There has always been a bit of competitive friction between the venerable Porsche 911 and its cheaper Boxster/Cayman stablemates. The mid-engine chassis dynamics on the “entry level” Porsches is very good; so good, that Porsche has purposefully kept the power fairly low on these cars for fear of stealing thunder from the 911.
It looks like Porsche’s engineers are tired of that game . Behold, the 2016 Boxster Spyder. With the 375-horsepower flat 6 out of the 911 Carrera, no standard radio or air conditioning (don’t worry, both are no cost options), a fiddly manual top, and exactly one transmission choice (it’s a six speed manual, thank you very much), this is the Porsche for the purists. And yes, it’s faster than the base 911 from which it borrows its engine. How fast? The Spyder will be good to 60 in the low four second range, and will hit 180 mph. Hope your toupee is glued on tight.
Speaking of the 911, it might not look like it’s changed much in 50 years, but under the familiar sheet metal, it is an extremely technically advanced car. It’s a canvas for a lot of Porsche’s real innovation. Porsche must keep pushing the technical envelope, and that means that someday soon, all the 911s will probably be hybrids with dual clutch paddle shifters. Yep. We better get used to it.
But if this pure white Boxster Spyder is any hint, that just means the door is opening wider for the Boxster/Cayman to reach their true potential as the real driver’s cars they clearly can be. The former “entry level” Porsches could become the ones with the purest Porsche souls. And that’s a very interesting future indeed.
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