First Drive Review
Porsche's Boxster and Boxster S have been heavy favorites around here since the first model was introduced in late 1996. It's been on our 10Best list five times, won three comparison tests, and is one of the most fought-over cars to ever grace our car board.
But the Boxster competes in the notoriously fickle sports-car genre, a segment that favors the freshest face or newest model. Not so this car. Boxster sales have only recently started to fall off as the cars have aged, and Porsche credits the Boxster with pulling the company out of its money-losing days of the early 1990s.
Power updates over the years have certainly helped. In 1999, the $51,430 250-hp Boxster S version debuted, a healthy bump from the original $41,605 201-hp base model. In 2000, the base car's 2.5-liter engine was enlarged to 2.7 liters, with the horsepower rising from 201 to 217.
Still, it's been six years of the same face, so when we flew to Rome for the 2003 Boxster introduction, we expected a major change. Guess again. The new model gets only minor bodywork changes and a few noteworthy mechanical revisions. Since there's been no big redesign, the prices will stay about the same, $43,365 for the Boxster and $52,365 for the Boxster S. We're willing to bet that Porsche's engineering resources were likely sucked up by the upcoming Cayenne sport-ute, a concept we're still lukewarm about. But that's another story.
Mechanically, the biggest change is the addition of Porsche's VarioCam variable-valve-timing mechanism. It's been installed on the intake cams of both the 2.7-liter and 3.2-liter engines. By optimizing valve timing a maximum of 40 degrees over the rpm band, VarioCam increases engine efficiency, yielding more power and a two-percent reduction in fuel consumption. The 2.7-liter engine now produces 225 horsepower at 6300 rpm (from 217 hp), and torque holds the line at 192 pound-feet. The 3.2-liter mill of the Boxster S has eight more ponies this year for a total of 258 at 6200 rpm. The base five-speed manual transmission, the S six-speed unit, and the five-speed automatic are all unchanged.
The base model got the lion's share of the suspension changes as the 2003 model inherits its springs and shocks from the 2002 Boxster S. That top-of-the-line model remains the same, save for a larger rear anti-roll bar. Brakes on both cars carry over from last year. Standard wheels on the base Boxster are now 17-inchers, but they are a total of 4.4 pounds lighter than the old 16-inch wheels. The S model now has 18-inch, five-spoke wheels that save 22.5 pounds over the base 17-inch wheels.
