Porsche Boxster S 2008 Review

Denigrators of the Porsche Boxster S will be inclined to ask how the big Beetle goes.

They refer to the fact Germany's Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Volkswagen, or “people's car,” for Hitler before moving on to less controversial pastures, postwar, when Porsche cars became noticeable on German autobahns.

It is true the first Porsche cars looked very much like a tarted-up VW Beetle and both the Boxsters and 911s still display their genetic base in their looks.

But the Boxster S is to a VW Beetle as an FA-18 is to a Cessna 150.

The S is a bit of a worry for a road tester. At the redline, 7000rpm, in third gear with three more to go, it is going fast enough to get you an instant off-the-road dangerous driving ticket. And it sticks to the road, even in the wet, like a limpet on a rock.

In other words if you want to find its limits, or anything near them, you will have to take it on to a racetrack or find a deserted road out the back of Nerang. As if you were on a racetrack. 

There are any number of cars in similar vein but the Porsche Boxster S, with its transverse engine situated just behind you, howls to be let loose. In fact it howls when it is let loose and you get all that induction noise and exhaust beat in your ear.

And the moment you get in, the game is given away by the optional sports wheel.

Here is a device used solely for its original purpose, to steer the car. There are no stereo controls, no cruise controls, no shift paddles. Just a steering wheel.

Then the placement of the pedals also tells a story. The accelerator is set high enough off the floor for easy heel-and-toeing as you come, post haste, into a corner with the ball of the foot on the brake pedal and the heel on the accelerator.

But that is not to say this car is purely a racetrack machine. The variable induction manifold combined with the variable valve timing and lift means at low revs, 1200rpm or so, the flat-six is still very tractable. It pulls well, almost irrespective of the gear selected, and unless you have redlined it a couple of times you have no idea just what a snarling tiger resides behind your shoulder.

The seats reinforce the impression of a performance car. As one passenger said, you feel like you're going fast just sitting in the stationary car with backside only millimetres from the ground and stiff bolsters planting you firmly in the middle of the seat.

Porsche clearly had in mind lithe, agile, youthful, contortionists rather than fat old geezers when they designed the car. Seatbelts can be almost impossible to find without dislocating the spine, and sliding down into the driver's seat with the top up is a far easier proposition than squeezing in with it down.

The soft top flies in the face of trendier hard top convertibles but it works well. Release the locking lever above the rear vision mirror and, providing you are not doing more than 50km/h, the top comes up or goes down in about 20 seconds with a touch of the button in the central divider. And it is the massive, low-profile run-flat tyres that generate the vast majority of the cabin noise rather than any wind noise coming from, or through, the soft top. The Boxster S gains from the fact it was designed as a convertible and the body was suitably stiff right from the start rather than ending up as a reinforced chassis chasing torsional stiffness.

Turbulence in the cabin, with the top down, is almost negligible thanks to a reasonably high windscreen, low seats and a glass partition between the built-in roll bars.

Brakes, at first, are less than impressive. A fair amount of pedal pressure is needed but as speeds and use increases they come into their own. The clutch pedal is on the heavy rather than light side but, given the power and torque being transmitted, that is hardly surprising.

Dash is mainly analogue apart from some digital displays including a handy large size readout of current speed which is hard to determine from the smallish speedo which reads up to 300km/h.

Dominating the dash is a large analogue rev counter. Once again, given the nature of the beast, it's not unexpected.

Cabin is black soft plastic dash and carpets with black leather seats, and aluminium bits and bobs. Pedals are alloy-faced, gear lever knob is large and solid, and the six-speed gearbox can only be described as a delight to use.

The steering is power assisted but heavy and is not keen to self-centre after full-lock turns.

While it is heavy, this becomes reassuring as speeds increase.

The most annoying thing about the S was the Porsche sound system with Bose speakers. The system has intelligent volume control. It is supposed to lift the volume as cabin noise increases and lower it as speed and noise decreases.

But it could not make up its mind, often boosting volume as the car came to a halt at traffic lights.

