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What if the Porsche 912 remained in production as long as the original Porsche 911 (e.g. 25 years until 1990 instead of a total of 5 years as in OTL), receiving the same amount of development as its bigger brother to grow out of the latter’s shadow and later spawn 964/993-derived 912s? (Have not decided though if the Porsche 914 gets butterflied away or ends up slotting below the alternate Porsche 912 in this WI ATL scenario.)

Anyway in the OTL Porsche decided to carry over the 1.6-litres Type 616 Flat-4 from the Porsche 356, yet two other options were also considered along the way.


Option 1
was a new Flat-4 that used components from the then new 911 Flat-6, which would produce higher performance than their 356SC engine yet be less costly and complex than the 356 Carrera 2 engine.

Pros – The 911-derived Flat-4 would have a long production life with similar potential as Flat-6 (including turbocharging).

Cons
– Really only viable from the early 1970s onwards in terms of displacements once the 2.7-litre+ Flat-6 engines appeared in the Porsche 911 (allowing for 1800-2300cc+ Flat-4s) instead of the earlier 2.0-2.4-litre Flat-6s (that would only allow for 1327-1560cc Flat-4s more suitable for the Porsche 356 or an ATL Porsche 914).

Option 2 was to increase displacement of the 356 Type 616 engine to 1.8-litres, add Kugelfischer fuel injection as well as modify both valve and cooling systems.

Pros – Has the potential to be significantly more powerful compared to the OTL 1.6-litre engine used in the Porsche 912, let alone the 2-litre Volkswagen Type 4 engine later used in the Porsche 912E.

Cons – Being derived from the 1.6-litre Flat-4 from the Porsche 356 that was in turn derived from Volkswagen's pre-war air-cooled Flat-4, there is a question of how long it can remain in production beyond the late-60s till early-70s compared to Option 1. (AFAIK the 1.6-litre Flat-4 Type 616 engine was not considered for use in the Porsche 914 though open to sources stating otherwise.)
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