AutoWeek Magazine, September 2,1996
AutoWeek Magazine, September 2,1996
First Drive! Boxster Blast! Fit for a Title Bout
The Boxster, every inch a Porsche, is ready to win the battle of the two-seaters
by Greg Kable
Excerpts:
From the twist of the key, the new Boxster's mid-mounted flat-six engine rumbles with the authority of a Porsche. At idle there is a committed burble through the complex exhaust system.Step onto the floor-hinged throttle and the sound grown into a full-blooded wail as the tach quickly archs to the 6600-rpm redline. The is the moment we've waited for ever since Porsche chairman Wendelin Wiedeking lifted the padlocked cover from the Boxster concept car...
The Boxster is real. And it is a real Porsche...
...not even a sharp lifting of the throttle in a corner is enough to get the Boxster to hang its tail out more than momentarily, and then a little instinctive counter steer brings it back in line. This is a car that can be powered out of first gear hairpins without fear of some terrifying tail-led reprisal...
...As with most Porsches, the Boxster's brakes are astonishing...
...The engine, too, lives up to Porsche's reputation. It's not merely a reworked version of the 911's venerable flat six, but a new twin-cam unit developed from the ground up, as part of a costly modular engine program undertaken in 1992 by the Weissach R&D center...
...Close attention to airflow beneath the car has yielded a Cd figure of 0.31... To increase rear downforce at speed, an electronic spoiler deploys from the trailing edge of the trunk at 75 mph...
...For sheer driving enjoyment, the Boxster rises above the BMW Z3 and Mercedes SLK, and it retains the dynamic qualities you expect from a Porsche. Which is to say that this car looks, feels and sounds like a proper Porsche. It is enormous fun to drive. That's the real achievement. The Boxster is finally here, and it's for real.