Driver and passenger are surrounded by airbags (head, side, thorax and front).

In keeping with the best German tradition you can virtually double the price of your Boxster with an all-encompassing list of options, not least of which is ceramic disc brakes and fully electric seats.

Comfort is a bit subjective in this car. Rough roads will give you a rough ride and those 40 per cent profile run flats are as unforgiving as a spurned wife.

But then who buys a Porsche Boxster S for comfort? Performance is what it is about and that's what the S delivers.

The price of a standard Boxster S is $134,600.

Options fitted to the Test Car were:

19-inch Carrera Sport alloy wheels $6340; aluminium finish for gear knob and handbrake $2790; Bose high-end sound system $1990; metallic paint $1890; sports seats $1690; Porsche Park Assist $1090.

Price as tested: $150,390.

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PORSCHE BOXSTER S

Price: $150,390 (as tested)

Engine: A masterpiece. Tractable and with good torque down low and a delight to hear when at 7000rpm.

Transmission: Clutch is a little on the heavy side but manageable and six-speed box is a slick changer.

Economy: Not its strong point but it can be driven with conservation in mind. Flog it and you'll pay at the bowser

Handling: Exemplary. A little understeer or oversteer can be provoked even with the PSM system in an overseer role but it corners tenaciously even when the surface is wet.

Safety: It has all the electronic whizz-bangs such as ABS and stability control as well as airbags all over the shop.

Ride: Harsh and unforgiving but that's the other side of the excellent handling coin.

Brakes: The harder they are worked the better they like it.

Value: Two-year-old standard S models sell for about $115,000 so retained value appears to be reasonable.

Body: Soft-top convertible, two-door, two-seat roadster; aluminium hardtop available as an option.

Engine: 3387cc flat six-cylinder aluminium engine with four overhead camshafts; four valves a cylinder; variable valve timing and lift, switching intake manifold; electronic engine management for ignition and fuel injection; sequential multipoint fuel injection, bore x stroke (mm): 96 x 78; compression 11.1:1

Power: 217kW @ 6250 rpm.

Torque: 340Nm @ 4400-6000rpm.

Fuel: 64 litres, PULP 98 octane, city 15.3L/100km, rural 7.8L/100km; combined 10.6L/100km (claimed); 11.8L/100km (as tested).

Transmission: six-speed manual.

Suspension: Front and rear axle with spring struts (optimised by Porsche) with spring strut-guided wheels suspended independently on track control and longitudinal arms; spring struts with inner damper; twin-sleeve gas pressure dampers.

Brakes: Twin-circuit brake system with one circuit on the front; one circuit on the rear wheels; four-piston aluminium monobloc brake calipers; cross-drilled, inner-vented brake discs measuring 318mm x 28 mm (front) 299 x 24 mm (rear).

Safety: Porsche Stability Management including ABS, EBD etc.

Wheels and tyres: front 8J x 19, 235/40 ZR 19, rear 9 J x 19 265/40 ZR 19.

Weight: 1355kg.

Dimensions (mm): 4329 (l) 1801 (w) 1292 (h) 2415 (w'base).

Top speed: 272km/h 0-100km/h 5.4sec; 0-160km/h 11.8sec.

CO2 emissions: 254g/km.

Verdict:

For: Exhilarating performance, tenacious handling.

Against: Insuring it, getting in and out.

Boxster history

1996 The first Boxster (986) was built in late 1996 as a 1997 model, the first year they were sold. It had a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre flat six-cylinder engine producing 150kW.

2000 The first Boxster S appeared with a 3.2-litre engine.

2005 A restyled Boxster (987) appears.

2007 Boxster and Boxster S get new powerplants originally used in the Cayman series. Boxster engine out to 2.7 litres and S engine grows to 3.4 litres. Engine powering the S now produces 220kW.

The Porsche Boxster name derives from its “box”er engine, an engine in which the pistons travel horizontally rather than vertically and road”ster,” the name given to a two-door convertible.