Porsche Presents New Perspective in Engine Development; Raising Performance and Environmental Responsibility at The Same Time

VIENNA, Austria and STUTTGART, Germany, April 26 -- The internal combustion engine, the dominant drive source for passenger cars worldwide, hasn't by far exhausted all its capabilities. The deployment of two key technologies -- variable valve adjustment and direct fuel injection -- results in significant improvements in terms of performance, consumption and environmental performance. Porsche engineers have confirmed this with the presentation of their development results at the 23rd International Motor Symposium in Vienna today.

At the foremost forum for discussion in Europe for drive-train experts from the international automobile industry, Porsche engineers introduced, for the first time, the results of their optimization of Porsche's own VarioCam Plus engine concept on variable valve adjustment. They also provided an initial insight into the status of the development work on combining this concept with the highly topical direct fuel injection. The aim is to create even more efficient power plants that will further reduce fuel consumption and emissions under normal driving conditions and, at the same time, provide noticeably increased performance when it is required, for example, for brisk overtaking.

Development goal: Variable valve adjustment plus direct fuel injection

Since these two technologies are essential for optimal combustion chamber filling refining each of them individually will, naturally, result in improved performance and torque as well as consumption and exhaust emissions.

But the Porsche engineers are confident that more substantial progress could be achieved by combining both of these systems. The figures recorded on the engine test stands at the Porsche Research and Development Center in Weissach underline the enormous potential of this innovative approach.

By providing for an intelligent layout of this combination, the benefits of both systems can be largely added up, thus uncovering new overall potential for the simultaneous enhancement of full load response and fuel consumption that no singular technology has been able to afford so far. Output improvements and consumption reductions in the area of ten percent respectively is the realistic development goal for Porsche.

For an economically feasible series production it is vital that the unequalled cost/benefit ratio of the VarioCam Plus concept is maintained once it is merged with the homogenous direct fuel injection. Porsche engineers very carefully analyzed those main trends in internal combustion engine development industry-wide with regard to functionality and complexity. In the end, only those components that actually contributed substantially to the improvement in engine effectiveness were used. A high utility value is a prerequisite so that manufacturers of high-volume production engines can also use this new technology, and their customers can benefit from the advantages.

VarioCam Plus: Improvements even for high-volume production engines

With the introduction of VarioCam Plus two years ago, Porsche engine developers already made considerable progress on the way to the ideal high- performance power plant. Thanks to the innovative fusion of variable camshaft timing and valve piston adjustment, the engines of the 911 series today offer both exemplary everyday suitability with exemplary idle speed behavior and spontaneous fuel intake in partial load operation, as well as optimal exploitation of the performance potential even at the highest engine speeds. That's why VarioCam Plus is so extraordinary, because not only does it enhance output and torque, but it also reduces consumption and emissions at the same time.

These features don't have to remain the exclusive preserve of sports cars however. Just like the current development activities, variable valve adjustment was developed with the proviso that this Porsche system could also be integrated in available engine concepts, and therefore significant improvements could be achieved without extensive development and large technical expenditure. In conventional engines, the control times of the intake camshafts can be continuously adjusted and the valve pistons switched with the comparably simple installation of electro-hydraulic control valves and the replacement of the modified valve train components.

Porsche Engineering extends service and product range

Engineers from the Porsche Engineering Group have now included the VarioCam Plus system -- a product of the Weissach think tank -- into their range of products and services for external customers. Porsche is the only automobile manufacturer that makes its extensive know-how on the development and production of vehicles also available to customers from diverse sectors of industry. In order to exploit more fully the opportunities in the growth market of Automotive Engineering, all customer engineering development activities of Porsche were brought together under one roof, as it were, in the middle of last year. Since then, the Porsche Engineering Group GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, has directed and marketed throughout the world the full know-how of the Stuttgart sports car maker from the areas of construction, prototype engineering, testing, production planning, procurement, logistics and production.

The most recent highlights of the Porsche customer engineering development work have been the development of a new two-cylinder engine for Harley Davidson's revolutionary V-Rod and the presentation of the ULSAB-AVC, the innovative concept for a lightweight passenger car made of steel for Europe and North America. With VarioCam Plus, it is now possible for other automobile manufacturers to practically and economically meet customers' and legislators' dual demands of satisfactory performance and optimal environmental responsibility.