Tag: Spyder

One last car without a fixed roof. Moving ahead 50 years from the 356C Cabriolet I featured over the weekend we come to possibly the best of Porsche’s open-top machines. From my first glimpse I immediately loved the new design of the 981 Boxster and Cayman when each debuted. While I’d generally liked the Cayman from its inception I cannot say the same of the Boxster. I was fine with it, but I can’t say it ever really wowed me. That feeling remained fairly constant throughout its first 15 years of production until the 981. Porsche finally seemed to have gotten things right. This new design struck the right balance between aggressive styling and elegant looks. It’s a modern Porsche so it shouldn’t be too shouty, but it also should make clear its sporting aspirations.

Like with the Cayman GT4, Porsche also allowed the Boxster to borrow a 3.8 liter flat-six engine from the 911 for the Boxster Spyder. Gone are much of the Boxster’s criticisms about a general lack of performance. 375 horsepower tends to help with that. So does a well-balanced mid-engine chassis with the power directed to the rear. The Boxster always has had a pretty good chassis. Now it had a complementary engine.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder at Euroclassics Porsche

I write-up a lot of Porsches, but very rarely post about the Boxster. And most of those very infrequent examples are of the Boxster Spyder. So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that this Boxster post also is a Spyder.

Given that I actually am a big fan of the roadster genre it’s a little strange that I don’t feature the Boxster more often. After all, I own a 2-seat convertible and I love it. These are cars that tend to be light and nimble, almost always rear-wheel drive and with a manual transmission. And while they rarely have been the most powerful cars on the market there’s typically enough power on tap to get some serious enjoyment out of it.

The Boxster, being a Porsche, has long been one of the more luxurious roadsters on the market. It’s also suffered seemingly endless criticism for basically being not as good as a 911. Whether it was the nature of the car or simply a function of purposeful decision-making by those at Porsche, the early models probably could have been sportier. Over time those criticisms either have dwindled as the Boxster was made a better and more powerful car or they shifted to the Cayman where the “not as good as a 911” remarks make more sense.

The Spyder, released by Porsche for the 2011 model year, sought to solve most of the criticisms through the tried-and-true performance method: remove weight (a 176 pound reduction) and add power (up to 320 hp, 10 more than the Boxster S). In a roadster this is an especially important formula since the entire experience was to center on no frills sporting from the outset. The Spyder does that very well.

Here we have one of the rarely seen color options: a Guards Red 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder, located in Texas, with 50,391 miles on it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder on eBay

The Porsche Boxster has been with us for nearly twenty years now and while it initially was derided as being somewhat soft Porsche gradually applied corrections and enhancements, most notably releasing the Boxster S, and at this point the Boxster makes for an excellent open-top performer. Even still the Boxster has never really been Porsche’s go to performance car. Much of that has been reserved, quite naturally, for the 911, but also for the Cayman, which debuted around half way through the Boxster’s current life. The Boxster has first and foremost been a roadster. Following along in that tradition the release of the Boxster Spyder was long overdue. The traditional roadster was meant to be a relatively simple machine. Granted, with the passage of time that formula has shifted toward higher degrees of refinement, but there remains within the ethos of any open-top two-seater that basic sense of sacrificing practicality in the name of oneness between driver, machine, and environment. In that manner, in producing the Spyder Porsche scrapped more than 100 pounds from the Boxster S through a variety of weight saving measures, most visibly through the sacrifice of the standard convertible top for what really is little more than a sun shade. Additional savings were found through aluminum doors and lighter wheels along with a host of deletions from the interior, including the use of carbon-fiber sport seats. All together we are left with one of the lightest cars in the Porsche lineup, but still with plenty of power to compliment that lighter weight. The example we see here is a Carrera White 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder, located in Texas, with Red leather interior and 10,244 miles on it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder on eBay