Short Take Road Test
Running in opposition to the logic that governs the rest of the automotive world, Porsche charges nearly $3500 more for a hardtop Cayman S than a ragtop Boxster S. Presumably with its myriad electronic servos and labor-intensive clothtop, a convertible Boxster is more expensive to build than a fixed-roof Cayman. When the Cayman S launched last year, we weakly justified to ourselves that the price increase at least bought more power as the Cayman S's 3.4-liter flat-six had 15 more horsepower and 15 more pound-feet of torque than the Boxster S's 3.2-liter. But now we have no defense for the Cayman costing more, because for 2007 both Boxster models share their engines with their Cayman counterparts.
Hidden within the new Boxster S's midsection is the same 295-hp, 3.4-liter flat-six that powered the Cayman S last year and the 911 series until 2002. Okay, it's not exactly the same as the 911-spec engine as the 911 had a higher compression ratio (11.3:1 versus the Boxster's 11.0:1). That bump in compression is likely the reason the old 911 engine made 300 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque as opposed to the Boxster S's 295 horsepower and 251 pound-feet of torque. For most of you we're delving a bit too deeply into the esoteric world of Porsche minutiae (hey, were those pistons made by Mahle?), but that amendment likely saved us a bunch of angry e-mails from Porsche pundits.
With that out of the way we can tell you the larger engine does indeed make a difference in the Boxster S, but the difference would probably be noticeable only to someone who owned the 280-hp Boxster S. We'd be willing to subject ourselves to driving blindfolded to see if we could really tell the difference, but Porsche's loan agreement specifically forbids driving its cars while having impaired vision. In lieu of driving blind we'll have to fall back on the numbers provided by our test equipment.
Our 2007 Boxster S ran from 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 13.4 seconds at 107 mph. Not surprisingly, those numbers are right on top of a Cayman S's as well as a 996-series 911's. The best we've gotten from last year's Boxster S is 5.1 seconds to 60 mph and 13.6 at 103 mph in the quarter-mile. No big deal? Maybe, but in the rolling-start 5-to-60-mph run, the superior midrange power of the larger-displacement engine makes itself known by knocking a half-second off the old Boxster S's time (5.4 seconds versus 5.9 seconds). And we ran our 2007 Boxster S all the way up to a drag-limited 169 mph, 4 mph higher than the last Boxster S we tested. Pulling power from 2000 rpm upward subjectively feels stronger, and 30-to-50-mph and 50-to-70-mph times are slightly improved over those of the smaller six. Another subjective difference is a slightly more baritone exhaust note.
Porsche was wise enough to leave the rest of the Boxster S alone, so the tactile delights that are the Boxster's steering, brakes, and handling all remain undisturbed and as pure as they've ever been. The only change we could gripe about is the $800 price increase for the 2007 Boxster S, but $800 doesn't even really register to the Porsche faithful who over the years have grown accustomed to paying extra for everything from floor mats to the privilege of being able to buy a Club Sport Porsche without a radio and a passenger's-side sun visor. Yes, that $800 pill should be easy to swallow considering the Cayman S still costs almost $3500 more.
