A legendary name from Porsche’s back catalogue is back. Say hello to the Boxster Spyder, a modern day incarnation of the firm’s speedster body-style.
Porsche is keen to big up the car’s lightweight characteristics, the Spyder dropping 80kg from the conventional Boxster S roadster it’s based on. At 1275kg, though, it still weighs more than twice that of its distant 550 Spyder ancestor.
It’s the lightest current Porsche on sale, however, and with a 316bhp 3.4-litre flat-six engine (10bhp up on the Boxster S) sitting in the middle it should be plenty quick enough. It does the 0-62mph dash in 4.8sec, nearly half a second quicker than the S, and hits 166mph.
The latter’s only with the roof off, mind. We wouldn’t advise trying it with the canvas top on, as even Porsche comes close to admitting it’s a bit of a token effort. They say, for instance, that the Spyder ‘has been developed first and foremost for driving in the open air’. Looking closely at the roof-up picture, it certainly doesn’t look the most snug or secure solution to sealing a car.
As well as the obvious, there are further tweaks to distance the Spyder from its Boxster siblings, including sharper sports suspension to suit its more purist attitude.
The Porsche Boxster Spyder will be unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show in December, with sales following in February 2010. Expect a UK price of around £45,000, with the company’s PDK twin-clutch gearbox on the options list. The Spyder is not a limited-run special edition, but will be built to order, Porsche anticipating low production numbers to reflect the car’s specialist nature.
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