2017 Porsche 718 Boxster S Test Drive: Enter the New Turbocharged Era

Elevator story for the new 2017 Porsche 718 Boxster S is straightforward and has not changed much since my first meeting with the car. Gone is the naturally aspirated flat-six engine, replaced by a flat-four turbo that delivers 350 horsepower and a gusher of torque, 309 lb. ft. Porsche developed this engine in parallel with the flat-six bi-turbo of the new 911 Carrera. Both engines help Porsche meet the stringent regulations imposed by our friendly and ever-insightful bureaucrats at the EPA. Smaller engine, yes. Better fuel mileage, yes. But as one expects from an innovative company, Porsche has found a way to meet the laws while delivering a more potent vehicle. It’s faster and quicker than the outgoing Boxster S, most credit due to the engine and larger brakes, and in most respects 718 S matches the Boxster Spyder with its big 3.8-liter Carrera motor.

For all the performance gains, you trade away the sweet music of the flat six, replaced by a deep bellow from down in the guts of this steaming little teapot of an engine. Make no mistake, it howls, exciting to the blood in its own way: less romantic, more hard-edged, almost military in its seriousness.

In second, third or fourth gear with a full boot and revs climbing rapidly, the combination of startling acceleration and war whoop stimulates the viscera. For the best performance, you’ll want the Sport Chrono package, and set calibration to Sport Plus. At idle the flat-four has that same pucketah-pucketah rhythm of a Porsche 356 four cylinder of 50 or 60 years years ago, only updated, more subtle.

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Torque and a PDK semi-auto gearbox make 718 S easy to drive at a fast pace. Acceleration times approximate those of the one-year-only Boxster Spyder that is still my personal object of lust. It’s quick in a straight line, a performance measurable readily understood, and the healthy torque means it simply bursts out of corners. It comes out of corners in fine fashion because the chassis is still more than enough to handle the power–this chassis could easily handle another 75 horsepower, maybe even 100. It has the brakes off the outgoing 911 Carrera, and the substantial rear suspension brace from the Boxster Spyder. Add in the optional Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) and you have the best balanced and most capable Boxster chassis ever. Because it’s a mid-engine car, handling is predictable, requiring no major mental recalibration for a first-time Porsche buyer. Just guide the car with easy inputs. Start out driving slowly and within a few turns 718 S is cooking along, gliding with style. It responds to a gentle hand, gentle inputs. Mid-engine cars work so well with the laws of physics.

718 S has the highest quality interior ever in a Boxster, and I’d argue the best exterior design in the model’s 20-year history. The bodywork is handsome, a collection of deeply curved surfaces that look like someone flattened them with a hot iron, creating sharp creases and thus a sense of tensed skin over muscles.

The interior feels special because you sit so low, enveloped. It is also sensible in that typical Porsche way, with no over-the-top luxury elements. It’s refined and attractive, with nice materials, but the main design goal is a good driving environment. If too much is just enough, Porsche Exclusive can provide custom elements inside or out, though 911s and Panameras are the more typical subject for Exclusive modification. I’d opt for the red dash and door panels and call it an interior well done.

ABOVE: At the airfield for performance exercises.

I fit 718 Boxster S without trouble, and I’m six three. For people of median height, it’s downright roomy. Tall guys could not fit the original Boxster 20 years ago, and my own 2005 second-gen Boxster S was cut tight, with hardly an inch of leeway in any measure. 718 S is comfortable thanks to a longer wheelbase and wider cockpit, good for fast early morning pleasure drives as well as long-distance touring.

In my day at the wheel, 718 S gave testimony on the long runways of a decommissioned military airfield, with Porsche’s chief development driver, Matthias Hoffsuemmer, guiding us through a series of handling and acceleration exercises. With a Launch Control start as flawless as anything you’d get in a Corvette Z06, 718 S barreled down the concrete runway. It redlines at 7500 rpm, with shifts flawless and smooth. The car did not run out of breath. I backed out of the throttle 50 yards early to save needless wear on the brakes, but each time I topped out between 142 and 146 mph. As a source of power, the engine is a success.
On curving roads, one need not flog the engine to death at peak revs. The engine is happy to play in the upper reaches of the rev band any time. Yet it’s so torquey one can adopt a more relaxed approach and move nearly as quickly.

To anyone like myself who considers a sports car as much a musical instrument as a vehicle, well, trot down to your Porsche dealer and buy a Boxster Spyder with the naturally aspirated 3.8-liter Carrera engine before they leave production. This car signifies the end of an epoch, thanks to the meddling of the EPA. We will see more and more turbocharged sports cars with smaller-displacement engines and at least seven or eight gears that will deliver the fuel mileage and limited emissions demanded by government bureaucrats.

Having now flogged a 718 S over idyllic sports car roads, knifing along ridge-top roads barely a lane wide, I can say a sports car romantic will find much to love in the new 718 S. The engine sound is not operatic, but its roar stirs emotions when combined with bursts of acceleration from standstill or when coming out of corners. It’s sheer joy to bend it through a corner, the chassis able to put down all the power smoothly on exit. Perhaps most importantly for this Porsche model, most people can take the wheel and drive more quickly than they ever have before. My lovely attorney would no doubt enjoy a 718 S with PDK, and she’d walk away smiling.
Grudgingly, I say it’s the best one yet, alongside the current Boxster Spyder. And the new 3.0-liter Carrera engine can package in 718, which will lead to an exemplary Boxster Spyder in a few years.