Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 Fast Fleet test – living with the flat-six drop-top

Funny what a difference 2 psi can make. The Boxster felt very tail-happy in its first few days on test (which in fairness coincided with some pretty grotty weather), and more so than the Fast Fleet BMW Z4 on the same roads in the same conditions. Checking the pressures, all four tyres were just a touch low. Bumping them up has made a noticeable difference since.

Mind you, while traction and braking performance are always reassuring, I’m not sure the Boxster’s Pirelli P Zeros develop quite as much lateral grip as rival tyres. The P Zero-shod 911 Carrera GTS we ran last year was similar: plenty of stick for stop and go but less under load through a corner. But the Boxster’s handling is beautiful: loads of feel and feedback, and eminently controllable when it does lose grip. Mid-engined cars can be tricky but the Boxster is relatively viceless. Time seems to slow down in this car; somehow you’ve always got time, space and options, like an action movie star turning on their heel in a ‘bullet-time’ sequence.

> Best Porsches – from Boxster GTS to Carrera GT and everything in between

There is a slightly woollier edge to its handling and feedback than in the fixed-head Cayman equivalent: losing the roof means losing a little bit of sharpness to the steering’s response and the chassis’ predictability. Compared with still-clear memories I have of driving the Cayman GTS 4.0, the Boxster doesn’t quite have the same final few degrees of ultimate precision. But it’s still truly superb. For me, this is one of the best-handling cars on sale today. It’s easy enough to drive that it flatters you, but to drive it smoothly and precisely still demands concentration, and it gives you back what you put in.

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As Ian Eveleigh has found with our Z4, driving in winter with the roof down is an engaging sensory experience – the taste of the cold air, the feeling of being a part of the elements as you pass through the frost-tinged landscape, and the sense that you’re somehow being adventurous and hardy by driving around with the roof down. (In both cars, with the artificial but welcome safety net of being able to stick the roof up again by pressing a button if you get a bit cold, rather than pulling over and faffing about with a manual hood.) Since the weather’s been so foul recently, I’ll be honest and admit I’ve been keeping the roof up most of the time of late.

There’s much more luggage space than in most convertibles, too. The Cayman in theory has a little more boot space since there’s a bit of extra storage above the engine bay, but the Boxster still has both the deep 150-litre front boot and a 122-litre boot at the back, big enough for two decent-sized bags (maybe three with a bit of squashing) on its own. It’s a genuinely practical car, and although I haven’t attempted any tip runs yet, I also haven’t felt short of space.

On the evidence so far, this is a convertible two-seater you really can live with and use in nearly every situation, nearly all of the time – even in the murkiest of weathers.

This story was first featured in evo issue 332.