal case the Porsche GT would be a front central engine car, which promises an optimal weight distribution by the transmission to the rear axle. But this desired concept is probably put only partially into practice, whereby a new wheel suspension and an installation position of the V8 shifted toward cockpit are more probable than the spatial separation from engine and transmission.
The car will have a weight of approx. 1580 kg. The piston displacement of the V8 rises from 3.6 to shortly 5.0 litres. The standard version of the engine will produce approximately 400 HP, while the Biturbo will have 550 HP.
The earliest possible start for the GT Coupé is in the autumn of 2008. Only twelve months later the next Cayenne model follows.
source: AutobildOnly registered users can write comments.
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