Our view:
There's a bit in
The Matrix where Morpheus tells Neo about 'residual self-image'; that Neo, or 'Mr Anderson', is projecting what he thinks he looks like in the real world, which isn't the real world, into the unreal world, which is, um, the real world. Or is it? Were you listening to us, Neo, or were you looking at the girl in the red dress? Oh. Er... we hope you're still following this. Anyway, we were idly wondering whether there's still any lingering residual self-image hanging around the Boxster from its early days. Remember when the mid-engined roadster was launched in 1996? And how sneering types would straight away go 'hur hur, couldn't afford a
real Porsche, then?', because clearly the only way is
911 in the eyes of some people?
And, despite the fact that the Boxster has now turned the grand old age of 25 (twenty-five! Goodness, where
has the time gone?!), there's still traces of this condescending attitude left: the idea being, you only buy a 718 because a 911 is out of reach. As if people who can spend at least 50 grand on a two-seater roadster with no practicality at all couldn't stretch the extra pounds-per-month (or whatever) to put their backsides in a
standard Carrera instead. This wholly irrelevant reasoning around 718 v 911 becomes even less credible once you start looking towards the top of the former's line, where the financial gap between Porsche's two longest-serving models grows ever smaller. It's in this upper 718 zone where you'll find this particular car, the £66,340 GTS.
So maybe, just maybe, there's a specific
reason why people pick a 718 instead of a 911, beyond simple fiscal fortitude. Spending a week with this Boxster ought to reveal precisely what that reason might be. Now, as an outlet, we've driven a
718 GTS before, but that was one with a 2.5-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged unit. One of the motors which has drawn the 718 line such ire from the automotive enthusiast fraternity. But, in the wake of the seminal
Spyder and
Cayman GT4 models, Stuttgart took the decision to turn both the 718 Boxster GTS and the 718 Cayman GTS into the '4.0' twins. Which means, yes, a return to a six-cylinder engine.
And
what an engine. It's the 3.0-litre twin-turbo unit from the current
992 Carrera and Carrera S cars, only stripped of its two blowers and bored out to 3,995cc. In the ultimate 718s, the Spyder and GT4, it makes 420hp and 420Nm, so it is only marginally wound back for the GTS derivatives. It makes the same peak torque from 5,000rpm but only holds onto it until 6,500rpm, as opposed to 6,800rpm on the more potent unit, and its maximum power is a nice, round 400hp; this lands at 7,000rpm, so it simply seems to be a case of limiting the revs for the GTS, as the Spyder/GT4 can spin on to deliver the extra 20hp at a loftier 7,600rpm.
The GTS's performance, therefore, remains blistering. The 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 manual as tested here will run 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds, 0-100mph in 9.2 seconds and 0-124mph in 14.1 seconds, and its top speed (where permitted) is a giddy 182mph. Weighing in at 1,480kg with just a driver and fluids onboard, it's a relatively light car by modern standards as it sticks below 1.5 tonnes, and when you think about the make-up of the GTS 4.0, then it is positively drool-inducing: you're talking about a naturally aspirated, mid-engined, six-cylinder roadster with a six-speed H-gate 'box and three pedals in the footwell, plus a mechanical limited-slip diff (Porsche Torque Vectoring, or PTV, is standard on the GTS 4.0) on the driven rear axle. What a specification.
What a car. Seriously, it's hard to know how you execute a roadster better than this. In actual fact, we probably prefer the Boxster GTS 4.0 to the 718 Spyder, mainly because the former is less spiky in low-grip conditions and more useable all-year-round, thanks to its fully-electric instead of part-manual roof. But, in the interests of critical fairness, before we get onto the eulogy then we'll just highlight the 718 Boxster 4.0-litre's one minor drawback. And that's its strange, eco-gearing.
Like any 718 model with a manual 'box, the GTS 4.0 is extraordinarily leggy. It'll pull more than 80mph at the top of second and whisks you deep into three-figure speeds if you dare to rev it out in third. As a result, you can't really enjoy the six-pot motor singing away merrily in the vicinity of its redline on the public roads without seriously breaking the law. As we said when driving this model's direct
PDK sibling in the very same week we'd got the manual on test (making us the first outlet to drive the two GTS 4.0 Boxster transmissions back-to-back, apparently), if you're buying a car with a clutch pedal then surely you want to be involved in the process of changing gear? You want it to mean something to the overall operation of making the car go fast, right? Which makes the gearing on the GTS a minor bugbear - theoretically, on certain intricate and exciting roads, you could stick it in either second or third and then just leave it there for the entire duration. It's why, much to our enormous surprise, we actually preferred piloting the GTS 4.0 as a seven-speed PDK, because its extra ratio and closer-stacked set-up meant hustling it along required more thought about gear selection from its driver. Yep, we went there; PDK could be better than manual, in this instance.
