Porsche 718 GT4: An in-depth first look with Andreas Preuninger

We are here on the Porsche stand at the good festival speed 2019 for a particular reason, because when the car behind me the GT4 was released, I got local investors saying, Are you doing a walk around? Are you doing walking and we haven't. But we're going to now because, Let's walk around it. Let's walk around it. It's Andreas Preuninger, so you're gonna talk a little bit about the car. Hello, everybody. [LAUGH] So this is for all the people that asked. Yeah, extra for you all, guys. Exactly, yes. For his postbox. [LAUGH] Yeah, exactly, so we started around the back of the car because I thought I would ask you about the engine. The engine. Because that's, I think, everybody's- Which is not exactly in the back, which is in the middle. It's in the middle, all right, fine, it's not in the front, so [LAUGH]. [LAUGH] This engine. So it's been 982 EVO engine which is the engine that's in the 992 but completely different. I would say, the name is 982 EVO. It's a derivative of the 3.0 liter turbocharged engine of the Carrera. But actually it is a bespoke engine. Because it's got a different crankcase, it's got different pistons got different Conrad's got different crankshaft, different heads, different balls. So it has a generator and some other stuff around the engine, but it still is kind of kind of constructed out of the turbo engine. So it has four liters. It's has the same [UNKNOWN] and stroke as the GT3 rise engine. So it's about geometrically the same. It has 420 horsepower. If that's a class of 35, you can compare it to the 981 predecessor, which note as well. Definitely, it's a four liter engine. And It's legal in Europe till whenever. Which is pretty important. So, it's very, very, very good in emmissions. Not only the emissions that are valid today, but only for tomorrow, but it's valid for tomorrows regulations so we're really happy with that. It has a particulate fielder. Everybody was talking, it has a particulate fielder. The end of the world, no it isn't. Were you [CROSSTALK] Has a great sound, and you happily- Speedster. Yeah, Speedster, we showed it off on the Speedster, that's a similar technology in this car. And it's quite a leap from the performance-wise when you compare it to the previous But it still is a GD four. It's power you can use. It's power you can enjoy. It's a car you can dare to fully throttle it sometimes, even in the normal with a nice back road when there's nobody there. And that's about the chemistry of the GD four. You have this earthly power, this usable power and this balance of the car, this precision sharp knife. Knife sharp reaction to everything that has 2T3 suspension and components like the 981. And it has revised aerodynamics, as a matter of fact. And some other tweaks here and there, and it's quicker. It has to be quicker. It's a motor sport car. Obviously, yes. So we can come out. Artificial data yet, but it's smaller than 10 seconds quicker on the ring. And it's faster and it's not alone to horsepower. It's the whole package. And yeah, we're really happy that we have it back on the market. Absolutely Everybody is Iterating turning back to those particular calls is one of the things is obviously you can reduce muffler sizes, you've actually got a particular filter acting almost as a muffler as well. So that's one of the reasons that you can work around this. It doesn't just have to be on top of that to reduce sound even further does it Yeah, that's this is this is a I mean a particular filter Dampens the exhaust noise a little bit so you can live with less dampening dampers in itself and on the speed sir we even though a lighter with the exhaust system I explained that several interviews so we can take away the real side dampers and Use the particular filter instead so that saves us weight and saves us room package room, on the mid engine couched a bit different. Because the engine sits in the middle, and we have to find a way to route the exhaust to the ends so you have to cross the That the drive shaft sends out a make a little bit of a bow. We are happier with the exhaust situation in 911 in the rear engined application so we have to be very clever here not to get too much back pressure on the exhaust but we did a good job here despite having the open house and the sound is great. Nevertheless I see. And I think there's a there's a benefit obviously to having this engine obviously the. I look forward to [UNKNOWN] Engine in it. But in terms of actually being able to produce more of these, this new engine is a help to that extent of thing. Now what we can talk about the future. [LAUGH] It's a bespoke engine at this time but it speeds for despite. Miranda and the treaty for that's true. But it's, it's an engine that we can we could really imagine that we can use for our programs as well which I can go into detail. It definitely is the case that we want to use this beautiful platform for future products as well. Maybe not in this Supersonic form that we have here on the treaty. But the overall platform of this engine is very usable and it Fit for the Future then, in the same way that you didn't develop the six p box just for the 911 our joy to all the people exactly, at least two more than one group of countries Basic Tokyo gearboxes there is anyone gay books available for this call at the moment which is it's a manual. Rich, it's the same gearbox that we haven't had to be having a previous answer as well. We think it fits very well, the drivers car characteristics of that GDPR and the And that's goes for the Spyder as well. People buying that car, they wanna work in