Design Porsche Boxster Manual
This hasn’t happened before, so it’s worth noting: Porsche’s best car is now its entry-level one. All of Porsche’s kinesthetic achievements, all the decades of road and race engineering that have sustained the brand are now distilled in its Boxster and Boxster S, and you are free to share this information with anyone who denigrates your baby Porsche.
The price is in no way justified by the numbers, except for two: 1.01 g of cornering ability and a 70-to-0 stopping distance of just 145 feet.
Those capabilities are GT3-esque. Otherwise, the critical performance figures are unimpressive: 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds, the quarter-mile in 14.0 seconds at 103 mph. Since the purpose of this story is to provide you with an instrumented test of the Boxster, we should act as if those numbers matter. But rarely have acceleration times been such a poor indicator of total performance.
Interior Porsche Boxster Manual
A last-generation Accord V-6 coupe will do the sprint nearly as quickly, and run the quarter in the same ballpark. But, good as it is, does an Accord coupe’s body right itself so instantaneously out of turns? Does its clutch pedal tell you exactly how and when to release its pressure? Is its engine’s torque this insistent? Do its brakes feel five times as powerful as its engine? Does it barely shrug its shoulders over imperfect pavement? Does it steer this well? These are rhetorical questions.
If there is a Porsche “thing,” what’s above are its core attributes.
That this Porsche thing is now more completely palpable in the Boxster than almost anywhere else in the range, well, that’s a victory for the little guy provided he has the cash. Whatever price you may put on joy, this car is cheaper than that. The Boxster is pure joy.
Specifications
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door roadster
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 24-valve flat-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 165 cu in, 2706 cc
Power: 265 hp @ 6700 rpm
Torque: 206 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 97.4 in
Length: 172.2 in
Width: 70.9 in Height: 50.1 in
Curb weight: 3035 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 5.6 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 13.3 sec
Zero to 130 mph: 31.5 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 6.3 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 14.0 sec @ 103 mph
Top speed (drag limited): 168 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 145 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 1.01 g
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