many may find it a little strange that Porsche bet on a boxer engine four-cylinder. But it is not. Since its birth, in a sawmill in Gmünd, Porsche began working with a sports four-cylinder. Even in the height of the mark, while growing its reputation and accumulated hits car in their display cases, the four-cylinder engine continued to be extremely important for the brand. We speak of sports as the Porsche 550 Spyder, but also of his brand-new successor, the same that today gives name to the new Porsche 718 Boxster and Porsche 718 Cayman, the Porsche 718, 1957.
The Porsche 718 was born as an evolution of the Porsche 550 racing that triumphed in the european mountain, in the Targa Florio, and included with versions open, coupes, and even single-seaters of Formula 1 and Formula 2.
If you look carefully it is possible that in him you see a Porsche 550 Spyder. Without going more far, the Porsche 718 was designed to from the famous 550, with the proviso that in its bowels hide a work of engineering amazing, mainly body and suspension. A job that would lead to the Porsche engineers to create a sporty whose figures today let us without words.
In its debut, the Porsche 718 RSK was introduced with the architecture of the central engine, a boxer four-cylinder, 142 BHP of power. That same sport, beat in the Targa Florio 1959, and would continue to improve to meet up with versions such as the Porsche 718 RS 60, with a ratio between weight and excellent power, of 530 kilograms to 160 HP, also beat in the Targa Florio in 1960.
By the way, Porsche continued to develop versions each time more impressive, with an aerodynamic work very careful that would take the Porsche 718 accumulating five championships in the european mountain.
The Porsche 718 came to tell even with a version of body-gated, type coupe, a Porsche 718 GTR that beat in the Targa Florio in 1963 and which today we might consider, again, as a distant relative of the Porsche 718 Cayman.
That is not all. The Porsche 718, also came to participate in the championships of Formula 1 and Formula 2. Porsche found in their architecture, mid-engine, and in the centered position of the address, a perfect base to transform your sports in a single-seater that pilotarían such as Stirling Moss and Graham Hill.
And all of this with a boxer engine four-cylinder…
Source: Porsche
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