the car, they wanna have the additional interface with their foot, the clutch. And to have one means more to operate and influence the car's behavior. But we hear voices as well that are calling for PDK in the car, we can't offer that at the moment, but we're working on it. We are gonna bring that out not this year, but maybe a little bit later in the life cycle, next year somewhere. So the cars will be available with a PDK as well shortly. Should you like that sort of thing. I always told you on the 2D3. It's always good to have a choice Posters, yeah, yeah. Absolutely, we have to tell the customer what's best for him so he can make up his own mind. Quite, absolutely, choices is the important thing. So coming back to the suspension, it's all fully adjustable, tow [UNKNOWN] It's like all the GT cars, it's adjustable in all ways, [UNKNOWN] tow in, right [UNKNOWN], it's pretty much the same components, at least on the front axle of the [UNKNOWN] GT3 and in the [UNKNOWN] car. And it's a bespoke new rear axle for the 718 Application here. Yeah, I see, and you designed the wheel, as well, I think, which kind of looks a bit more like GT3. It's got a- Yeah, well it's still the look of the GT theme in it, to have its five spokes V. And it's a evolution of the old wheel, which we still have. And it fits the character of the car, and everybody Right away notice it and recognize it as a GT wheel. But it's evolution, not revolution. Yes, sure. It's lighter, though. Is it? Than the old one. Excellent, what [CROSSTALK] About 100 grams. We'll come onto weight in a minute. The [UNKNOWN] brakes, once we're down here, obviously an option to the standard Good. Yeah. Aerodynamics is obviously the other- Big step, big step. Why, mainly because of the other car we're gonna look at in a minute I guess. [LAUGH] The Spyder because an open car presents this problem we have to make a down for because I don't want to have a [UNKNOWN] with a huge wing It looks stupid, at least for my taste, and it's not as effective, because you got all this swirl from the open windscreen, so it's not as effective. So you have to look for downforce underneath, and so we constructed this diffuser, which you only can see a part of when you look at the back of the car. But which goes all the way underneath the car. We have a mint engine car so we can really accelerate the air up. There is no engine sitting in the back preventing a real useful diffuser. I mean the mean the ones on the Gt models they work but not as good logically as here.>> I see.>> Because we can accelerate it out.>> The longer you get to accelerate, yeah.>> We need to complete exhaust system. Was a slave to the diffuser because we needed. Follow me guys, we need this portion in the middle.>> I notice this yeah.>> To be open yeah and to be unrestricted all the way down.>> Yeah.>> That's very important, so the exhaust had to go to the sides and and rear down balance it like this. It was a cost Thing. Yeah. But we wanted to have this down force to get the spider in a neutral or even slightly down force region. On that car it is an additional down force because this ring is more effective than the predecessor by about 20% And top of that comes another 50% from the underbody. Right. So the [UNKNOWN] being imbalance with it's something to the front as well [UNKNOWN] show you. It's an arrange of a [UNKNOWN] GT3 gen one was so, it's about the [UNKNOWN] the car has, it has a [UNKNOWN] And the Spyder is slightly downforce and very neutral. So it doesnt have any lift. So that was the good thing about it. Shall we have a look at the aero on the front then? Yeah. Sure. And the sideplates are intergrated now. That's nice. I hadnt seen that. The profile is differnt. If your only here at Ingfield, here it's a little bit differnt. It sits a little bit higher. But and it's still very efficient because the diffuser just adds down force it doesn't affect the coefficient drag at all which is a good thing. Because normally it's always a trade off. Having a lot of downforce means that the dog will accelerate like a pig at 120 onwards. That's not what we're wanting to have. Yeah, and it's wanting to have it efficient, efficient, aerodynamically balanced. And this is a lot of work in the winter. But and that card really works through the front On the front, we have that thing here, which we call the out-curve. It's not a design feature, you'll never find a design feature that's only there for design and looking good. But we always make the functional part first, and then we take the studio guys, and ask them, please make them more beautiful. [LAUGH] Because most even, we come with the prototypes, [UNKNOWN] you can't look at that thing. But we know exactly what we wanna do. Yeah. And this is an air curtain. That means air enters here, gets accelerated, and gets ripped out here, there's a low pressure zone here. And it rips out the air, out of the wheel belt, thus there's no lift building up- Yeah. As a cushion underneath the car. So we bend it. We force the venting with this air wing here. So this is effectively doing the job that we see the vents on top of the wheels, or partially [INAUDIBLE]. The other part is you see here. The front spoiler is a lot wider. Yes. And there's more surface. And it's said that it can take a lot of pressure off the winner. That's the second thing and the third thing is that the diffuser underneath which you can see, is a little bit bigger than it used to be. And there's still this insert that you can take off when you are when you want to go to the next inclination angle doesn't change [CROSSTALK] that always goes in synchronicity. Yeah. So you have