Ten reasons why you shouldn't worry about the 718 Boxster

Or whether it’s turbocharged. These are busy times for purists, as one by one our most cherished car companies ditch naturally aspirated engines in favour of forced induction. The Boxster has always used a sweet flat-six that burbled and warbled at low speeds and emitted a pure Porsche wail as it got on the cam above 4,000rpm... and you wondered where the nearest tunnel was. The jury is out on how much tunnel action the new 718 Boxster is going to generate, but TG has sat in the car, started it up and given it a boot-full, and the signs are promising. The new entry-level Boxster (£41,739) uses a 2.0-litre, single-turbo, flat-four-cylinder that develops 296bhp, up 33bhp from the previous base 2.7-litre’s output.

More important, though, is the jump in torque, the thing that will make the biggest difference to the car’s character. There are 74 more torques to play with, a total of 280lb ft now available from 1,950 to 4,500rpm. In other words, the 718 Boxster’s mid-range is a lot punchier than before, and as much as we loved wringing the six-pot’s neck out to the red line (in a tunnel), we all know how much more useful a chunky mid-range is in the real world. The 718 Boxster S (£50,695) is obviously beefier still. Its 2.5-litre four-cylinder produces 345bhp and 310 torques, an extra 34 and 44 respectively compared with the previous S model. It too produces more of the good stuff much lower down the rev range. Objectively, it’s difficult to grumble. Besides, the 718 S’s 7,200rpm red line is only 200rpm less than the outgoing car’s. So you’re unlikely to confuse it with a diesel.

Photography: Mark Riccioni

This feature was originally published in the April 2016 issue of Top Gear magazine.

Porsche hasn’t issued a huge amount of technical info just yet, so we’ll have to wait to analyse real-world in-gear acceleration times. But this much we do know: fitted with the optional PDK dual-clutch transmission and Sport Chrono pack, the base 718 Boxster can hit 62mph in 4.7 seconds (that’s 0.8 seconds quicker than before) and has a top speed of 170mph, while the S does 62mph in 4.2 seconds (a 0.6 improvement) and is all done at 177mph.

These numbers represent substantial performance increases over the outgoing cars, not to mention elevating the smallest, cheapest Porsche sports car to within shouting distance of some of its most illustrious forebears. (For the record, 1973’s 911 Carrera 2.7 RS takes 5.7 seconds to reach 62mph and does 152mph flat out, 1975’s Turbo does 62mph in 5.4 seconds, and 160mph all out, and even 1995’s brilliant and slightly unhinged 993 Carrera RS isn’t as fast as the new 718 Boxster S.) NB: the 718’s brakes have been uprated, too.

When TG suggested to the man from Porsche that this was a midlife facelift, we were almost ejected from the building. A detailed breakdown of model cycles and internal code numbers ensued: old Boxster was 981, this version is sufficiently new to merit its own number, 982. To go with the 718 prefix, which apparently positions it logically in the sports-car line-up alongside the 911, 918 and 919. Porsche claims the new car has a more sculptural form, though only an über-geek (Porsche fan, not taxi app aficionado) would be able to spot the difference at a glance.

When the original Boxster arrived (20 years ago, can you believe it?), the bean-counters insisted it share an entire front end with the 996-era 911, but Porsche’s currently swollen coffers equates to differentiation. There are bigger front air intakes, new wheelarches and sills, and a full-width accent strip between the rear lights (with the name Porsche spelt out in between). They consist of cool 3D LEDs, as do the headlights, with four-point daytime running lights. Porsche claims that the only carry-over bits are the soft-top roof, the windscreen, and the bonnet/luggage compartment lid. 

Porsche says the rear end is completely new, given that it had to accommodate a new powertrain. Officially, the chassis has been ‘retuned’, and the electro-mechanical power steering has been recalibrated for improved feel and agility. Porsche’s Active Suspension Management is an option, and that also reduces the ride height by 10mm. The 718 Boxster S goes further: it’s available with the PASM Sport Chassis, which drops the ride height a total of 20mm to give you even greater command over the set-up. That stiffens the springs front and rear by up to 25 per cent, and beefs up the anti-roll bars at both ends. (Previously the Sport Chassis option  was only available with fixed rather than active damping.)

