Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Review: 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

"More for Less." It's the call to prayer of every car salesman to ever don a plaid jacket. Guys with sturdy names like Wally and Chuck would stop dead in their tracks and tell Porsche "Pal, this Boxster Spyder thing, you're all upside-down." You see, with the 2011 Boxster Spyder, Porsche has inverted the polarity on "more for less." You pay more but get less.

The Boxster Spyder has a high-performance mission: It's a race car that doesn't need a trailer. Porsche undertook a lightening program that started with a Boxster S and stripped a slew of equipment, lowered the suspension 3/4 of an inch and substituted aluminum for steel where possible in the body. One-hundred seventy-six pounds later, you've got a Boxster Spyder; lighter, lower, sharper. Has it worked for Porsche to go the Lotus route of obsessive weight reduction?


Here's some clarity: this car is not for you if you just want to putter around with a crest on the hood and a flat six behind you. The Boxster Spyder is a serious piece, and if you want a cushy Boxster, the S is your ride. The Boxster Spyder disquiets those who don't understand. Yes, it's the top of the Boxster model range, but there is no radio, or air conditioner, and door pulls are reduced to cloth straps. Those of you expecting a range-topper with a $61,200 base price to be the traditional full-boat option-mobile will need to re-center. Simply put, the Boxster Spyder is for motorsports.

Modern technology – and Porsche's in particular – is so good that the Boxster Spyder can serve as a day-to-day car, too. Back in the time of the Boxster Spyder's spiritual predecessors, the 356 Speedster and 550 Spyder, lumpy, idle-averse camshafts and finicky dual carburetors were the price you paid for performance. Instead of all that ruckus, the 320-horsepower 3.4-liter flat six in the Boxster Spyder is wonderfully flexible, happy to loll along in sixth gear or go roaring off for redline. Maximum horsepower happens at 7,200 rpm, and the full 273 pound-feet of torque punches in at 4,750 rpm. Though the powertrain doesn't feel peaky or high strung, there is a distinct determination that kicks in above 4,000 rpm, the result of the Variocam Plus variable valve-timing and lift system doing its thing. The engine also has the classic Porsche-six snarl that adds to the thrill of running through the gears. Fuel economy turned out to be an entirely reasonable 23 mpg despite a week of redline shifts. Weight reduction doesn't just aid performance.


Numbers freaks will note that the PDK gearbox is the one to have for extracting absolute speed from the Spyder. Equipped with the traditional manual, the run from zero to 60 mph clocks in at 4.9 seconds, while the PDK drops a tenth off that figure. Springing for the Sport Chrono Package Plus shaves the PDK's run to 60 even more, down to 4.6 seconds and costs you $1,320 extra. Fine, it's quicker with PDK, but the joy with which Porsche's traditional six-speed manual transmission operates, finding perfect synergy between road, man and machine, is worth a few tenths. Simply put, a manual-transmission Boxster Spyder on a windy road is revelatory.

There is an irony to Porsche charging you extra to add back some of the things you've already paid to have removed. Air conditioning, for instance, is stripped out of the standard Boxster Spyder, though Porsche will gladly charge you $1,760 for automatic climate control. You can liberate plenty of money from your wallet by ticking off option boxes. You'd expect performance upgrades, and Porsche delivers with choices like the $8,150 Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake option that puts the stoppers of God under your foot, though the standard braking system with its four-piston calipers rendered in solid aluminum and sporting 12.52-inches in front and 11.77-inch rear rotors is no slouch. An optional Sport Exhaust System puts $2,500 worth of vocal harpies in the tailpipe, as well.


What is more surprising for such a racy car is the healthy list of appearance options for both the body and the interior. Some are purely functional, like a fire extinguisher for $140, but others are rather nonsensical, like spending $690 for white gauge faces, $1580 to trim the seats to match the exterior or another $500 to get the mirror mounting points painted to match the body color. Of course, Porsche is happy to separate you from your cash, and since the Boxster Spyder's mission is so hardcore, the high price of frivolities is like a sin tax for putting comfort over speed. Complaints miss the point; all the comfort you want can be had in the Boxster S. The Boxster Spyder's peer group includes cars like the flyweight Lotus Elise, and even with no options, the Porsche is a luxury liner when compared to that car.

For full weight savings, leave all the option boxes unchecked, though even modern race cars have climate-controlled cabins. The Boxster Spyder's roofless design may mitigate some heat buildup, but a sunny day at Laguna Seca is still going to steam your Nomex. The Boxster Spyder we drove was equipped with air conditioning and an audio system with CD player, auxiliary input, and Bluetooth phone integration. Cruise control was also part of the options list – all welcome features as the Boxster Spyder took on the role of commuter car.


