Porsche 718 Spyder RS: intake… super intake!

Derived from the 911 GT3, the 6-cylinder 4-liter boxer of the Porsche 718 Spyder RS maintains its torque curve and its response thanks to a high-quality intake. An explanation of how it all works.

Porsche 718 Spyder RS: what is its high-end intake for?

If the market share of aspirated engines has collapsed in recent years in the production of cars, this is mainly due to the approval cycle that emphasizes their high use at low load, resulting in figures that penalize CO2 emissions for manufacturers.
In the specific case of sports cars, this weakness is accompanied by a limitation in terms of torque and specific power values (that is to say, related to displacement) compared to that of supercharged mechanics.
This limitation constitutes an insurmountable handicap in the context of an arms race where the 1,000 hp mark is often exceeded. Indeed, the power of the engine is more or less proportional to the amount of air that will be able to mix with gasoline, it is only reasonable that the unit of high charge (that is, fed with power by compressor or turbo) benefits in this. area compared to space.
It is to push back this natural limit and allow more air to be absorbed than its theoretical displacement allows that the Porsche engine manufacturers have developed a modern intake system for the final evolution of their standard 6-cylinder 4-liter engine. The result: incredible values of 500 hp and 45.9 mkg for the engine of this transfer.

Advanced enrollment: how does it work?

The principle involves taking advantage of the mass and compression of the air taken in by the engine. It should be noted that the air column that forms upstream of each intake valve acts as a spring with its own circulation.
When the engine speed matches this cycle, the air in the air column acts as a natural booster to create temporary pressure that allows more air to enter the combustion chamber when the intake valve opens.
It is so that this phenomenon of improvement of the filling can occur with a wider range of use in which more intake is provided by two flaps used to vary the height of these air columns; to lengthen and shorten this natural cycle at low revs, to shorten at the top.

Advanced admissions: are they going too far?

Another advantage of the flat 6 Spyder RS is in the way that adjusts the amount of air entering. Instead of using an intake manifold above the collector, it does so by using 6 small throttle valves placed as close as possible to each cylinder.
This involves reducing as much as possible the response time of the engine to the direction in which the driver uses the speed, which enables the adjustment of the engine torque and therefore the control of the vehicle during sports driving.

The opinion of Competition car

The Spyder RS 4-liter 6-cylinder boxer is undoubtedly the best today in terms of feel, in terms of sound and the reliability of the response to the accelerator.

Find our focus on the high-performance intake of the Porsche 718 Spyder RS Competition car n°746 you 29/02/2024.