That’s the Boxster for track-day types, though it’s hardly a natural track-day car. We’ll wait for the Cayman for that (due in six months, and now cheaper than the convertible.) Or maybe the GTS, due within the year. Or perhaps the Spyder that’ll likely turn up in 2019. 

We like this very much. Not necessarily the dashtop-mounted stopwatch gizmo, but the option of pumping up chassis, engine and transmission even further. The new Boxster takes its lead from the 911 in expanding on the package’s scope; you can stick it in Normal, Sport, Sport Plus or Individual mode. So you can slip from M25-in-a-blizzard-just-get-me-home mode to 6am-on-a-June-Sunday-morning-favourite-second-gear-hairpin mode with one squidge of the finger. And, if you’ve gone for the PDK, there’s yet another button in the mode control – which sits in the middle of the steering wheel – called Sport Response. This basically turns everything up to 11 – engine and transmission – for a maximum of 20 seconds. We can’t wait to try that. Incidentally, the Boxster comes with a 360mm diameter GT steering wheel or a 375mm Sport one. Yes, they’ve actually reinvented the wheel.

You can see some of them here. Despite its tiny size, the late Fifties/early Sixties 718 RSK and RS 60 is one of the biggest stars in the Porsche firmament, hence the namecheck on the new car. The original 718 literally punched above its weight, and used 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7-litre flat-fours to take it to the 3.0-litre, V12 Ferraris. A 718 RS 60 won the Sebring 12 hours and the Targa Florio in 1960, but was less handy at Le Mans. Even so, Porsche tied with Ferrari for overall honours in that year’s world sports car championship. Also pictured is the original 924 ‘Baustufe’ prototype, a VW sports car collaboration completed by Porsche (a successor to the 914/4, also seen here), the sublime 912 and the big-selling 944 (turbocharged in 1985).

In 1975, Porsche launched the original Turbo. It was called the Turbo. Since then, Porsche has turbocharged pretty much everything, including the office cat and the contents of the cleaning cupboard. The 718 Boxster S uses the same variable-turbine geometry as the latest 911 Turbo, becoming the only other car in the range to do so. Variable-turbine geometry is a tricky thing to use on petrol engines because of the higher temperatures they generate, and while it increases boost without hampering efficiency or engine response at lower speeds, Porsche doesn’t use it on the latest 911 Carrera’s 3.0-litre unit because its larger-capacity engine doesn’t really need it. But the new Boxster’s flat-four gets it. Clever.

The main interface was getting a bit old-hat. Porsche Communication Management (PCM) is now standard (does this car set the new world record for acronyms?), complete with touchscreen and all the expected 2016 connectivity bells and whistles. We still don’t like the buttons for the aircon, though.

Obviously, we’re more inclined to focus on the performance benefits accrued by the new turbo four. But clearly the decision to go this route is driven by the legislative need to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. We’d say a claimed combined average of 40.9mpg for the PDK-equipped 718 Boxster is the closest to guilt-free performance motoring anyone has come.

The S, meanwhile, is good for 38.7mpg, and even with our concrete driving shoes on, previous experience with Porsches should see the Boxster manage low 30s pretty regularly. The PDK also features the virtual intermediate gear set-up the latest 911 uses, which reduces the engine speed during steady-state motorway cruising, and engages two adjacent gears while slipping the clutches to effectively invent an extra mystery ratio. One with a halo over its bits.

We were concerned that Porsche, like Ferrari, was on a mission to phase out the conventional manual gearbox. But, thankfully, it seems the company is not: the 718 Boxster comes with one as standard. Yes, we are well aware that it’s not as efficient, and it’s not as fast, and we are basically wobbly, flawed humans. But we like three pedals and a gearstick, alright?