13 Four-Cylinder Porsches That Make The Most Of Small Engines

The Porsche 550 Spyder arrived in 1953 during a great era for sports car racing. It featured a 1.5-flat-four with twin cams for each bank of cylinders. The company designed the roadster for competition, and it took class victories at events around Europe, including an overall win at the 1956 Targa Florio.

The model remains infamous today for being the model of Porsche that actor James Dean died while driving in 1955.

In 1957, Porsche introduced the 718 as the successor to the 550 Spyder. It's also the inspiration for the model names for the latest generations of the Boxster and Cayman.

Initial versions featured a 1.5-liter flat four, but there were 1.6- and even 2.0-liter variants later.

It continued Porsche's competition success, too, with victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Targa Florio.

Porsche's next competition-focused sports car was the 904 in 1964, and some of them continued to use the four-cam four-cylinder engine. 

However, the writing was on the wall that four cylinders might not be enough for top-level racing anymore because Porsche also installed the new 911's flat six into some 904s.

After over a decade on the market, it was time to replace the aging 356. The venerable 911 arrived, but Porsche still saw a need for a less expensive model in the lineup. This was the niche that the 912 filled.

The model launched in 1964 with a 1.6-liter air-cooled flat-four that was closely related to an engine available in the 356. Production lasted until 1969, when Porsche introduced a new four-pot model to take its place. 

Porsche briefly brought the 912 back to the American market in 1976. The model used the contemporary 911's body but with a Volkswagen-sourced flat four in the back.

The 914 resulted from a collaboration between Porsche and Volkswagen, and it took over the 912's spot in the entry level of Porsche's range.

Early examples featured a 1.7-liter, air-cooled flat four with just 79 hp. More powerful 1.8- and 2.0-liter versions arrived later. 

The range-topping 914/6 dumped the four cylinder in favor of a 2.0-liter flat-six.

When the time came to replace the 914, Porsche once again started by collaborating with Volkswagen. When VW stepped away from the project, Porsche pushed forward and created a vehicle that was revolutionary for the brand. 

Rather than placing an air-cooled, flat-four behind the driver like the 914, 912, and even the 356, the 924 featured a front-mounted, water-cooled, inline four-cylinder. The shape also looked like no other previous Porsche.

The 924 launched with a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine, but Porsche added a more powerful, turbocharged variant in 1978.

The idea behind the 924 was sound, but it needed more power. Porsche solved this problem with the 944. The new 2.5-liter, water-cooled four-cylinder was under the hood and made a respectable 143 hp at launch in the United States in 1982. The company continued to tune the engine and eventually punched it out to a full 3.0-liters. 

Turbocharged versions were available at the same time. Using the 2.5-liter mill as a starting point, forced induction pushed the output as high as 247 hp in the model's final years.

The 968 was the final evolution of the work that started with the 924. Production only lasted from 1992 to 1995.

Most examples of the 968 came with a tuned version of the 944's 3.0-liter four-cylinder and now produced 237 hp. Europeans also received an extremely limited run of Turbo S versions that had 305 hp.

Featuring a 2.0-liter V4 and a highly sophisticated electrification system, the 919 Hybrid showed that a four-cylinder racecar could still win at the top levels of competition. 

The car scored three consecutive victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2015 to 2017 and won the FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche during those years, too.

The 919 Hybrid won't be competing in the WEC this year, but Porsche will use it in attempts to break lap records at circuits around the world. A modified example of the racer already set the fastest ever time around Spa.

It took until the 2014 model year for Porsche to put a four-cylinder engine back on the road. The base mill for the Macan crossover is a front-mounted 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four with 252 hp and 273 lb-ft.

For the 2017 model year, Porsche reached back to the past to bring a flat four back to its showrooms for the first time since the 914's demise. Both the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman are available with a mid-mounted 2.0-liter turbocharged four that produces 300 hp.

The hotter S trim receives a 2.5-liter turbo four with 350 hp. Finally, the range-topping GTS model pushes the 2.5-liter mill to 365 hp. 

In an era of automakers introducing smaller engines to comply with stricter emissions standards, it would be foolish to think that Porsche wouldn't make any more four-cylinder engines in the future.

That's not a bad thing, either. Over the decades, Porsche has proved incredibly capable of building a great four-cylinder powerplant.