2017 Porsche 718 Boxster S: Four’s A Party
On this episode of Igniton presented by TireRack.com
Transcript
00:00 (tires screeching)
00:02 This is the Porsche 718 Boxster S.
00:12 Now if you're unfamiliar with the annals
00:13 of Porsche motorsport history,
00:14 you may not recognize that name.
00:16 That name belonged to a storied sports/race car
00:19 that Porsche championed in the late 50s and early 60s.
00:23 The addition of 718 to the Boxster name
00:27 conveys the seriousness with which
00:29 Porsche has refocused this car on performance.
00:32 But here's the thing, this is the Boxster S.
00:38 It's the most powerful and raciest Boxster
00:40 you can currently get, but it only has a four cylinder.
00:45 What gives?
00:45 (tires screeching)
00:50 (dramatic music)
00:53 (dramatic music)
00:55 Along with being mid-engined, like the Boxster,
01:06 along with being roofless, like the Boxster,
01:09 the original 718 also had a flat four,
01:12 now like the Boxster does.
01:14 Here in the S, it's a turbo two and a half liter,
01:16 which should sound familiar to Subaru fans out there.
01:19 But despite shrinking cylinder count and engine size
01:22 versus the previous model,
01:24 this four cylinder makes plenty of horsepower,
01:26 350 to be exact, and a ton more torque, 305 pound feet.
01:31 That sounds promising, and with the racing derived name,
01:35 the first thing we need to do is find out
01:37 how it does at the racetrack.
01:40 Man, what's immediately apparent is how much faster
01:43 this Boxster S is than the previous model.
01:45 This turbocharged engine has a ton of low end power,
01:50 which gives it this broader power band
01:53 that feels like you have power
01:54 pretty much no matter what gear you're in.
01:57 Now what's nice is the gear spacing
01:59 that you get from the PDK is so tight,
02:02 or at least it feels that way,
02:04 that you never really have to pay attention
02:05 to what gear you're in, even if you're shifting manually,
02:08 because the power is always there.
02:11 It builds linearly, it's tractable, it's controllable.
02:16 It does a really good job of transforming this car
02:18 into something that just can consume a racetrack
02:22 at an alarming rate.
02:23 (laughing)
02:32 The balance of this car is so neutral and so playful.
02:38 There's a little bit of stability
02:40 when you go into the corner too hot,
02:42 but a quick flick of the steering wheel,
02:44 a little bit of pedal modulation,
02:46 you can balance this chassis and make it do
02:49 whatever you want to.
02:50 A little bit of trailing throttle oversteer
02:56 when you go into the corner in a way that promotes it.
02:59 Right when the corner wants to induce
03:01 a little bit of oversteer,
03:03 the Boxster just gives you that little bit of oversteer
03:06 in such a delightful way.
03:07 You can almost control it with one hand on the wheel.
03:12 You feel like you're driving right on the car's limits
03:16 and it's so playful and enjoyable out here.
03:20 And I'd imagine it sets a pretty good lap time too.
03:23 (laughing)
03:41 I absolutely love this car on the racetrack.
03:45 I don't even have data acquisition going right now,
03:48 but I could do this all day.
03:50 And I don't really care what the lap times are
03:52 because I'm having so much fun.
03:54 We know though from the data,
03:57 this car is way faster than the Boxster it replaces.
04:01 Look, look at that.
04:04 Look at that.
04:05 Look at that.
04:07 (car engine revving)
04:10 At 12.2 seconds, the 718 is half a second faster
04:21 to the quarter mile than the previous model.
04:24 The 718 stopped in 99 feet,
04:26 which is also better than the previous model.
04:29 The 718's 23 and a half second lap time
04:32 is over a second faster than the last Boxster.
04:36 To illustrate the performance of the 718,
04:39 let's put its hot lap next to that of the Cayman GT4s.
04:42 (car engine revving)
04:46 (car engine revving)
04:50 (car engine revving)
04:53 (car engine revving)
04:56 (car engine revving)
05:06 (car engine revving)
05:14 (car engine revving)
05:22 (car engine revving)
05:25 (car engine revving)
05:38 (car engine revving)
05:41 (car engine revving)
06:07 (car engine revving)
06:10 The 718 Boxster S comes in a negligible two tenths
06:20 behind the more powerful and stickier tire GT4.
06:24 Not only that, this Boxster is the sixth fastest car
06:28 we've ever tested here.
06:29 (upbeat music)
06:34 (car engine revving)
06:37 Now that we've left the racetrack,
06:41 we've left the data acquisition hardware behind,
06:43 we don't have test numbers,
06:45 all we have is the impossible to measure
06:48 experience of driving.
06:50 And that's what matters most to a car like the Boxster.
