2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder

 Porsche Perfection

Ever since the Boxter launched 19 years ago, wags have derided Porsche for not fitting the mid-engined car with a 911-grade powerplant, suggesting that the company is afraid to one-up the centerpiece of its lineup. Even Zuffenhausen’s most starry-eyed apologists have lamented the decision time and again. And it’s worth noting that while the House of Ferry trots out the 550 Spyder to tout the Boxster/Cayman’s heritage, the James Dean Deathwagen and its successors—718 RSK, RS60, W-RS, et al—were high-performance racing machines, while the rear-engined 356 stood as the car for the sporting masses.

Yet the engine is still not as powerful as it is in the 911. Porsche blames the shorter intake manifold required to make the motor fit in a mid-engined application for cutting output from 400 to 375 horsepower. As an engineer said to us in a seeming attempt to absolve Weissach of any responsibility for the power cut, “It detunes itself!” Compared with the Cayman GT4, which shares its engine with the Spyder, the Boxster is not quite as track-oriented. Whereas the GT4 receives the 911 GT3’s front suspension minus the center-lock hubs, the Spyder, essentially, is a Boxster GTS with extra displacement, foofy bodywork, and nylon-strap interior door pulls. The GT4, as is Porsche’s way with its mid-engined hardtops, is rated 10 horsepower higher than the big-bore Boxster. The message? The GT4 is the racier one.
The last iteration of the Boxster Spyder featured a fussy, skeletal flibbertigibbet of a roof. The new car’s top is simpler, although it still retains a measure of fiddliness, mainly having to do with the maddening, hidden buttons that release the canvas buttresses from their moorings. It also features a power latch operated by a console-mounted button, which somehow serves to undermine the otherwise-manual unit’s purity. We can’t help thinking that Porsche would’ve done better to ape the honest, magical simplicity of the Mazda Miata’s roof.
When stowed, the top is hidden by a large, be-flared aluminum tonneau. The revised rear visually thickens the Spyder and makes the car’s appearance exceptionally color-dependent. In Racing Yellow, the effect works. In silver, the Spyder resembles a stuffy, slab-sided ingot. In Guards Red, the vibe gets a little regrettable as in, “Ach! Fancy Jürgen took his Boxster to ze Pep Jungen!” Because the Spyder trades the GT4’s sizable wing for a stunted ducktail, the front splitter has been shortened slightly to maintain an equitable distribution of downforce.