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The dream of the '90s is alive in Porsche 968 retro review

Only a month after Porsche confirmed that the next-generation Boxster and Cayman will get four-cylinder engines, it is apt that we have a MotorWeek retro review of the 1992 Porsche 968. Porsche hoped the 968 – nee 944 – and its naturally-aspirated, 3.0-liter, four-cylinder would revive sales of its entry-level line, but that didn't happen: going on sale in 1992, 1995 was its last year on the market. This was at a time when a stock 968 coupe cost $39,850, surpassing the out-the-door price of a loaded Chevrolet Corvette. The 968 convertible cost $51,000. That didn't stop MotorWeek's unanimous support of the 968, praising its design, the delivery of its 236 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque, and its handling - MotorWeek called it "Pure 90s performance," in spite of some fiddly switchgear and a noisy, firm ride. You can watch the review above. We have a feeling Porsche's four-cylinder fortunes will go much better this time around.

Porsche 911 spied looking like a Porsche 911

The 2017 Porsche 911 hasn't gone on sale yet and spy photographers have already snapped an early mule for the next-generation 911 due in calendar year 2018. It might be difficult to make out underneath the cobbled-together bodywork of the previous 991-version 911, but this one has a wider rear end that could be hiding the plug-in hybrid powertrain expected to come with the next big model update, perhaps codenamed 992. The strange white plug would be where owners plug the coupe in, according to this patent drawing. There have been rumors of a hybrid 911 coming for more than a year now, with some suspicious bits in a mule seen last year, and early prognostications being that Porsche is lining up the powertrain for the 911 Turbo to produce somewhere around 720 horsepower. That would make sense as the first stop for the learning and components of the 918 Spyder to trickle down to the 911 range. If Porsche migrated the 918's 156-hp electric motor unchanged into the 560-hp 911 Turbo, you're looking at a 716-hp monster that accelerates even more quickly. A hybrid 911 Carrera model would sit above the standard turbocharged engines. Elsewhere, the 992 model will come on the current MMB platform, and the exterior will be one of evolution, naturally. Interior upgrades will include a fully digital instrument panel. Or, going off the reservation, former Porsche chairman Matthias Muller said earlier this year that, "the high-speed high-tech laboratory of the 919 Hybrid will benefit all our future vehicles" in reference to expanding the Porsche model line to seven models. At the time, Bloomberg wondered if Muller was referring to the long-rumored Ferrari competitor Porsche has debated.

2014 Porsche Cayman S

Second Fiddle Moves To First Chair
In the interest of full disclosure and a bit of bloodletting, allow me to admit that while I've always coveted the Porsche Boxster and its hard-hatted Cayman cousin, I've never really warmed to them visually. They've always had a certain push-me, pull-you, can't-decide-which-way-they're-going aesthetic that I've never really wrapped my head around. Porsche achieved the same thing with the original 550 Spyder's overturned bathtub bodyshell that would come to inspire the Boxster, but somehow that classic's even more symmetrical nature works for me. Fast-forward to this third generation, and at least for this enthusiast, Porsche's manchild has well and truly come of age as a design.
It's all there - a piercing stare thanks to squircle headlamps inspired by the 918 Spyder hypercar, newfound directional thrust afforded by a longer wheelbase and elongated greenhouse, and muscular rear haunches with a wider stance emphasized by larger side ductwork and snubbed overhangs. The body's teardrop shape terminates with an active spoiler that integrates into a gorgeous arc with the taillamps like a budding ducktail nod to 1973 911 Carrera RS. Despite casting a longer shadow than its predecessor, the 2014 Cayman still looks tidily proportioned, smooth and wieldy, the perfect skipping stone to ricochet down a canyon river road.