Hoffman Porsche

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Walk Around

The Boxster, one-half-inch longer for 2009, is shaped by stylists with a gentle hand, reverence for the past, guided by the laws of physics and aerodynamics. Every shape, aperture, appendage and piece of hardware is there for a reason, and the profile is designed more around airflow management than absolute minimum drag. Adapted etail cues run the gamut from the 550 Spyder of 50 years ago to the Carrera GT of roughly five years ago.

New light elements place the headlights, signals, and fog lamps in an ovoid housing. Laid atop the front side grilles are LED daytime running lamps, with thin white LED light pipes that serve as parking lights. Both front and rear signals now use an amber bulb and clear lens. The small chrome turrets up front are headlight washers and these, and many other items like air vent slats inside and out, may be painted to match.

Boxster S retains the dual round tailpipe setup while the standard Boxster pipe is nearly rectangular. New tail lights appear to add more curve to the sheetmetal hips over the rear tires, and the automatic rear spoiler can be overridden to lift for cleaning.

Discounting custom orders there are still more than 700 permutations among paint, top color, and wheel style. Further individualization is easy with myriad detail finishes, paints and trims so the coincidence rate seeing two Boxsters exactly alike is very low.

As elegant as the shape is your enthusiast friends will be just as intrigued by the aerodynamics and component artistry underneath, with air directed for cooling and stability.

To save weight, the Boxster uses aluminum hoods and does not come with a spare tire. There is an air compressor and tire sealant; if you destroy a tire and can borrow another one, your tire-less wheel will fit in the front trunk. Standard tire-pressure monitors should help warn drivers before a situation becomes dire. Additionally a mast radio antenna may be ordered in place of the in-windshield antenna.

Interior

2009 Porsche Boxster

As on the outside, the cabin has been updated for 2009 but did not get wholesale changes. It's all about the drive and driver here, that's why both cupholders are ahead of the passenger.

Seats and major controls are upholstered in leather, Alcantara, or a combination. Vinyl and plastic surfaces don't feel or appear cheap, the carpeting runs usefully up the sides of the console and doors, and everything is put together indicative of the car's solidity. If you choose carbon fiber, aluminum, or wood trim, that's what it is.

The seats are supportive and comfortable, with power adjustments, memory (you will not want anyone else to drive), heating and cooling available, broadening the top-down weather window considerably. Taller drivers may appreciate the extra cushion adjustments afforded with power seats. The backrests fold forward for access to coat hooks and everything that dropped out of your pockets. Your driving style, central body dimensions and available roads will determine any sport seat upgrade, but between the door and console you aren't going far even on roller-coaster roads.

As always the tachometer is dead center, the analog instruments easily read day or night thanks to neutral backgrounds and crisp red needles. A speedometer to the left covers 0-190 mph in the space of an iPod display but can be shown digitally for those regions that enforce in 1 mph increments. This same screen calls up all manner of trip computer, sport chrono and other data, parts of it fading to red for immediate awareness. A numbered coolant temperature and fuel gauges are to the right, and on cars with PDK, the gear engaged adjacent the tachometer.

The steering wheel is manual tilt and telescope, and unless you option up, has only a horn button (and shifters on PDK). Unlike most cars either shift button is pulled toward you for downshifts and pushed away for upshifts, the same directions the floor shifter uses. If you're used to a + right and ? left system, or gear lever that uses forward for downshift (BMW, Mazda) your acclimation time will increase but you will acclimate. It is unlikely you will need to shift if the wheel's turned so far you can't use the paddles; the console shifter always works. Both shifter and handbrake are well-placed, and the floor-hinged gas pedal eases heel-and-toe shifting.

The key goes in left of the steering column, remembering the days of LeMans starts where drivers had to run across the track, get in, fire their cars and engage first gear, then roar off hoping to get buckled up before the first corner or crash.

The Sport Chrono package puts a big stopwatch atop the dash, controlled through the tach display menu. Below the vents are all the controls not found on steering column stalks: Climate, audio, chassis systems, etc. Multiple sound systems are topped by a Bose system that keeps up even with an open top, but that six-channel petroleum-powered sound system right behind you still has the last word in sonic amusement.

Porsche Communication Management is otherwise known as the navigation/infotainment center, and offers an electronic logbook for saving trip data; there is a SIM card slot on the face of it. It is a DVD-based system and though the mass of white-on-black buttons may seem initially daunting it is quick to master. Climate controls are simple and the tiny cabin volume quickly heated or cooled.

Small items and coins may be stored aft of the console-mounted handbrake; optional audio inputs are here too. A glovebox holds little more than documentation and pockets inside the door armrests handle keys, sunglasses, and portable electronics.

Larger items go in his-and-hers trunks, one each end. Up front a deep well that might just hold your carry-on roller bag or groceries stacked with bottles on the bottom. The back cargo area is a wider, shallower expanse roughly 32x18x8 inches. The two cargo areas offer 5.3 and 4.6 cubic feet, better than anything we know of in this category. Trunk space is unaffected by top position, unlike many others, and despite the proximity to coolers and the engine, internal temperatures measured only 10-15 degrees above the 90 F ambient.

Once the single release handle is twisted the electric top can be lowered or raised in about 10 seconds at speeds to about 30 mph so you can start the process slowing for a light or stop sign. The top is well-insulated, even in black does not feel like you're wearing a dark ball cap on a sunny day, and the glass rear window has electric defrost.

Conversations can be carried at 70 mph top down, though better with the side glass up in busy surroundings. A removable clear panel between the headrests (the windstop) cuts down on internal buffeting a bit; one is already well-ensconced in a Boxster. If you really don't like the wind, or get a lot of snow, there is a factory Boxster aluminum hardtop option and, of course, the factory hardtop Porsche Cayman.

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