06:53 Well, to any car that doesn't have a roof,
06:55 because when you take that part of the car away,
06:57 you're saying I care more about the experience of driving,
07:00 and that's not something you can quantify.
07:02 (car engine revving)
07:05 How does this new 718 Boxster do with that?
07:10 Well, you have to start with the engine
07:12 because it's such a transformation
07:15 to the way this car behaves and how it drives.
07:18 Being a new turbocharged Porsche engine,
07:20 it has all kinds of tricks.
07:22 There's constant little amounts of boost pressure
07:25 that the engine's developing at all times
07:27 to make sure when you crack the throttle,
07:29 the power arrives in a linear fashion.
07:32 Porsche is doing all kinds of tricks
07:35 to make this engine not feel like a boosty four-cylinder,
07:39 and those pay off in throttle delivery.
07:42 You feel a linear surge of acceleration,
07:46 not the onset of boost as you would typically expect
07:49 with a turbo engine.
07:50 The character of this engine,
07:51 specifically as it relates to sound
07:54 and the experience of acceleration,
07:56 is where I think it misses.
07:58 (car engine revving)
08:01 This has a growl that grows in loudness
08:05 the longer you step on the accelerator.
08:07 It's aggressive, if slightly muted,
08:12 but it doesn't sing the way the previous six-cylinder does.
08:16 And with that gone, there's less of a reason for me
08:21 to want to keep accelerating
08:23 because part of the reward of that previous engine,
08:25 of the six-cylinder, was the longer you stayed in it,
08:27 sure, the more power you got
08:29 because that engine liked to rev,
08:31 but the sound of revving it out
08:32 matched the sensation of the power,
08:35 and it made the experience more exciting and more thrilling.
08:38 (car engine revving)
08:41 Now, I should also mention, too,
08:43 that when you slow down and start driving this
08:45 like a normal human being, we'll put it in drive,
08:47 we'll take it out of the aggressive drive mode
08:49 and just put it in automatic.
08:51 When you start cruising, it gets quiet,
08:53 it gets really nice.
08:54 The engine's revving, let's say, 1,500 to 1,800 RPM,
08:58 but as you crack the accelerator,
09:00 you get this somewhat harsh and not really pleasant,
09:05 almost like snort, that you feel vibrate
09:08 through the interior of this car.
09:11 It's that sort of refined engineering or the elegance
09:14 that you would typically associate with a Porsche.
09:17 We spent a lot of time talking about this engine, though,
09:20 and we're in a mid-engine, drop-top Porsche sports car.
09:23 Let's talk about the handling.
09:25 This thing is an absolute monster at devouring roads.
09:30 The rate that it can go through a twisty road
09:33 is simply unbelievable, and not something I would remember
09:37 the previous Boxsters doing.
09:38 There's almost like a brutal efficiency
09:42 at how this car creates speed
09:45 and how it just keeps clawing ahead.
09:47 As I slow down, there's little here to make it feel special.
09:53 I mean, sure, there's a Porsche crest,
09:55 and that's a nice thing, and I have nice, accurate steering.
09:58 I still can look up and see the sky,
10:00 but I have that sound, which isn't too pleasant.
10:03 It doesn't really make me want to rev it out.
10:05 And there's little else here
10:08 that just makes this a special experience,
10:10 and that's, unfortunately,
10:12 when I think about similarly priced cars
10:14 that feel special at all speeds,
10:17 like the Shelby GT350, like the C63,
10:22 those cars, even when you're commuting to work,
10:25 still feel like they have something special going on with them.
10:29 At full speed, they're great, too.
10:31 And this is something that the Boxster may have missed
10:34 in its quest to become a serious performer.
10:37 And make no mistake, this is the fastest Boxster yet.
10:40 It is absolutely thrilling at full speed.
10:43 But when you're not going full speed,
10:45 what are you left with?
10:46 From our empirical test results
10:50 to the thrill provided when you're really pushing it,
10:53 the 718 Boxster S's performance
10:55 goes above and beyond our expectations.
10:58 Make no mistake, Porsche has made a handling weapon
11:01 that is just as delightful and thrilling to drive hard
11:03 as it is capable of setting a fast lap.
11:06 Yet that excitement wanes,
11:08 both on the roads we use every day
11:09 and the windy and scenic roads
11:11 that call you to visit from hours away.
11:13 On track, the 718 had me giggling like a kid
11:17 who's just discovered the magical world of fart jokes.
11:20 On the road, I had the seriousness of a corporate accountant
11:23 who's missed their morning coffee.
11:25 The 718's transformation must be considered a success
11:28 in terms of absolute performance,
11:30 but you have to wonder if, in the quest for progress,
11:34 something went missing along the way.
11:37 (car engine roaring)
11:40 (car engine roaring)
11:43 (car engine roaring)
11:46 (car engine roaring)
11:49 (car engine roaring)
11:52 (explosion)