to, if you do that you have to do that as well. So that's the default mode is with the inserts and spoiler in a zero degree or two degree position like it is now. In guarantee everyone is saying the Nordschleife cop out now is gonna have. When we going Nord life will be big going full, full down to. Of course. Definitely. Yeah. It harms the CD a little bit when you take put that things and you go out a little bit steeper. But on [UNKNOWN] live nd on most tracks, it will yell battery cells. But you don't leave it in the older battery. That's enough. And the cargo sells for 304 kilometers per hour which is, you'll calculate it yourself 180, whatever. Over 188 miles an hour something like that. I think so something like that. Fast enough. Yes [LAUGH] Absolutely. Ride height obviously compared to standards. Ride height is adjustable. I think it's the same stands under previous [UNKNOWN] because it just fits a rare engine car sitting like that. That's The setup we believe is best to everything all around. But if you go, I mean every individually individual driver has its own preferences so you can play around and try. Yeah, I mean that's part of the part of the fun part of the buck. Manual gear box, cuz inside there's now a button, as there was with Speedster, to say that you can turn auto blip on and off, which is very nice. Yes, that has been there before in the previous one, it was named Sport. Sport, yeah. Which we decided it very late in the 981, and there was just no time to make a different Lettering, so we call it auto blip, which is pretty self-explanatory, I think, but you can switch it off. There's only one button, it's one function, if you don't want it, push the button and you're set. Yeah, [UNKNOWN] by weight because, obviously, if people just look at the spec sheets and look at the side by side- Very good [CROSSTALK] This is gonna a lot more, but it's not the case, yes. Deceiving, deceiving. We have a different situation in [UNKNOWN] process that we used to had five years ago. So five years ago, [UNKNOWN] in it's slightest possible spec that the customer can choose. Yeah. That means [UNKNOWN] seat, [UNKNOWN] of radio, [UNKNOWN] spec And that was the way that we legally could take promulgation- Okay. Now it changed a little bit you have to promulgate the standard car with no boxes ticked. So with no boxes ticked that may contain options that are lighter than the standard equipment. So it's comparing apples with piston. So the real weight difference of the car is neglectable. It is 30 kilos about wide, because we have a four-liter engine, it's bigger. We have the exhaust system with the- [CROSSTALK] filters. With the big converters, like the particulate filters. We have [UNKNOWN], like in the Speedster. When we could make an advantage out of that and leave something away. Yeah. Because there were no real left and right them person and 981 left with one back then remember like today so that is additional weight and then all the diffuser stuff on the car as well put in like seven eight kilos and if you add all it up, you're adding about 30 kilos, which is. Disability, but it's not hundreds live on. So you don't feel it, because we've got more torque all the way down, all the way through the rough times, especially on the pop load. And it's really the best we could do at the moment. But the situation given by the title built by Tom Litigation, we're on the next spec tyres As you can imagine, so we have done ops we have mission law and we added some driver. Like always you always find something in the compound and the threat angles of the of the under structure and. Some of the gains and an arch lifer smell comes from the tires as always. Sure I think we gotta little bit better or substantially better in a wet behavior even. So as it's not all around all winter tire all season tire But even this ultra high performance, semi sleek as some people call them, had better and better in dry conditions as well. And [UNKNOWN] on the wet conditions. Yeah. Which is very important here on the [UNKNOWN] Is there a difference [UNKNOWN] between the [UNKNOWN] and the [UNKNOWN] That's always the main target that the car doesn't feel different I mean if you drive a car back to back every day, the slight nuances that you maybe can filter out. But for the end customer, it doesn't matter. They're both very good tires. Yeah, absolutely. And that lap timing is exactly the same. The steering feel around the center on the Michelin is a little bit sharper than on the Dunlap. But the Dunlap is This little bit, a little bit an edge and wear and tear and then water to Nash and conditions that are not as perfect. But like I said its nuances>> Yeah absolutely So let's continue with both companies for the megaphone on so happy [INAUDIBLE] Yeah. That's good. Should we have a quick chat about the Spyder? Sure. Just over there. Let's go over there. Mainly, this car in white without a roof. [LAUGH] For the first time, so there's more changes to that car than to the GD4, even. Absolutely. So this is the main. Point that last time, obviously, you say that with the previous Spyder, it wasn't a GT car, this is. This is, yeah, this is because it features all the goodies from the From the two to four like it has the two to three suspension, as the two to four has as well. So there's no differences in setup. So it's not that this is the track setup and this is the setup for whatever. Yeah. For just weekly cruising going to the ice cream parlor. Yeah. [CROSSTALK] This is the same frame, the damper corrector's a little bit [INAUDIBLE] To adjust to the to the mechanical grip of the car. [INAUDIBLE]. It's nonsense, it's