Our Porsche Boxster GTS 4.0 was the perfect everyday sports car – until someone crashed into it

Thump. It took me a moment to realise what had happened. I was just pulling away onto a roundabout after waiting for traffic to clear when I suddenly felt a hefty clout at the back of our Boxster GTS long-term test car; I’d been hit by a car behind.

The other driver was very apologetic: they’d been looking to the right to check the roundabout was clear, kept up momentum, and didn’t look ahead to see me until it was too late.

Apart from a nasty hole punched in the rear bumper, the Porsche was perfectly driveable, and apart from a damaged front bumper, so was the other driver’s SUV. I took down their details, we went our separate ways and I drove the Boxster carefully home in case there was any unseen damage.

Porsche GB arranged collection for the car to go into their workshop for inspection while I filled out the requisite insurance forms and drew the best artist’s impression I could in the ‘So what happened here then?’ box.

The impact was to the right-hand side of Boxster’s tail. I’d been keeping my fingers crossed that damage was limited to the rear bumper and diffuser, but with the engine and exhaust system towards the rear I feared complications; although the car sounded and felt fine on the drive back. We’re awaiting a damage report from Porsche but the latest we’ve heard is that there’s a chance there may be some chassis damage, so sadly the GTS is likely to be off the road for at least another month while checks and repairs continue.

Prior to the accident, a good few miles had been put on the Boxster on a trip up to the North York Moors, exploring some of the beautiful driving roads in God’s Own Country. Although the seven-speed PDK gearbox the Boxster comes with as standard is brilliantly smooth and snappy, and doesn’t detract overly from the driving experience, I’m really glad this car has the no-cost-option manual. It puts you far more in touch with the GTS’s delicious 4-litre flat-six, and I find myself more inclined to enjoy its full sweep of revs than I would with a pair of paddles behind the wheel. 

The extra power and a little more torque from the bigger engine make the long ratios less of an issue than in lesser 718s, and the short-throw shift itself is so tactile I sometimes find myself changing gear just for the sake of it. There is one drawback: the clutch pedal has a long travel, and I need to set the seat a little closer to the wheel than I’d ideally like in order to get the pedal all the way down comfortably. In a PDK car, I’d be able to sit a little more naturally. I’ve got relatively long legs too, so it must be really annoying for shorter drivers.

This story was first featured in evo issue 333.