Rumormill: Porsche’s Ferrari Fighter to Have Flat-Eight?

The latest bit of information gleaned from automobile magazine suggest the new car will be powered by a quad turbo,  flat-eight engine. Automobile magazine says the design has been been approved by Ferdinand Piech himself.

Now, besides probably being the coolest engine configuration from Porsche ever, a flat eight would put the 960 on the same playing field as it’s larger displacement rivals from Ferrari. Automobile says Porsche is targeting the F12 Berlinetta and the Lamborghini Aventador. While the flat-six is a powerful engine in it’s own right, there’s no way it could compete with the power and torque characteristics of Ferrari and Lamborghini’s V12 offerings. Even a boosted flat-eight seems a little bit underwhelming… Until you consider that the Porsche will only weigh 3000 lbs. Oh, and it’ll make 650hp. With all-wheel-drive.

A flat eight might be new territory for Porsche’s consumer cars, but they’re not exactly new. Ferdinand Piech himself used to drive a 914 equipped with a flat-eight in the past. They say he’s been driving a flat eight Cayman more recently.  If that’s true, then Porsche has definitely been holding out.

We’ll know more whenever Porsche decides to reveal more info on their skunk works project.

via [Autoblog]