Chris Harris Thinks The New Boxster Had a “Personality Transplant”

And he doesn’t think it’s a good thing. By now, we all know that the 718 Boxster switched from a normally aspirated flat-six to a turbo charged flat-four. On paper the new Boxster is better in almost every way than its predecessor. It’s faster zero to 60, faster zero to 100 and faster overall with a top speed of 177 MPH. As Chris says, “that’s seriously fast.”

But driving a Porsche isn’t all about speed. It’s also about the feel and the experience and that’s where Chris begins to question the new Boxster. Admittedly he knows that Porsche has made the Boxster better, the chassis is “more alive with the extra torque”, “the suspension is firmer” and the “throttle response is brilliant”. But and as Chris says, “it’s a big but”, the new car is “inert” or even a “bit blunt”.

He attributes almost all these problems to the exhaust note or “noise” that the turbo powered engine produces. This claim is nothing new. We felt the same way when we first test drove the new Boxster last year. However, knowing Porsche, and knowing how much effort they put into the perfect exhaust note, my guess is we’ll see this improved in the very near future.