really the same hardware and- Tortional stiffness? Tortional stiffness on a car like that, as a matter of fact, is not on par with a coupe. It's a very stiff car even on track, and I don't think, People buying a spider use it as their primary Track tool. I think they're going to default on its debts at least. I like call advice. This is a car that has all the GOP goodies like a speedster little about this. And it's a lot of fun. It's. It's very very entertaining to drive. I like to drive in the open because you hear the engine know the little bit better. It's not a track car but it's a car to enjoy now on a Sunday morning when everybody's sleeping on the winding country roads it's really and it's a great value of package because it's the same money than the 24. Normally our converters are always a little bit more expensive, not here. So, And the ergonomics used on this thing, there's no rear wing, but that one does move up, It lives from the diffuser. It has the same diffuser than a GD4. So the main, Advantages and differences to the old model our dynamic lives is really the diffuser. Yes. That brings that brings the car to a neutral almost day and a smaller downforce bracket. As you look at the Values which makes the car very stable even at high speeds even with the top down I mean. And it's a- Love it. -manual roof in terms of going up and down or mostly manual? It's a manual roof. It works mostly very similar to the Speedster and very similar to the predecessor. Yes. So it's a little bit of work. You have to get out. So if you stop in the pouring rain, you'll get wet. It takes some time, yeah? So it's a procedure. You have to Have to accept that. No, it's not the push of a button. It looks good. They've been closed. Yeah, but the main the main status dictatorship. Ian is like we see it here open. Yeah, it's only when you do a valet parking was parked outside the restaurant. I don't want people's trying There's a lot of stuff in there [INAUDIBLE]. Absolutely. Spec in this car. Do you have a preference for how you'd spec this car? I mean, the most important thing for me is the seats. You need to have the bucket seats because you're getting so much more information because you're just more involved and engulfed in the seat. And the surface touched by the car is it wraps around your back. And then this gives so much inflammation and on that seats you can drive for 10 hours without aching. Yeah And we have they're both both tall so you can go all the way down and even people that are small and like the seat so it's really if there's one option one box to take for me it was always good always been a sport bucket seats. Yeah And anything else Anything else, well it depends if you're on a budget. I mean we've got lots of great options. This is a great one, radio [UNKNOWN], you can put your mobile headphone here, you can put your purse in here. Every time you accelerate, stuff flows out. [LAUGH] In a car like that, I need the radio. I love to listen to music and What's a better situation than enjoying your music if you drive a car like that open? So get yourself a radio, definitely. Yeah. [LAUGH] And everything else. A PCCB brake is nice. It's costly, and the steel rollers are quite fine on that one. It's the same on a GT3. Yeah. So they don't have to work very hard on that car. It's down to personal taste. But get the seats. Absolutely, now obviously one of the big things with the last GT 4, I think it's fair to say well she was kinda surprise by just high popular it was. In terms even people were quite. It always great and some of the specs people not not be able to get hold of it so. Is the Spyder and the GT4 now going to be easier to get hold of? We believe in listening to customrs. [LAUGH] People show that in the meantime, and you got it right, we're a little bit shocked by the response of the market on the 981. I thought it would be a great selling car and a car that would be Would be received very well by the market, but it was beyond that, definitely. And this time we really want to infuse it to get the car. I met a lot of people here so we have to clarify one things. Because I heard so many times, they say, my dealer said the cars are sold out. What the dealer means is the cars that come at the end of 2019 might be sold out. Which is normally when you communicate the K the car, but there will be 2020 cars and maybe 2021 cars so we are preparing production to get all the cars today and a few of us that deserve it. So I can't make any promises and we won't build 20,000 of those but can't. But we definitely gonna try to meet the demand a little bit better than last time. And if somebody sells the car, it's sold out, it's only true for this year. But this car's gonna stay in the program a lot longer. [INAUDIBLE] Which is presumably one of the advantages of the new engine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that you're not restricted by [CROSSTALK]. It has to pay off. A whole new engine for just two cars. Absolutely. Just joking. But this is an important message to get across. So we really listen and we want especially that cars that are. Our entry-level GT cars that are lusted for even by the 918 buyers because its so much funner, it's such a enjoyable car, so we're trying to be in a position to meed the demand this time. We're doing our best, so I promise Thank you very much. [UNKNOWN] My pleasure [UNKNOWN] absolutely. As always. And I can't wait to try them, it should be fairly [UNKNOWN] [LAUGH] Yeah, it [UNKNOWN] Yeah, I waste time, yeah. Next week, next week in Scotland. Yes, [UNKNOWN] [UNKNOWN] I see you there. Okay. >. Thank you very much. Thank you.