One of those odd thoughts you get in the middle of the night. Bear with me! VW developed the narrow angle VR6 engine for the Golf and Corrado because of the need for more power, more refinement, but also because of a lack of space under the hood for a normal V6. This design has gone on to be adapted and used in other VAG models in the group.

Could Porsche develop two narrow angle 4 cylinder blocks that are joined together horizontally to give a kind of flat-8 that would look like a flattened Southern Cross/St Andrew's Cross if viewed from behind.

The engine in theory would be marginally longer than the flat-6 but not by much, as the cylinders would overlap as they do in the VR6. The engine would be taller, but again not by much because the angle would be agan something like 15 degrees as in the VR6. Cylinder heads and valve gear trains would be shared as in the VR6.

Any engineers care to speculate if this could be a solution to the need for more power for the 911?

MTIA