Porsche 718 Spyder 2019 first drive

The Boxster Spyder is remarkably good, even by the standards of Porsche. When you drive it, you’re subconsciously putting yourself under less pressure to extract the most from its chassis and engine than you are in the Cayman GT4. There's just a different vibe with the roof down, but it's still 95% as capable. And when you’re not hell-bent on reaching the 8000rpm redline, the long gearing – felt particularly keenly in second – frustrates less. Likewise, when you’re not quite so obsessed with getting the car into the window where the rear axle is slipping, the fact this engine isn’t the equal of a supremely well balanced and stable chassis with masses of lateral grip doesn’t matter so much.

This is a car that does the basics so well that it’s perfectly possible to have the time of your life without ever eliciting so much as a flicker of activity from your risk-assessing frontal lobe. The steering is lighter than you might expect and only moderately geared, and guess what: it’s phenomenally intuitive. Among electromechanical racks, this is surely the current benchmark for feel. You get a useful degree of road surface filtered up into your palms, but it's the gloriously linear and natural weighting that stands out. Simply flowing the car through bends at a leisurely pace will leave you smiling and content, if that doesn't sound too twee.

So the steering is a peach, and just as well, because were it not, you might never discover how well the Spyder handles. Which is to say with stunning neutrality. It's possible to unsettle the car, but this requires a level of commitment that most owners will summon very infrequently on the road. So good are the brakes – both in pedal feel and power – that understeer can only come about by gross negligence, and benefitting from the car's balance, the 295-section rear tyres neatly follow those at the front through corners.

This isn't to say Porsche has built a car devoid of easy-going adjustabilty. Load up the front and a lift of the throttle will tighten the line. So sharp is the throttle response that you can then quickly tease the rear axle out of line – or more than tease, if you like. You'll certainly have the confidence to try, and when you do, you'll need to use amazingly little steering input. Point is, the Spyder's handling is neither too esoteric for casual drivers nor too humourless for serious ones. 

The Boxster Spyder is a bargain, and yet it's a thoroughbred, and it will make you extremely happy.

In any case, this is such a distinctive car both in look and feel that if you want and can afford one, there’s probably little that’s going to stop you anyway. And there’s little that should stop you. Character, dynamism, usability and price: there’s barely a chink in the Spyder’s armour, which could well be most broadly desirable car Porsche now makes.

You can’t access the rear boot unless the manual roof is folded away, and the mechanism itself requires that you stop the car and get out, but if these are deal-breakers, buy a Boxster GTS. Whether you could subsequently live with yourself for prioritising a small degree of convenience over a big-capacity engine and such a fabulous chassis is another matter. Availability shouldn’t be a problem this time around, either; Porsche is going to build the Spyder until at least 2022, which it says will give it enough time to satisfy all demand.