-
The weather was not great during my days with the new 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS, so you will only see the photos of Porsche here.
Porsche
-
Beauty is subjective, but personally I do not like the appearance of the 718 from behind almost as much as from the front.
Porsche
-
When Porsche attaches the GTS label to a car, it means it’s a little more performance-oriented than a normal Porsche, but a little less hardcore than a GT2 / GT3 / GT4.
Porsche
-
These single-piece bucket seats hold your stuff in place. but it would not be my first choice unless I intended to spend most of my GTS riding time on the track. Especially if it costs $ 5,900 extra!
-
Normal sports seats are also available.
Porsche
-
While we were complaining about options, I absolutely hated the 20-inch alloy wheels over our GTS test.
Porsche
-
Again, other wheels are available, and these look very good.
-
The red tachometer may not be to everyone’s taste either.
Porsche
-
A good sound comes from these pipes.
Porsche
Accidentally planning two different appointments for the same time frame is probably something we have all done at least once or twice. In my case, it means wrong to book a few test cars for the same week last year. And they could not have been different cars anymore. I’ve already written about the Toyota Venza – it’s an attractive and efficient hybrid crossover that fascinated me much more than I expected after driving from DC to New York State and back. I was expecting good things from this week’s other car – a 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS – but it also outperformed.
The 718 Boxster is the entry point in the Porsche sports car range, but the $ 88,900 GTS is no entry level. It sits almost at the top of the tree, between the cheaper, more mundane 718 Boxster S and the more expensive 718 Spyder, a car with which it shares an engine, which in this case is a 4.0-liter flat six, ‘ an engine that makes Porsche nerds a little weak on the knees.
Most of Porsche’s power units have worked to turbocharge over the past few years – including the lesser variants of the 718 – but not this four-liter clump, which remains determined by nature. Installed in the GTS, it makes 394 hp (294 kW), 20 hp less than in the stripped-down Spyder. (Both GTS and Spyder make an identical 309 lb / ft / 420Nm). Although the engine in the GTS is not as exciting as in the Spyder, it is not far – the torque peak is between 5,000 and 6,500 rpm, and the peak power is 7,000 rpm, with a 7,800 rpm to invoke time. about things.
Porsche’s engineers have a lot of expertise adapting the six engines, and their tricks include a twin-mass flywheel, forged high-strength steel crankshaft, a large main bearing, piezo-controlled direct fuel injection and a variable intake system. which increases the torque by changing the frequency of the air pulses carried by the cylinders. There is also the deactivation of the cylinder for low-speed low-load situations, which eliminates the spark from one of the two resorts of the cylinders to increase the fuel efficiency. (In this mode, the engine will be rotated from cylinder banks every 20 seconds so that it does not just become the same cylinders that are deactivated each time.)
The fact that the GTS driver is focused on the driver is the fact that the standard gearbox is a six-speed manual gearbox, with Porsche’s PDK dual-clutch automatic as an option. Our test car arrived with three pedals in the driver’s footwell, and the gearbox is pleasant to use. The operation of the shift mechanism is smooth and direct, and there is a turn-matching function that lowers the throttle at downward shifting (which can be deactivated if you want to move alone on heel and toe).
As you would expect, fuel efficiency is not the first priority of the GTS, even if the stop-and-cylinder deactivation is. The promise of 24mpg (9.8l / 100km) on the highway was one reason for choosing the Venza for the long, boring ride.
The lack of customizable cruise control also went into my decision – it’s available as an option, but it’s one that Porsche did not add for the protester we were driving. And you can also add the lightweight bucket seats from one piece to the list. It was fantastic to keep me in place during a merry ride before dawn, but I find it can be a little too narrow for my shoulders, and the lack of filling is counted against them in the context of a ride of 13 hours. Considering that the bucket seats cost $ 5,900, this seems like an option you should only choose if you plan to spend a lot of time with your GTS on track days.
Boxster fans lamented that the two-seater converter was left behind by Porsche’s iconic, naturally aspiring flat sixes for turbocharged flat fours when the 718 debuted in 2016. capable sports car. But then it also applies to the Boxster Spyder. The car’s MSRP may be $ 7,400 more expensive, but the difference can disappear pretty quickly if you start ticking a box on Porsche’s option list, and the Spyder gets some unique pieces like a lightweight folding roof that only enhances the drama. . For those who can afford it too, it should be a nice dilemma.
List by Porsche