For Porsche, the new 718 Boxster has barely had any time between announcement and release- especially rare considering most of their products are known about and hyped up nearly a year before launch. Earlier in the year, they announced that they would be reviving the 718- a mid-engine, flat-four convertible that saw some success in racing during the 1960s. It’s more likely that they saw the similarities between the Boxster facelift and the 718, and decided to capitalize on that racing heritage.
The 718 Boxster follows on from Porsche’s decision to turbocharge the majority of the 911 range. No company has managed to stay abreast of the wave of downsizing-and-turbocharging; it’s the only way to meet stringent emission laws without compromising performance, which is especially important for a sports car brand. At this point, virtually every Porsche model, save for the GT3 and GT4 models, is turbocharged.
The powerplants in play for the Boxster and Boxster S are 2.0-litre and 2.5 litre flat-four engines, respectively. The Boxster has a good 295 bhp and just under 380 Nm of torque from 1950 rpm to 4500 rpm- which is a whopping figure from a 2.0-litre flat-four motor. Taking it a step further, the Boxster S runs with 345 bhp and 420 Nm of torque- effectively closing the gap between it and the naturally aspirated 911s of before. These new turbocharged motors offer more power and more torque across a broader rev range, making for a more effective, usable sports car.
The Sport Chrono package has always seemed a little pointless in Porsche’s product options unless you were hard up on going to the track, but this time around it offers something slightly more interesting. We’ve always heard about transient overboost with turbocharged cars, which basically allow brief periods of higher torque output when you operate them at full throttle. This time, Porsche isn’t tying the overboost function to the pedal, but rather they’ve created a “Sport Response” button- much like a push-to-pass system on a rallycross car. It sits on the same steering control used to alternate between Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus.
Aesthetically the changes aren’t quite nearly as obvious. There are new headlights and tail lights, as well as a darker accent across the rear of the car which further emphasises the large PORSCHE badge. To be fair, the current generation Boxster already looked fantastic, and perhaps messing with that recipe wouldn’t have been the best idea. On the mechanical side is the standard fare for a facelift- better steering response, changes to the PASM, and so on and so forth- but we’re eager to get our hands on one and see what it can do.
