2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder Review

The wind in your hair and the 911 in the heart. So you can define the 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder, fourth variant of the discovery of Zuffenhausen for the first voltanella his story houses in the hood the boxer's older sister and, thanks to the crash diet, offers performance, sensations and driving qualities worthy of a roadster sports car race.

A recipe that Cavallina German knows, since the days of the 550 Spyder of 1954 loved by James Dean, via the RS 718 of 1960 to the Bergspyder 60s and the 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder of 2010 of the previous generation, not to mention that flagships of Porsche cars have been increasingly discovered: the Carrera GT and the 918 Spyder are there to prove it.

It just happens to have the central engine just like the Boxster. So there is something of the Porsche Spyder in this most extreme, as the two humps on the hood and a dose of 911 ever so abundant, starting with the engine that is the 3.8-liter Carrera S, able to pull out 375 hp, that is 45 hp more than the GTS, but with a weight of 15 kg less than the Boxster 2.7 265 hp, purely and simply.

The key word is its "simplicity" by taking off the superfluous. What good navigation, audio and air conditioning to a car made to wander aimlessly in the snarl of the 6-cylinder boxer engine and air nor has in abundance? And what about the electric roof? Stuff from the waterfront, not a sports car. Better a manual soft top with lightweight structure (aluminum, steel, magnesium and plastic) that alone gives 10 kg and a different relationship with their roadster.

With the motorized roof, the discovery is ostentation, with the old way of the 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder the opening and closing the roof becomes an intimate gesture between the car and its driver, which is consumed in a place and time that belong only to their. So a deprivation becomes a form of exclusivity even more refined than that granted gadgets, a mutual donation without filters.

Even the pounds have a filter between the car and the road and, thanks to the ultra-thin carbon seats upholstered in Alcantara, the German roadster stop the scales at 1,315 kg for a weight / power ratio of 3.5 kg / hp. But it is not only the parameter of sportsmanship. Besides the engine, the brakes are one of the 911 Carrera S (optional carbon-ceramic system), the structure has been lowered 20 mm hardening springs and dampers, the wheel rims are 20 inch, the steering is now more direct and they were hardened engine mounts and front anti-roll bar, while the rear has been made a little 'softer to improve traction, thanks to the mechanical limited slip differential (22% shooting and 27% in release) and action selective brake caliper.

Measures completely similar to those of the Cayman GT4, and moreover also the front bumper with the taken increased is identical, with the exception of the lower lip, smaller to balance the absence of the large rear wing of which the coupe is provided. The German engineers are keen to stress that the GT4 is leaving the department Motorsport as the 911 GT3, the structure has electronically controlled and is ready for the runway.

Yet the old Nurburgring stopped the clock at 7'47 ", just 7 seconds from mid-engined sisters and declares 290 km / h with a 0-100 km / h in 4.5 seconds, thus better than a 911 Carrera. A figure that says a lot, but not all of the feelings that the 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder is able to give. The small steering wheel (360 mm diameter) does not even have a button and levers of change: hence the acronym PDK is prohibited, as relationships are 6 cylinders and grafts short and dry lever put the machine directly into the hands of the pilot, in a continuous succession of complicity and challenge.

The 6-boxer has thrust and sound exciting right from low revs, changing tone and gives everything to the 4,000 to 6,700 r / min, but it can stretch up to one notch from eight thousand, where the red marks the merger of the wind and the roar. A magic of the senses that is mixed with the effectiveness of the Spyder on the curves where we are going strong with ease, but whose limit - high! - It should be explored without hurry to reach it and by those who know their job. This is also exclusivity, for 30 units per year, to 83,084 euro.