When was the last time you met an ardent car enthusiast, especially of the male orientation, who is planning for a Boxster? He might be saving for one, as an instance of the inevitability of compromises in life, but dreaming, aspiring, even craving… when was the last you heard of such a thing?
My Boxster S had a Porsche PDK 7-speed transmission locked on to the 315 bhp 3.4 L engine, spinning out 360 Nm of torque. The Boxster base model also has a V6 that brings up 270 Nm of spin to churn out 265 hp at the top.
As we live in 2013, and in the year of the new Boxster, chances are examples of such deliberate planning towards a Boxster could be very recent; and many. It’s still a chic car, but in no way a chick’s car. 15 years since it was introduced (1997), here is a Boxster that is entitled to the Porsche insignia in its own right.
The new Porsche Boxster looks just good as its sunset shot picture in the boulevard as in the magazine cover, and even better with its top down. Covers its 0-100 drive in roughly the same time as it takes to down its top.
UPSIDE: Boxster and Boxster S are both pleasurably powerful, intelligent PDK transmission, Storage in hood and boot, rich appointments, intuitive steering wheel
FLIPSIDE: No voice command, Priced closer to the 911, Glitches in navigation
The beauty dons and drops its top in just less than 6 seconds. It’s approximately the same time I took to touch 100 kmph from take off – which makes it a pretty fast convertible on both accounts!
The Drive
Equipped to the hilt with most things men strike off due to micro-economics and rising installments, my Boxster S cut through the morning wind, testing its leanings on winding roads and speed on the straight ones. The optional PDK dual-clutch gearbox kept making lightning quick decisions while milestones kept whizzing past on the road and the tachometer.
On its 19” wheels, the Boxster S is a silent ride till the wind orchestrates a ballet with its engine speed, and the normal mode or Sport mode is the most pleasurable on normal drives. The Sports Plus crams the wheels with an overzealous output that could be out of place anywhere but the racetrack. The PDK transmission is so intuitive that it leaves the need for a manual drive for sheer pleasure, a questionable proposition!
Those airholes on the side are perhaps the closest automobile world got to the shark land. Those gills are positively aggressive!
Cabin and Controls
Porsches are designed to be bought off used car garages by penurious dreamers at some point of time – so the materials are meant to last in their luxury and luster as well. Leather, mahogany, aluminium, carbon and alcantara make up the insides of the teenage dream or midlife messiah and can last the whole cycle. Perhaps you can pick up the Boxster S a decade later, still as delicious as I found it.
The new exteriors with their wide-wrap rear lights and the oval front lights are aggressive and elegant at once.
The controls on the console are perhaps the most optimized in the market – not too few, not a button more… and wrapped in the red leather that is all around, they look luscious in a cabin that is just short of edible. A dual dial clock that forms the centrepiece is an ingenious design touch in sync with the classic approach of Porsche that redefines the modern. Even in my heavily spiked package, there was no rear view camera but a surround-mapping graphic parking sensor did its job well enough. Conveniently, navigation cues could be viewed in the interactive driver menu. There is a sports chronometer and a G-force radar as well, which assert the Boxster in its race-ready role. Despite a few mistakes, the navigation did take me home.
You’ll find enough space to load your stuff in both the front and ear – because it has a centrally mounted engine… Means unprecedented boot space in a Porsche, while adding to its meticulous balance!
The Porsche Boxster with its carefully chosen timber couldn’t have compromised on the timbre that surrounds you, too. The cabin had an excellent 7-speaker Bose system but in the overall gadgetry, the voice command option was conspicuously absent – there are frills even the Porsche Boxster believes are just that!
The new Boxster S makes clever use of its length for plenty of trunk space – front and rear – with the engine centrally mounted. The riders can settle their agile bodies into the front seats with almost as much comfort as in a luxury car. By the way, the fuel tank is in front and fuel efficiency left me with no complaints. The full tank showed almost 480km and after 180 km of revs, rolls and rapids the Boxster S vaporized only 32 L – that is almost 6km per litre.. Impressive!
A graphic visual element, the rear spoiler stands up and salutes stability at 120 kmph.
It looks bigger than it actually is, especially the wide and extended rear. The rear spoiler is not just an addition of sportiness to the rear. It actually looks like a lip or tip of the tongue extended in scorn of the ones left behind – far behind – when the Boxster S decides to show its naughty, teasing side.
Main controls are easily accessible through buttons individually assigned – too many to count but somehow fits in with the cockpit feel of the Boxster S cabin!
The essential Porsche Boxster S and Boxster
While many might stop short of a 911 to make the Boxster S a newfound destination, the price as such has shot past the usual Boxster realms and now dallies closer to the 911 itself. But if the performance itself has cut the distance by miles, then why not the price? The Boxster S begins at AED 217,100. And for those who would like to save a good 20,000 dirhams, the Boxster is not much of compromise – with its 2.7i V6 generating 265 hp power and 279 Nm of spin the base model is a quick car and a quick buying decision by itself.
The driver info comes with a Sports Chrono (optional) and a digital stopwatch that was handy in calculating the 0-100 dash and the soft top timings.
Drive Courtesy: Porsche Centre, Dubai
Camera: Altas Ali