Sport seats with snug bolstering and carbon fiber seatbacks are standard in the Spyder. They're exceptionally comfortable for some, aggressively snug for many, and could use a few more degrees of seatback angle adjustment. You sit bolt upright in the Boxster Spyder, and you stay firmly in place, so stay out of the Golden Corral. The seats hug snugly to counteract the cornering forces the Spyder is capable of generating, and they're brilliant at it. Applying the brakes puts the rigid calipers to use converting kinetic energy to heat. The PCCB option can withstand the most abusive braking you'll ever dish out, but the standard system isn't deficient at shrugging off velocity in its own right. Braking is strong and you can control it so finely with small movements of your foot that most other cars feel exceptionally sloppy. The Boxster Spyder's brakes are as quick at what they do as the chassis and powertrain.

A source of scorn is the lightweight top that the Boxster Spyder comes with. You do get a cool-looking double-bubble decklid which changes the visual character for the better when going roofless, but the rest of the weather protection setup has drawn ire. Get over it. The folding top in the standard Boxster is there for you lazy types, and it goes up and down in 12 seconds with the press of a button. The Boxster Spyder carries a wonderfully Germanic manual top that includes a bow with index pins, a fabric roof panel, a vinyl back window that snaps in and requires you to loop a cable around eyelets and apply tension with a big red lever. It's a head-scratcher at first, though raising and lowering the top becomes a quick process after you do it a couple times, and Porsche has provided a cleanly integrated area under the rear lid to stow all the pieces. This is simply a car that makes you work at some things, and sealing out the elements is one of them.


Cornering is the Boxster Spyders's strongest suit. Granite-solid stability breaks away progressively when you've reached the limit of the Pirelli P-Zero rubber. That limit, by the way, is higher than can be sanely explored on most public roads. The steering is rack-and-pinion via chatterbox without excessive weighting or kickback. While the standard Boxster Spyder wheel and tire package shares the same 19 inch diameter as the Boxster S, the Spyder uses lightweight rollers that are wider, fitting 235/35 ZR19 tires under the front end, and 265/35 ZR19s out back, and also running lower pressures than other Boxsters for better performance. For handling precision, and that whole man-machine synergy thing, it's all but impossible to top the Boxster Spyder. The Sport Chrono Package on our Boxster Spyder, which translates to a "Sport" button at the base of the center stack, further sharpens the already-exceptionally responsive throttle. The engine's flexibility and instantaneous response makes everything else seems half-asleep by comparison. Thank the sky-high 12.5:1 compression ratio made possible by the Direct Fuel Injection.

The brilliance in what Porsche has wrought with the Boxster Spyder isn't just its impressive abilities, but in the car's approachability. Your mother could drive the Boxster Spyder, though she'd despise the seats and just forget about the top. Average drivers will never know what a pavement-eating animal the Spyder can be, and enthusiasts with half an idea of where the line through a corner is will feel like Walter Röhrl.


The Boxster Spyder is Porsche's best chassis. Choices are thin on the ground for cars that handle as accurately without bad habits, and the Boxster Spyder is a *****cat despite the way it claws the asphalt. If your weekends are filled with cones and apexes, your track-day car has arrived. Oh, and you can putter around in it in between races.

Gallery:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/revie...pyder/#3368685

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/16/r...oxster-spyder/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I've never liked the Boxster until this variant. There's just something about the normal versions that I don't like. Perhaps seeing too many base versions on the road with A-hole drivers behind the wheel has something to do with that. I stopped by a local Porsche dealer recently and checked out a black one they had in the showroom. It was pretty nice!

rdgdawg

It is, as one scribe would say:

"UTTERLY BRILLIANT!!!!!"

I am seriously considering this... ... and yes, I am down to 3 cars for my "play car", DD has been chosen... yes , seriously...


... again... yes...

LexFather

Agreed. I would so rock this Spyder. I love it.

IS-SV

I liked the Boxster from day 1 when I first saw the original concept car. And I had to have 1 (eventually I ended up owning 2), great drivers cars. Great version, the Spyder.

mmarshall

There are probably 4 or 5 cars today that can lay claim to being close to the perfect sports car (if affordability is taken into consideration). The Boxster is obviously one of them....it is not cheap, but not prohibitively expensive either. The Mazda Miata is another...its tossability and simple-driving pleasure is legendary, and it is a RELIABLE successor to the old British sports cars of the 50s and 60s. The Honda S2000 is another, with superb build-quality and an engine that winds to motorcycle-like RPMs. The Mazda RX-8 is another, if you can accept the half-rear-doors, rear-seat, and lack of low-RPM torque.....its chassis, with the small lightweight rotary-engine, is the epitome of perfect sports-car-balance and lightning-quick steering response.

