Re: C&D tests Boxster S with 6 speed at 0-60 in 4.4 seconds

With PDK launch, I imagine 4.2 would be possible.

[www.caranddriver.com]

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

"Push hard in corners, and you’ll find under-steer; lift abruptly off the throttle, and the front scrub becomes an easy-to-control four-wheel pirouette."

This is far from neutral and not good. My 2000 S under-steered a bit at the track and the word was add 2 pounds in the front tires each which made the car very very neutral. Same tire issue with the new ones or is it just more "safe"?

I changed the front tires from 205/50-17 to 225/45-17. The rears remain 255/40-17.

Porsche engineered tons of idiot-proof into the car.
It simply cannot go around turns as fast as possible with the stock setup. Its quite amazing - a huge difference.

I cant imagine any other reaction to a light lift than reduced under-steer, since this transfers weight to the front tires.

I drove this car on the track (981). Its pretty superb. Not even remotely interested in a new 70k toy, but its really nice.

Stiff, fast, balanced, tons of grip.

Of course they did not let me have enough fun to really get a good feel, but still.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2012 09:19PM by grant. (view changes)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2012 08:32AM by MikenOH. (view changes)

first time in white/blue, started a little slow, but by the end was mostly running with the pack, considering my power disadvantage vs 99% of the field.

Now i know what all the fuss about Watkins Glen is about. Wow. vertical! Camber! Tricky! Walls within 2 ft of the track everywhere (shiver)! Huge and fast! I'm sold.

here's a video:
(the usual place)

[youtu.be]

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Quote
Lawdevil & CURVN8R
With PDK launch, I imagine 4.2 would be possible.

[www.caranddriver.com]

Get out your stop watch and verify it, Mike! The writer must know you.

"The price starts at a reasonable $61,850, then rockets into outer space when you succumb to the options list."

I'm sure, for me, I would miss a manual much more often than I would wish for an automatic.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

I usually find the C&D road reports pretty good. This one just seems to have a lot of info that's more opinion or stuff that doesn't make sense.

One of their beafs is with the high price of the tested car compared to the competition. Load up an SLK or Z4 and you're going to be in the same price range as this loaded Boxster.

One that I don't understand is:
They include gearshift assist, which flashes an orange beacon when engine rpm crowds the redline, allowing you to keep eyes on the road rather than the tach,

..um where is that orange beacon located?

Over all, they seem to agree with the reports in general.

Ya shouldn't be too disappointed with your cars, Mike and Laz.

IMHO C&D has always been a cutesy car mag with a heavy dose of full of themselves while R & T used to be a fairly neutral and non-political mag. Unfortunately it seems most of the half dozen or so car mags I get each month now review the same cars and even have the same cars featured on the cover and as lead articles. The best place to get good information is a board like this!

With all these magazines you only read their real opinion. When they are discussing the reasons the new model. Is so much better than last year's. I noticed this years ago with motorcycle magazines.

A couple of points from the test sheet:

-They dropped the clutch at 5800 rpm to get this time-same technique as the PDK launch control?. C&D has always posted some of the most optimistic acceleration times on cars, going back to the 60's.
-3070 lb curb weight: I guess those options add the weight (like 200lb+)
-$85K sticker: I'd like to see that list of options--maybe a special color match that included some real gold?

Quote
MikenOH
A couple of points from the test sheet:

-They dropped the clutch at 5800 rpm to get this time-same technique as the PDK launch control?. C&D has always posted some of the most optimistic acceleration times on cars, going back to the 60's.
-3070 lb curb weight: I guess those options add the weight (like 200lb+)
-$85K sticker: I'd like to see that list of options--maybe a special color match that included some real gold?

Actually, it's not too difficult to configure an $85K Boxster. As near as I can tell from the description and the pictures, here's what I came up with on the configurator at $87K:





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2012 04:56PM by Guenter in Ontario. (view changes)

Very easy!!!! Although my config was a little different!

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

Looks like they charged twice for the adaptive sports seats (including seat ventilation) and the steering wheel. Those must be pretty fancy seats!

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

Oh, and speaking of jacking up the price: wood or carbon interior treatments, more etc, etc.
Not sure about wheel/tire weights: did somebody write that 20s can be lighter than 19s... ?

I think it works pretty well, but there are a LOT of different options and packages that do sometimes cause a conflict.

You can easily really jack up the price with things that aren't on the configurator. On the Canadian configurator, they show deviated stitching for the steering wheel at $1090. Can you imagine if you get the whole interior with deviated stitching?

When I was at the dealership once, they had a Speed Yellow Boxster with black full leather interior. It had the yellow instrument dials, yellow deviated stitching on the seats and steering wheel and yellow seatbelts. I don't recall the price, but can well imagine how that interior racked up the price. Gotta admit, it was a real attention getter. A lot of dough for show.

Quote
Lawdevil & CURVN8R
Looks like they charged twice for the adaptive sports seats (including seat ventilation) and the steering wheel. Those must be pretty fancy seats!

Good eye Mike. That was my bad.

I had to do some Photoshop to show all the items since they wouldn't all show at the same time and I pasted those in twice , but the total is correct.

Here it is fixed up.



Guenter
2014 Boxster S
GT Silver, 6 Speed Manual, Bi-Xenons, Sports Suspension (lowers car 20mm), Porsche Sports Exhaust, Porsche Torque Vectoring, Auto Climate control, heated and vented seats, 20" Carrera S Wheels, Pedro's TechNoWind, Sport Design steering wheel, Roll bars in GT Silver
[www.cyberdesignconcepts.com]

Out of curiousity about a month ago I tried to max out the web configurator. Two-tone full leather with deviating stitching, paint to order, ad almost infinitum.

and the accompanying tires. Possible unmentioned options, too: PTV adds 4.4 pounds PASM hardware; seat ventilation fans, etc, etc.