Porsche 718 Boxster S: Ultimate Weekend Fighter
PORSCHE 718 BOXSTER S
ULTIMATE WEEKEND FIGHTER
Words: Alessandro Marrone
Photography: Jay Tomei
Madness, genius, science fiction, progress, evolution – call it a little ‘as you like. What really matters is that every time I push my right foot on the throttle, I am literally pressed down to the seat. There is no waiting, there is no delay, but only a constant pressure that seems to play dice with my stomach. Seasoning a birthday cake called 718 Boxster S there’s the fact that we can take advantage of almost all of its engine power and I still didn’t said that it is a 4-cylinder. But you already know it, what you may not know – especially if you have not driven it properly – is that the new Boxster is worth 90 minutes of unconditional applause, in spite of all those boring people that snub it for having lost two cylinders. Let them eat the dust of your boxer turbo engine, while groping toward the end of their revs scale.
Let me go down hard because in the garage I have a naturally aspirated 6-cylinder Made in Stuttgart too and despite it gives me great satisfaction and emotions, that cannot be compared to the entry level Porsches of the new era. That’s right, no way they can be compared since they offer diametrically opposed driving experiences. Where the classic flat-six wants to start with a low gear and climb inexorably letting the deafening scream of the engine to get inside the car, the new 718 is able to tear its 420Nm of torque at just 1900 rpm and exploit a curve that lasts up to 4500. it is lightning, sudden like an arrow that pierces the beliefs of most die-hard purists, but at the same time effective as a hot blade that cuts a form of butter. Well aware that very few of us are able to really use the full potential of a sports car, tuning with the new Boxster S is something immediate, thanks to a sophisticated but predictable or rather intuitively chassis, with a behavior (perhaps also due to winter tires) that tends to understeer slightly, by widening the back only when you want to cross the line that divides a curve approached with a knife between the teeth from one done with your heart beating in the middle of the throat. The 4-cylinder boxer engine is smaller in every sense – 2.0cc for the standard Boxster and 2.5cc for the Boxster S – but gains a turbo and the awareness of having to do everything possible to keep up with those hot hatches that have become so damn efficient. The 350 horses of the one they gave us for our tests are felt and hurl you into the ideal playground for understanding that despite the skin is changed, the soul is intact. The power is dispensed in a different way, but the smile that stands out once you turn on the engine (especially if you have selected the “Sport +” mode) is what you would expect once you climb aboard a new Porsche branded sports car.
It is a modern car, a contemporary one and has absolutely no fear of looking to the future, by paying tribute to the first Porsche 718, the sporty four-cylinder model born to race and that was the protagonist of great races between 1957 and 1961, winning three editions of the Targa Florio and the 12 hours of Sebring in 1960. Yes, the Targa Florio, historical competition where they were battling on such a difficult terrain, which would consecrate as the winner only the perfect combination of man and machine. The 718 had responded to the call of this battle and had conquered the highest step of the podium – after sixty years, another 718 responds to the demands of an increasingly difficult market full of competitors and does so by deploying a sports car that can offer supercar performance, despite having an engine that you usually found under a random city car. This, said in a nutshell, represents an extremely broad framework, because the reality is that the 718 Boxster S is an avant-garde machine, equipped with a fast PDK double clutch with 7 gears (also the manual box is available), torque vectoring with locking rear differential, updated suspension and a manageable chassis depending on the requirements of the driver that, by choosing the most sporty package will also start loving the Sport Response and a sports exhaust that is able to give a sound that on a 4-cylinder, is no easy to find elsewhere.
And then there’s everything else imaginable, from two comfortable leather seats, satellite navigation, a canvas roof that opens in just 9 seconds and up to a speed of 50 kph, 20-inch wheels and the inevitable lava orange paint, a caprice of about € 2,400. The specimen tested, starting from a base price of about € 69,000 costs a bit more than € 100,000 – a great leap forward, in a territory populated by another ferocious predator called 911, but that’s another story. The 718 Boxster S is self-confident, not afraid of the ruthless test of city traffic, where it is relaxing and easy to maneuver, devouring kilometers on the motorway also showing good numbers from the point of view of fuel consumption and when it comes the time to launch it on the ideal road – that of life – puts on the table the aces that has managed to conceal under an architecture modeled around a massive downsizing. With its low weight (1430kg) accelerates from 0 to 100 kph in 4.2 (4.4 without the Sport Chrono Package) and reaches 285 per hour. The sound is distant from the standard Porsche bark and if we can’t consider it a positive step, it is not even to be considered a weak point, since the boxer engine has a full voice and pops and bangs when downshifting and the whole noise embraces the mountains all around. Yes, because a sports car is only a sports car if it hasn’t the road it deserves – take it to the right place and it will become the vehicle for a new world, where the roads seem brushstrokes by artists driven by the desire to create a playground mat that can crush your brain as the most extreme trip of your life. Escape to the world of dreams foresaw a more pompous 8 cylinders maybe, but halving the dose still made possible to create a high dependency in our blood – it has bewitched us with the promise of being more sensible, but it clashed on our face as a high-speed train. And do not call it little Porsche, ‘cause it could break your bones.
BONUS: CLICK HERE for Alex’s video
PORSCHE 718 BOXSTER S (2016-)
Layout – mid-engined, rear wheel drive
Engine – 4 cylinder 2.497cc – turbo
Transmission – 7-speed automatic gearbox
Power – 350 hp @ 6.500 rpm
420 Nm @ 1.900-4.500 rpm
Weight – 1.430 kg
Acceleration – 4,2 sec.
Top Speed – 285 kph
Price – from € 69.200