First Drive: 2013 Porsche Boxster S

Porsche’s sports car on a budget now has the looks to match the experience – A month ago, in a brief moment of pique, I rang the guys at Porsche for a moan. This is a joke, isn’t it, this email about a launch event that takes place over a whole weekend? What about the list of jobs I have to get my old Lotus ready for the good weather? Let alone all those things my wife has lined up for me in the yard.

No, it wasn’t a joke. Someone had to take the weekend rotation, and I was in that group of a dozen journalists so chosen. The next bit I said silently to myself. Stop being so bloody complacent, Burgess. This is a drive of a brand new Porsche, based in Saint Tropez in the South of France, holiday home of movie stars. The transfer from Nice to the hotel was by helicopter. And we get to drive on the historic route of the Monte Carlo Rally. OK, I’ll accept the invite. Just remember, let the Chinese take this slot next time.

Now the Boxster is at the lower end of the scale when it comes to Teamspeed cars. Yet as a Porsche it has the spurs to be considered alongside exotica higher up the scale. You may disagree, but, well, there’s no easy way to say this. You are wrong.

This 2012 model may just convince the skeptics, while those who already acknowledge the virtues of past Boxsters can start drooling now. One glance is enough to tell you this is not another facelift, but a genuine new model. The cockpit has been moved forward, the windscreen raked back, the wheelbase extended and the interior quality moved up several steps in one go.

From any angle it looks more purposeful. Take just a couple of details. Those air vents at the side are deeper slashes with racecar-like scoops forward in the doors. The rear spoiler has changed from a rather feeble pop-up ducktail to a proper wing. Open it looks more purposeful, closed it cleverly integrates into the rear light cluster.

The body is lighter, tougher, stiffer. More aluminum and more boron steel creates a structure that’s 40% more torsionally rigid. Which means no shakes or rattles roof up or down. It feels like a proper job.

Performance
Both Boxster and Boxster S have direct injection engines. That’s new for the smaller engined Boxster, which is now 2.7-litres but with 265hp, 10hp up on last year. The 3.4 Boxster S is the same engine as earlier with another 5hp. Hardly worth the trouble, you might argue, but hey, we mustn’t risk frightening 911 drivers and we’ve also made the S use less fuel.

We grab a Boxster S with the six-speed manual box and head out to the hills behind Saint Tropez, through the Gorges du Verdon, along roads that formed part of the historic Monte Carlo Rally and finally along the Route Napoleon.

The Porsche is in its element. Maximizing use of the revs – it will now stretch to 7,800rpm – gets the Boxster S cracking along at such a pace it’s hard the image a 911 making much extra ground. Impressively there’s more torque too, so those corners that you start taking in second gear are actually little slower in fourth.

Which makes the Boxster S a very easy car to drive quickly. And yet there are times when a bit more of a thump in the back when overtaking would be nice, as would a raspier exhaust note. The clutch on the manual six-speed transmission is heavy too.

We trade-in our manual car for an S with the seven-speed PDK transmission. I am one increasingly small group of drivers who reckon their Porsche should have a stick shift, but it’s easy to see the attraction of PDK. The paddle shifts are brilliant and with the full Sport Chromo option the throttle response, suspension stiffness and steering weight can all be modified via the center console.

Sport Plus is a track-orientated setting that seems simply too aggressive for road use, but Sport is a delight, changing the downshift pattern when you are driving hard and generally making the driver seem more accomplished than the passenger might ever have guessed. The PDK Boxster is a touch quicker and greener than the manual car too.

Handling
You’d expect a mid-engined Porsche to handle well, but it’s the ride that initially impresses. Sure, the optional PASM active suspension automatically adjusts the damping according to the circumstances, but this Porsche feels smooth and remarkably comfortably in all conditions.

The one area of contention is the steering. Like the new 911, there has been a shift to electro-mechanical power steering. This is not down to fuel savings – there is only a minimal improvement – but because focus groups said they wanted it to be less weighty.

Now a key ingredient of every Porsche, since the very first, has been the quality of the steering, notably its precision and the driver feedback. Porsche messes with that at its peril.

The new system isn’t as good. Oh, it’s probably the best electro-mechanical power steering yet fitted to a sports car, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the last Boxster was more tactile in this area.

You really could feel every little nuance of the road surface. Now you can’t. Does this really matter? Perhaps to ten per cent of the Porsche drivers it does, but as a business proposition Porsche can now sell Boxsters to SLK drivers. And volume counts.

On the roads beyond Saint Tropez, open sweeps and closed twists, the Boxster S simply destroys the ground at a breathtaking rate. Being more compact than the new 911 counts here, even though there are a few extra centimeters on the length of the car.

The Boxster’s wheelbase is more noticeably longer – 60 mm– which by rights should make it a touch less agile, but you’d never tell. Instead the stability, grip and balance, plus, yes, the accuracy of the steering, ensures the Boxster remains a delight on the right roads.

Interior
Inside the Boxster has been as radically altered as the exterior. Overtones of the 911 and Panamera exist with a high-level console between the seats and an electric parking brake. It’s the makeover that the junior Porsche was crying out for. The clumpy satnav screen, and dated buttons and air vents have gone, replaced by items that look like they have been designed in the 21st century.

Seat comfort is as good as ever, though the ‘sports plus’ seats are a useful option to specify. Luggage space is class leading, as ever. The roof now does its tricks in just nine seconds, fully automatically, Porsche having dispensed with the cover when the roof is fully open.

All in the sake of lightness. The new car should be some 50kg heavier than before, but in fact it’s 30kg lighter on average. Lots of aluminum and high-tech metals are the answer. The Boxster is also forty per cent stiffer, and it feels remarkably rigid even on the worst roads.

Verdict
Nothing I have said here is going to convince a 911 owner to move into a Boxster, I guess. The 911 has the extra power and that counts far more in the US than it does one the tighter roads of Europe.

Yet no roadster fan should lightly dismiss the small mid-engined Porsche. It is an absolute delight, great to drive, supremely well balanced and now jaw-droopingly good looking. Funny steering or not, Porsche still rules the roost with the Boxster.