However. In mitigation, we are talking about the finest of infinitesimally fine margins betwixt PDK and manual GTS 4.0 models. The PDK can still run beyond 70mph in second anyway, so it's not as if it's much snappier through its lower ratios than this six-speed car. And here are some other defences for the three-pedal GTS 4.0: one, the shift action itself is stunning, all slick-of-throw and mechanical precision, and the lever is short and stumpy and ergonomically pleasing as well; two, that 4.0-litre engine makes a whole load of different and yet deeply pleasing noises from 1,500rpm upwards, so you get a magnificent symphony from the Porsche even if you never venture beyond 4,000rpm; three, and sticking with the six-cylinder engine, it has masses of torque and instant, low-down throttle response, so actually you can work the 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 in fourth, fifth and sixth from the lower-mid-range and it'll still feel ballistically quick and massively engaging; four, while the PDK might be more accelerative and have 10Nm more torque at its peak, the manual is 3mph faster flat out, it's 30kg lighter and it's £2,303 less money to buy in the first place; and five, did we mention that it's a manual, mid-engined GTS Porsche? Which means it's cooler than a very cool thing in the middle of winter which has been placed in a fridge, frozen in liquid nitrogen and then fired into the depths of space?
All of this means that, other than the gearing that you might end up one day debating in a pub (when they're ever open again) with a mechanical know-it-all who can explain to you the merits of a final drive readjustment or similar, you get absolutely everything in the manual model that makes the 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 such an extraordinary, scintillating and magical car to drive. Never mind roadsters, this might be the best execution of any sports car, anywhere. Brilliance shines out of everything the Porsche does. You feel it in the steering, all granular and responsive, supremely weighted and as consistent and trustworthy as any set-up we can recall using. You feel it in the brakes, with pristine pedal progression and monster bite, proving that ceramic-composite discs are just not necessary here. You feel it in that marvellous drivetrain, its power delivery rich and rewarding and seamless, the throttle response tack-sharp and immediate.
And you feel it in the damping, which has that underlying Germanic tautness to it, so that the ride quality is firmer than it would be on, say, a
Lotus or an
Alpine and therefore you're always aware you're on 20-inch alloys with 35-profile tyres, but which nevertheless can deal with anything you throw at it with such aplomb that you begin to wonder if witchcraft isn't at work - honestly, the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) variable dampers and a 20mm lower ride height confer immaculate body control on the 718 Boxster in Sport mode, and yet in Normal it will lope along incredibly gracefully so that mega-mileage is no issue. We did 411 miles in it in total and a lot of those were ticked off travelling on the motorways (and the A43; we
always seem to be on the A43 these days), where this 400hp, 180mph petrol Porsche managed to turn in a best economy of 30.4mpg, against an overall weekly figure of 27.6mpg. Yet more sorcery from Zuffenhausen.
That the Boxster also looks better than it ever has done helps the GTS's watertight case even further. In Carmine Red (£1,658) with an Alcantara Package GTS Carmine Red (£1,242) plus Interior GTS Package (£2,096) to complement it inside, and the 20-inch wheels finished in black to highlight the other dark detailing on the body, this is a Porsche with staggering presence. And while we're on the subject of extras, this test version didn't even need tens of thousands of additional pounds spent on it to make it 'just so'. Beyond these three big-ticket items already listed, two more four-figure options - LED main headlights with Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus (PDLS Plus, £1,397) and ParkAssist (front and rear) including a reversing camera (£1,086) - represented the main bulk of the £9,520 uplift on RE20 KVH, but the remaining items were not essential at all to the enjoyment of the car. Although, we must say, Porsche charging £228 for cruise control and £539 for dual-zone climate control is something of a liberty on a 66-grand product, whether it be a lightweight, focused driver's machine or not.
Even the GTS's cabin appeals. We've said before that the 718's interior feels a bit dated compared to the newer model lines in Porsche's portfolio, and this is especially true if you get the chance to sit in the future-gazing cabin of the
Taycan EV. But there has recently been something of a backlash against the digitisation of in-car interfaces, and so the Boxster's wonderfully put-together and crystal clear cabin starts to take on fresh appeal. Big central rev counter rendered in Carmine Red, the classic black-and-white analogue speedometer in Porsche's age-old script, which devilishly reads to 200mph on this model, the perfectly round 360mm-diameter GT Sport steering wheel with its rotating mode switch, buttons on the transmission tunnel, physical controls for the climate functions, the driving position to end all driving positions... it's all there. It's all outstanding. So what if the infotainment screen is on the small side? Do you truly care about the crispness of satnav mapping when you have a 400hp jewel of a combustion engine sited behind your bonce?
All of which leads us to conclude that if there is any residual self-image in-house Porsche status nonsense loitering around the Boxster, the sensational GTS 4.0 ought to blow every last shred of it away. It's not just a really good roadster. It's not just a really good open-topped car of any size. It's not even just a really good Boxster in a quarter of a century of the things, although it is incontrovertibly the finest model of Stuttgart's MR saviour we've yet tried. No, it's that you drive the GTS 4.0 manual and you wonder if sports cars can get any better at all. You wonder if this is the peak of petrol-powered, mid-engined majesty. You wonder, with no little wry amusement, if it genuinely is necessary to have a 911, whether that be
one with a fabric roof or otherwise. Because, seriously, this 718 is one of the greatest, most alluring and most complete machines we've ever driven. It's every bit as desirable as a Cayman GT4, and that really is saying something. Therefore, anyone who sees this car and asks you if you 'couldn't afford a
proper Porsche' will only be exposing their criminal ignorance and craven lack of intelligence as a result. It's yet another dazzling, beguiling, five-star creation from this singular marque.
