Porsche Boxster Spyder
CALIFORNIA, ESPECIAlLY me northern bit, is purpose-built for driving romantics. Out here, you'rethe star in your own private movie. It's happening right now, though we might have inadvertentlycast ourselves in the wrong film. We're on the edge of the Sierra de Salinas mountain range, near Carmel Valley, where Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor. There are vast tracts of farmland either side of us, with one long, bendy road spearing through me middle. 275kg. This isn't just 80kg lighter man the regular Boxster S, it makes it the lightest model in the current Porsche range. With 320bhp on tap, the power-to-weight ratio is what you might call promising. There's a big, blue sky above us, and an orangey winter sun. We're following another Boxster Spyder, whose exhaust emits a fruity Porsche parp as its driver works his way through me 'box. Its back tyres kick up little curlicues of dust as it runs momentarily wide.
Overtaking out here isn't the teeth- gnashing lottery that is, say, junction 19 of the M25 on a wet Wednesday evening. In fact, in 20 minutes we see just one other vehicle. Unfortunately, it's a vehicle that happens to be about 60ft long, and has mad Jack McMad behind the wheel with only his shotgun and whatever the US version of the Yorkie bar is for company. Porsche no. 1 blasts past. Porsche no.2 finds a 32-tonne artic in the middle o/the road to be something of an impediment. We hang back, and layoff the fruity parping for a bit. He moves back over. But we've seen Duel enough times to wonder what's next. Do we really want to play chicken with a big rig? Porsche takes the business of saving weight pretty seriously. 80g lighter than standard, and making its connecting rods out of titanium saves another 150g. But mat's the race-spec GT3, and though the Boxster Spyder shares some of its DNA, its role is completely different.
It's also not an RS. Or a Clubsport, This is the third official and unlimited edition Boxster variant, the most powerful and, at 拢44,643 (Rs 33 lakh), the most expensive. They're geniuses, these people, they really are. Mind you, 'thing' or not, me Boxster Spyder looks fantastic, like a distilled Carrera GT. If not quite as rakish as some previous open-topped Porsche specials, me fairings on me newly extended rear deck are striking, and the body-side graphics are coolly retro (Google the 909 Bergspyder for proof). 20mm lower, with narrower, lighter side windows. There's new engineering here too. There are new 1 O-spoke alloy wheels, which weigh less than 10kg each, qualifying them as the lightest 19in rims in Porsche's range. Inside, there are new lightweight carbon-fibre sportS sears, which trim another 12kg from the overall kerbweight. The standard Boxster Spyder does without a stereo system or air-conditioning, though tellingly every test car I looked at featured both items. There are fabric door-pulls, there's no cowl over the main instrument binnacle (how much weight must that have saved?), and the wind-deflector's plastic. The centre console and dash facings are finished in the exterior body colour, and the gear lever shift pattern and searbelts are red. This isn't the place for modern life's rubbish, either; the cup-holders and door pockets have been deleted.
Corroborated with a very probable weight loss, the new iteration of the hardcore Cayman is shaping up to be faster and more agile around the corners than its predecessor. Getting back to the prototype at hand, the back of the car is also exhibiting some major changes compared to the GTS. The most obvious novelty is the addition of a fixed rear wing, along with a meaner diffuser featuring two large exhaust tips that no longer sit next to each other as they do on the GTS. While the taillights as well as the headlights appear to be virtually the same as those of the GTS, there could be some changes to further differentiate the two models. We are also expecting to see a re-tuned suspension, bespoke alloy wheels, and upgraded brakes to round off the package and make the GT4 justify what will be a significant premium over the GTS. 79,800 in the United States. 91,100, some folks will have to make a difficult decision: go with the Cayman GT4 or get a standard 911? Factor in the 718 Boxster Spyder, it will be quite tricky to pick one.
But beyond the numbers, they are actually very different. While the M2 is a beefed-up version of the mundane 2 Series, the Cayman GTS is based on a vehicle developed as a true sports car. Then there鈥檚 the engine layout. The Bimmer retains the front-engined configuration of almost all BMWs available right now, while the Cayman benefits from the modern sports car layout with the powerplant placed behind the seats. Some would say that the Cayman has the engine in the right place. I stil think it鈥檚 a matter of taste and what you want from a performance car, but yes, the mid-engined configuration makes for a better sports car. If you鈥檙e into weekends at the race track, the Cayman GTS is definitely the better option. If you want the performance, but you still need a daily driver with room for at least four people and a decent trunk, then the M2 Competition is the way to go.