There have been many rumors about Porsche developing a reasonably priced entry level sports coupe. We suspect the name would be 550 which is representative of the iconic Porsche 550 first built back in 1953.
This car comes about because of a recent spike in sales for affordable sports cars that was primarily set off by the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S. We can hope that it would be in the $35k range but it will more likely be a little over $40k. The 550 is suspected to have a 1.6 Liter turbocharged engine that will generate around 200 HP. There will also be other trims of the car with engines that produce upwards of 400 horsepower like the current 911 turbo.
Porsche isn’t the only one who has caught on to the growing demand of the affordable sports car market. Audi with its brand new 2013 TTRS has already dipped into the middle range sports car market with its petite coupe the Audi TT. The flagship TTRS it costs about $60k but that gets you a 0 – 60 of 3.5 seconds which sets this car up to compete in the super car market. To put that into perspective, that is faster than the +$100,000 Audi R8. The only drawback to the TT is that some sports car enthusiasts claim this is a woman’s car because of its bubbly look. This has actually hurt the sales of Audi slightly because of the lack of purchases by men. Audi has a solution to this and it fits in perfectly with where the market is headed, the R4.
Everybody wants an R8, Iron Man’s car, probably the sexiest car on the planet with supercar performance. The only problem is that it costs about $130,000. Audi plans on addressing the entry level market with the so called “little brother” of the R8, the R4. The R4 will be smaller and lighter than the current R8. The 2.5 Liter Turbocharged engine currently found in the TTRS is what will most likely be used in the R4. It produces lightning fast speeds with 400 HP powering such light cars. The R4 will be around the size of the TT but will look much more aggressive like the R8. This two seater will most likely come in a convertible version as well. We can only hope it will be less than $50,000 but with the Porsche 550 coming in at a cheap price, we know the Audi has to price low as well if they want to compete.
So with both these cars planned to be released around 2015, if you have a steady cash flow coming in and are looking to buy, it may be a very wise decision to start saving now. So while at the moment we can only speculate, we at least know that both of the cars would turn heads and be the best weekend cruisers out there.
