The Porsche Boxster is in many ways the quintessential Porsche.
It can never, ever be acknowledged as such, however, because of its spot in the family tree. It’s a great sports car that just so happens to be in the most famous family of sports cars in the world—the 2009 UNC Tar Heels of sports cars, if you will.
Officially, the 911 will be the flagship, now and forever, that is for certain. In terms of what consumers want, Cayenne sales—which is an off-road vehicle—dominate the balance sheets. The introduction this May of a smaller, lower-priced off-road vehicle—the Macan—is predicted to skew revenues not only irretrievably into the SUV market, but also to increase sales to 200,000 units per year, a company goal that will now be met three years ahead of schedule. The Panamera scratches the itch of people who really want a sedan, but want it to feel like a Porsche, and CEO Matthias Müller has said that the company is investigating a true sedan concept.
And then there’s the Boxster/Cayman (the Cayman is essentially the hard-top version of the Boxster).
The Boxster was introduced 18 years ago when Porsche was going through a very tough time. Quality issues abounded, production costs were bloated, and acquisition was a real possibility. The company hired former Toyota engineers, razed the metaphorical house the previous generation had built, and said, “The 911 is good, but the Boxster is what will save us.”
The idea was to reboot the company with a brand new, lower-cost sports car, and for that they turned to a Dutchman named Harm Lagaay. As an automobile designer, Lagaay started in 1968 with French car company Simca. In 1971 he moved to Porsche, in 1977 he moved to Ford, in 1985 he moved to BMW and in 1989 he returned to Porsche where he would stay until 2004. Lagaay is said to have had more influence on Porsche vehicles than any other designer in history.
The Boxster was the first time the company used a mid-engine design since the 914/916 in the 1960s. A mid-engine placement allows for a low center of gravity, and fantastic balance between front and rear weighting. This in turn gives the Boxster an essential but devilishly hard characteristic to capture: handling.
A mid-engine placement also impacts the boxing design of the engine’s pistons, from which the vehicle gets its name. Many six-cylinder engines place their pistons in a V configuration because it saves space. The Boxster’s flat-six style is wider than a V6 and has the pistons pound toward each other like a boxer pounding his gloves before a fight. The pistons’ boxing movements balance one another and result in smoother revs than a V6 engine. The result is a more focused use of energy and controlled handling even while accelerating and turning simultaneously.
These are the platonic characteristics that every great sports car, from the Aston Martin DB5 to the Mercedes Benz 300 SL, Jaguar E Type, and 911, has always pursued. The Boxster is one of the purest embodiments of those values because it adds a crucial ingredient: fun.
That’s exactly what Porsche-Certified Brand Ambassador Robert Brooks told us to do when we rolled up to a stoplight. Our particular Boxster was a white 2014 model with blue soft top and red seat belts. Robert was letting us cruise around Cary with it after driving rather spiritedly himself (Porsche Brand Ambassadors are trained on new vehicles at Porsche track centers in Alabama and Utah).
We put the blue top down, turned out of the Leith Porsche lot, and it was on. Our personal vehicle is a white 1999 Porsche Boxster, so it was exciting to see what improvements had been made in 15 years. In short, everything was better. Many manual transmissions deliver best torque in 2nd and 3rd gears, but our first note when letting out the clutch in 1st was: Holy Mackerel; 15 years makes a difference.
The exhaust note soars through the air and loops around the open-air cabin of the convertible in endless spirals that delight the ears. Following the snow of the last few weeks, the mid-60s temperature was perfect for convertible play. Thanks to a sponge-like suspension that soaks up road impurities, the driver and passenger are dominated by a sense of speed gilded only by the crackling snarls of the engine and furls of sunlight and wind that act like nature’s loudspeakers.
With the sports exhaust mode activated, the engine burbles and seethes even more whether idling or punching through the air. Robert showed us the trick of down-shifting to take advantage of the car’s rev-matching technology. The car essentially spits and raises a racket, pulling off all sorts of grand-standing revs to prepare for a blistering speed run so that anyone within several hundred yards will think that Mario Andretti is coming down the pike. An essential feature? No. Cool? You better believe it.
Gear shifts are short and business-like which helps you to spin through them as quickly as possible, just like they do in the movies. Standard start-stop technology cuts the engine at stoplights and restarts it instantaneously, which is a fantastic fuel-saving measure for a non-hybrid vehicle. The top opens or closes in just 10 seconds, and doesn’t require the car to be in park or have the emergency brake engaged (our 1999 model does).
One of the most controversial aspects of the newest line of Boxsters is the switch from hydraulic steering to electrically-assisted. The reduced weight of an electric motor compared to a hydraulic system is one of many decisions that keep the car feeling spry and saving fuel at the same time. It also draws the ire of purists who argue that you can’t feel the road as much through the wheel.
First off, we never noticed it. We were too busy having fun in the open sunlight with the exhilarating exhaust note to do a mental compare and contrast with the hydraulic steering found in our 1999 model. And that, to us, is precisely the point. Sports cars are about living in the moment, not holding to dogma.
Second, we can’t help but see the similarity between this objection and the decision of Porsche to use water-cooling in the Boxster. Porsches had previously always used air-cooled engines; the Boxster was the first ever Porsche to use a water-cooled system. Traditionalists hemmed and hawed, but the brand survived and now all Porsches, even the 911, use water-cooled systems. For us then, the Boxster’s electrical steering is a non-issue.
Finally, one of the biggest issues of the Boxster when it first came out was that it’s chassis was so well-engineered, so perfectly structured, that the engine could have been even more powerful. Not much of a complaint as far as they go, but it was enough to have been noted and addressed in 15 years.
Porsche knows that driving is a fundamentally visceral experience. The feeling of joy as you roll past a turn and earn a thumbs-up from a total stranger is more likely to happen when nothing but air separates you, and when you’re wearing a big, goofy grin. Sunshine and rainbows do matter when you’re in a Boxster because all the engine warbles, torque-vectoring and cooling circuits work together to get you to a place where you don’t care about them. A Boxster owner doesn’t have to know how all the technology works, and what the stats and numbers are compared to other cars for one simple reason: a guy on his way to the beach in a fly car is a happy man. That’s what the soul of a sports car is about. And that’s why the 2014 Boxster is one of the best sports cars in the world.
Special thanks to Robert Brooks and the team at Leith Porsche for making this test drive possible.
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