What is it?
Short of reuniting the car with half a dozen high-revving cylinders, you’d have a difficult job improving the 718-generation Boxster.
Porsche's latest roadster is handsome, it offers performance almost perfectly proportioned to congested British roads, and it is in possession of absurdly biddable handling that anybody can enjoy. Without an outlay exceeding six figures, there is simply no better roadster to own if you value agility and communication.
All of which means we should greet with arms wide open this new GTS variant. It’s an optimised mechanical and styling package that will head up the range until a Boxster Spyder arrives later this year with a version of the 4.0-litre firecracker from the 911 GT3. Yep – all six cylinders.
The aesthetic changes are standard GTS fare, and there’s black plastic skirting, dark 20in alloys borrowed from the Carrera S and tinted lights alongside Alcantara interior trim and plenty of model designations. In silver with a classic red roof, our test car does the baby-supecar thing admirably well.
The principal hardware changes are the addition of Porsche Active Suspension Management, which sits the body 10mm lower than a Boxster S, and there’s also a mechanical limited-slip differential for the driven rear axle. You can, however, go 10mm closer to the tarmac still by opting for the PASM sports suspension, with which our test car is furnished.
We've previously driven the 718 Boxster GTS on forgiving European roads, where it was superb. Now we have it in the UK for the first time, giving us an opportunity to discover how well it takes to this country's more decrepit tarmac.
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But it's a Porsche without
But it's a Porsche without engine !
Wet handling and grip?
So is the 718 better than the Cayman was?
I had a standard Cayman, and it was fantastic in the dry and had a wonderful engine. However, in the wet it was unbelievably twitchy, and would be mullered on a wet roundabout by most hot hatches (don't ask me how I know this...). So what's the on limit wet handling like, what's the wet lap time vs hot hatches and comparable cars?
Hi Paul,
Hi Paul,
Can't say I've ever felt the 718-gen cars to be particularly twitchy in the wet, though the ones I've driven have had the benefit of fresh tyres and, I imagine, meticulously maintained geometry.
Regarding limit-handling, when we road tested the 718 Boxster at Mira on the wet handling circuit it remained composed even under provocation, with a terrifically true front axle. On the same circuit we lapped a manual 718 Cayman S only 0.5sec shy of what a TT RS could muster (yeah, really…).
For reference, a Golf GTI Performance was around 12sec slower than either.
Thanks, R
xfu?