Upsized engine, downsized price! Porsche 718 GTS 4.0 twins head to SA…

By: CAR magazine

Porsche recently revealed its new 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 variants, which have upgraded from flat-four to flat-six power. And now we have local pricing ahead of their respective arrivals in South Africa.

Interestingly, the naturally aspirated newcomers are actually less expensive than their turbocharged four-cylinder predecessors. Yes, you read that correctly.

The Cayman GTS 4.0 is priced from R1 164 000 (or R1 214 000, should you wish to upgrade the standard three-year Driveplan to five years), while the Boxster GTS 4.0 starts at R1 175 000 (or R1 225 000 with the longer Driveplan specified). In each case, that’s some R51 000 less expensive than the outgoing four-pot version.

As a reminder, the new two-seater variants have upsized to a version of the naturally aspirated 4,0-litre six-cylinder boxer engine (which here “effortlessly revs to 7 800 r/min”) used in the 718 Spyder and 718 Cayman GT4.

Churning out 294 kW in GTS guise (down slightly from the 309 kW generated in the Spyder and GT4 but up from the 269 kW offered by the old four-pot models), the newcomers will sprint from standstill to 100 km/h in a claimed 4,5 seconds and top out at 293 km/h when fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox and a twin-tailpipe sports exhaust system.

The company’s familiar Sport Chrono package ships standard. Peak torque for this version of the engine comes in at 420 N.m, which is ten units down on the outgoing turbocharged flat-four engine.

The latest versions of the mid-engined sportscars are fitted with 20-inch light-alloy wheels in satin-gloss black as standard. High-performance tyres (in 235/35 ZR20 size fore and 265/35 ZR20 size aft) frame upgraded brakes that feature cross-drilled discs and red callipers. Ceramic composite brakes are, of course, available as an option (a whopping R132 480 here in South Africa).

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