Also, (probably) the Alfa Spyder, but that is a non-U.S. design, and I haven't driven one for many years to really comment on it.

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Simply gorgeous! I'm a sucker for a nice rear end.

rdgdawg

How about this:

Your personal Boxster Spyder
My configuration
Order no. Vehicle Prices*
987720 Boxster Spyder $61,200
Individualisation
Category Order no. Individual equipment Prices*
Exterior Color B4 Carrara White $0
V9 Black Top $0
Interior Color AP Black Leather, Sport Seats $0
Wheels XRR 19" Carrera Sport Wheel Exclusive $2,385
Wheel Accessories XDA Wheels Painted Black Exclusive $1,815
Interior 585 Cup Holder $0
810 Floor Mats in Interior Color $0
P77 Leather Sport Seats $0
XFJ Instrument Dials in Carrara White
Exclusive
$690
Audio and Communications 490 Sound Package Plus $700
619 Bluetooth Interface for Mobile Phone $0
870 Universal Audio Interface $0
P23 PCM 3.0 including Extended
Navigation
$3,110
Destination Charge
Amount $950
Vehicle price $70,850

IS-SV

This particular car only looks good with top down, IMO. The other Boxsters have a nice fully lined top that looks good up and is very aerodynamic too.

rdgdawg

Yep, I agree... and Boxster S is much more practical for day-to-day

Sooooooooooo:

My configuration
Order no. Vehicle Prices*
987320 Boxster S $58,000
Individualisation
Category Order no. Individual equipment Prices*
Packages P4H Convenience Package $2,490
P4W Infotainment Package with BOSE® $3,640
Exterior Color B4 Carrara White $0
V9 Black Top $0
Interior Color AN Black Standard Leather $0
Performance 475 Porsche Active Suspension
Management (PASM)
$2,090
Wheels XRR 19" Carrera Sport Wheel Exclusive $2,385
Wheel Accessories XDA Wheels Painted in Black Exclusive $1,815
Interior 342 Multi-stage Heating System $525
P15 Electrically Adjustable Seats $1,550
XFJ Instrument Dials in Carrara White
Exclusive
$690
Interior Leather 844 Three-Spoke Multi-function Steering
Wheel
$615
Destination Charge
Amount $950
Vehicle price $74,750

knihc2008

iTrader: (1)

Went to the Porsche dealer the other day; they had a white-on-red Spyder and it was just gorgeous. Never really was a fan of the Boxster either til the Spyder; something about it just makes it so much more exciting and special. Probably the inherent inpractibility and the 7000$ interior leather package.

In other news, I also drove a Cayman and I used to be a Cayman hater but damn that car is fun

rdgdawg

So true... my 3rd config:

My configuration
Order no. Vehicle Prices*
987120 Cayman S $61,500
Individualisation
Category Order no. Individual equipment Prices*
Packages P4N Convenience Package $2,230
P4W Infotainment Package with BOSE® $3,640
Exterior Color B4 Carrara White $0
Interior Color AN Black Standard Leather $0
Performance 475 Porsche Active Suspension
Management (PASM)
$2,090
640 Sport Chrono Package Plus $960
Wheels XRR 19" Carrera Sport Wheel Exclusive $2,385
Wheel Accessories XDA Wheels Painted in Black Exclusive $1,815
Interior 342 Multi-stage Heating System $525
P15 Electrically Adjustable Seats $1,550
XFJ Instrument Dials in Carrara White
Exclusive
$690
Interior Leather 844 Three-Spoke Multi-function Steering
Wheel
$615
Destination Charge
Amount $950
Vehicle price $78,950

... and this happens to be my top choice of the 3 in this thread

gengar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp3t64t395g

Of course, I would also go with the Cayman.

mmarshall

A whole week of red-lining a 300 HP+ V6 past 7000 RPM and they still got 23 MPG? Sorry.....weight-reduction or not, I'm not quite sure I believe that one. They may have been honest when they filled up, but filling up on a surface that is not level, with a pump cutoff that pops too quickly, or with a questionable or defective gas-gauge/fuel-level sensor can all skew the reading somewhat...and in my long-term ownership experience, on-board trip computers are often optimistic by about 2 MPG or so.

IS-SV

Notes: It's not a V6. Obviously the whole week wasn't at redline to achieve that kind of mileage.