Boxster Spyder: The “New Speedster” debuts at L.A. Auto Show
By Matt Saunders – Autocar.co.uk
Stuttgart. Porsche has released more information on its new range-topping Boxster, the Spyder, ahead of the car’s official unveiling at the Los Angeles motor show this week.
The new details confirm that the car is a far cry from the marketing-spun money-maker some feared it would be, but rather a fully redesigned and re-engineered performance special.
The Boxster Spyder will indeed run the same 315bhp 3.4-litre engine as the Cayman S. It’s a significantly different motor to the 305bhp unit in a Boxster S, however: it revs all the way to 7500rpm, and features a different crankcase, different engine mounts, a different oil pump, different intake manifolds and a more sophisticated direct fuel injection system.
Weighing just 1275kg unladen, the Boxster Spyder will become the lightest new car that Porsche makes, and the fastest of its current crop of two-seaters; equipped with a seven-speed PDK gearbox and a Sport Chrono Plus package, it’ll crack 62mph in just 4.8sec. With it’s further overdriven seventh gear, the PDK car is also more economical than the manual.
The car’s 80kg weight saving relative to a standard Boxster S has been made via the fitment of aluminum doors (15kg), an aluminum rear deck (3kg), lighter bucket seats (12kg), and via a lighter roof that weighs only 6kg all in. The car also comes without air conditioning and without a CD-radio as standard.
Contributing to a more focused dynamic character for the car is a chassis with a 20mm lower ride height, stiffer springs and anti-roll bars, and higher rate fixed-rate dampers. The new dampers also have an additional rebound stop spring to reduce body roll still further.
The Boxster Spyder has wider tracks than standard – 4mm at the front and 8mm out back – and a center of gravity 25mm lower than that of a Boxster S. Weighing less than 10kg a corner, its alloy wheels are the lightest that Porsche currently offers on any of its road cars, and they come with hi-tech compound tires that can be run at lower pressures than is normal for the size, to the benefit of rolling refinement.
The new car also comes with a different steering ‘box to a standard Boxster S – it’s slower geared around the straight-ahead and quicker off-centre – as well as 318mm drilled and vented front brakes and a limited-slip differential as standard.
The bad news? You can’t drive it at more than 124mph with that canopy-like roof attached, and… roof on or off, Porsche doesn’t recommend that you take it to an automated drive-through car wash.
