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A recent German patent filing, published earlier this month, suggests Porsche is still tinkering with engine cooling innovations for rear- and mid-engine cars. The patent, discovered by CarBuzz, shows an internal combustion engine—in this case, the drawings appear to show a flat-six—inside a housing meant to improve airflow with the help of rear-ducted fans.
Porsche
There are several advantages to air-cooled engine designs, chief among them the absence of a complex, heavy, liquid cooling system. There’s also the issue of where to mount the radiators and how to provide them enough airflow to do their jobs. Porsche’s flat-six engines didn’t use traditional water cooling for decades, relying on moving air past the finned cylinder heads and pulling heat out of the oil. That kind of cooling does have its limits, as increased power density taxes the cooling system of any vehicle. Porsche famously moved to a more traditional liquid-cooling system on the 996-generation 911.
The labels in the photos correspond to the following parts:
31: Radiator
40: Housing
50: Fan
61: Rear SilencerPorsche
This patent, however, seems to indicate that Porsche is considering relocating the water cooling to help ditch a traditional front-mounted radiator. Without a massive radiator up front, aerodynamics and styling can once again take priority. The patent drawings include a radiator, mounted above the engine, where Porsche fans would normally expect to find the charge cooler on a turbocharged 911. Its proximity to the engine keeps things compact and reduces the mass of coolant required to keep a high-performance machine happy, while also reducing the effort required to pump it to the front of the car and back. The air would then be sucked through the radiator, around the engine within the housing, and out the back via what we’d presume are some pretty powerful fans.
We were forced to rely on a translation, but the patent also touts the NHV benefits of mounting the engine inside an airbox: “A further advantage of the housing is that it also provides acoustic encapsulation for the internal combustion engine, thereby reducing perceptible engine noise—particularly the engine noise audible within the vehicle’s interior. Particularly in the case where the internal combustion engine is configured as a mid-engine.”
Porsche
We’re intrigued by this concept and the switch back to a greater reliance on air cooling. Modern tires, improved engine output, and aerodynamics have each had massive influences on performance over the last few decades, and the changes suggested in this patent might help on two of those fronts, particularly if Porsche can revolutionize the aerodynamics of its sports cars. We’re all for innovation that will allow Porsche to keep its performance cars unique and retain one of the key aspects that made the 911 such a performance icon.