Boxster and Cayman are dead – Porsche’s sweet-spot sports cars axed

It’s been a long time coming but the 718 Porsche Cayman and Boxster have finally been dropped from Porsche’s price lists and configurator. No new orders are being taken, though existing orders will be fulfilled, with the final examples expected to be delivered before March next year. 

Truthfully, they were on borrowed time - remember they were supposed to die in 2024 because of changing cybersecurity regulations? But that doesn’t lessen the blow. The Boxster specifically was the car that saved Porsche on its arrival in the late 1990s. The electric 718s are arguably lumbered with a similar task come their arrival within the next 18 months. We’ll see how that goes…

The departing small sports car pair have been serving in 718 form since their introduction in 2016, with the basic platform they were developed from dating back 13 years to the 981 Boxster and Cayman of 2012. Those original 981s were received with mixed emotions. A more grown-up design outside and in did the most to shake the ‘hairdresser’s Porsche’ and ‘poor man’s 911’ stigma the uninitiated lumbered them with. 

But to drive they were a moment of transition, away from feelsome hydraulically assisted steering, with comparatively numb EPAS taking its place. Still, they were deftly executed, lightweight driving devices with sound platforms, balance that was the envy of 911 drivers and always, those sweet six-cylinder engines singing just behind you, conducted via a manual transmission (or PDK dual-clutch). 

GTS models with more powerful versions of the 3.4-litre DFI engine and heinously crackly exhausts were introduced in 2014 before the a zenith moment, the 981 Cayman GT4, was introduced in 2015. Here was a proper Porsche Motorsport prepared Cayman – the car we all thought Porsche would never make, for fear it’d overshadow the 911. 

It duly did, winning evo Car of the Year in 2016 and just about every group test we threw it at. GT3-inspired beefier front suspension componentry, a breathed-on 911 Carrera engine and Preuninger-honed steering and damping were just a few of the magical tools in the GT4’s belt alongside its engorged aero addenda. A Boxster Spyder evolved out of the Cayman GT4, albeit going without the front end changes the GT4 got from the GT3.

We look upon the 718s fondly now but it’s curious that their 2016 introduction was probably the lowest point in the Cayman and Boxster’s history, following the high of the original GT4. Sat alongside the glorious 911 R at that year’s Geneva Motor Show, they shirked singing six-cylinder power in favour of gruff, sterile flat-four turbocharged engines. 

It wasn’t long before the second-generation Cayman GT4 and Boxster Spyder (the latter now with the upgraded front suspension) introduced a new 4-litre flat-six. The engine was based on the 992 Carrera’s 3-litre turbocharged engine, minus the snails and with an extra litre of capacity. It trickled down into the GTS 4.0 twins in 2020 to create arguably the ultimate road-focused Cayman and Boxster offering – not as sharp or richly rewarding as the GT4s but so sweet as do-it-all sports cars for the road.

Then came the GT4 RS and Spyder RS. The promise of a proper Porsche Motorsport, circa 500bhp, 9000rpm flat-six amid a 718’s diminutive frame was all too tantalising, especially given the yowl of the intake noise from that initial Nürburgring lap reveal video.

The reality, in the GT4 RS at least, was a car that was a bit too extreme for the road. It couldn’t settle down and unbelievably channelled too much of its induction bark into the cabin, to headache-inducing effect. It was an awesome, awe-inspiring car all the same - perfection on the right road in the right conditions - that we’re infinitely grateful came into being. It just came on a little too strong on eCoty 2022 and was a little too frenetic on the cold, wet, autumnal roads of the Scottish Borders, to zing home with the win.

Porsche Motorsport more than learned from this and came back with the impossibly configurable, road usable, eCoty-winning form of 2023’s 992 GT3 RS. The Spyder RS righted some of the GT4 RS’s wrongs too – a softer, more compliant car, albeit one that still couldn’t be had with a manual gearbox. That really would have been peak car.

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More or less consistently, 718s (and the 981s that preceded them) have served as the benchmark for the segment and to this day are the cars to beat. Few, if any, ever managed it, though the Alpine A110 in its earliest years stole the show for that 48-month moment when non-GT 718s were stuck without a flat-six.

In the end, both the 981 and 718 brought immeasurable change and pushed the boundaries beyond our imaginations after years of Porsche letting the Cayman and Boxster ride the bench while the 911 got all the best treatment. 

Yet in their final months, after an extra year on sale, they’re a part of the furniture. As the 911 got larger, heavier, more digitised and distant in feel, it quietly became more and more obvious just what the Caymans and Boxsters were all along; the very thing Porsche always feared – better sports cars than their iconic bigger brother. That’s how they go out. That’s how we’ll remember them.