Here is an excellent review from my friend who shared the Spyder experience with me yesterday. Enjoy
Hi folks, I just got back from the PEC this evening, where I drove the 981 Spyder with Daro911.
Daro911 drove the Spyder first (on both road and track), and myself on the track later. My observations below are based on me driving the car on the PEC track, but after discussing with him he agreed it applied to his experience on the road too (specifically my comments on the suspension/chassis). Upon our return to London we drove his mint condition white PDK 987 spyder just north of the city for some kind of meaningful comparison. I have not driven a GTS so I cannot compare the two, nor have I driven a GT4 so I’m unable to see what the Spyder is missing. A PEC instructor I chatted to mentioned that the Spyder feels faster because it has less downforce and grip, which I thought was interesting. —————————————————— Steering —————————————————— I had wound myself up about electric steering from reading the forums, and took the opinions of those who say “it’s not a problem” with a pinch of salt. I was confident it would be a problem for me. I also dislike the electric steering in my leased M135i. As soon as I got in the car all I could focus on was the steering, and I’m relieved to report that I actually enjoyed it and the size of the steering wheel itself is just lovely. I also had a little buyers remorse over keeping the alcantara finish to the wheel and gear lever, but now having seen and tried it I like the feel of the material and am prepared to put the cleaning effort in! Being hyper critical and searching for faults for a moment, I’m not sure you could feel every nuance of the road (remember it was a smooth track, but you can still get an idea of the steering feel of a car of course) perhaps, but it honestly didn’t bother me at all and I didn't feel I short-changed. What I did notice was that the steering is lighter than the 987 spyder, more than noticing a reduction in feel. I am used to my Ferrari 360 which has feel-some yet light steering. While I regard Porsche steering feel to be some of the best out there, to me the Ferrari feels more raw than both the 987 and 981 Spyders. Steering feel is very important to me since it is something that you can enjoy at any speed, and yet I wasn’t missing anything from my drive today despite all the prior concerns. Whether I feel the same over time remains to be seen, but that was my initial reaction. My only criticism based on my experience today is that it could be 20% more weighty/heavy perhaps, but against my expectations it was not really a question of communication/feel. The best compliment I can give is that I was not left wondering about what the car was doing at all. —————————————————— Chassis/Suspension —————————————————— If I had to single out one thing that stood out for me, it was the chassis/suspension setup. This was definitely a big revelation, and probably applies to all 981s and not just the Spyder, so bear that in mind. The chassis was mind-blowing to say the least. It’s a massive leap forward from the 987. The car feels so much more solid and stiff than what has gone before. The 987 bobs up and down by comparison (even on surfaces that I would regard as quite smooth). It says “I have firm suspension!” where as the 981 just gets on with it beautifully and yet is still pleasantly firm. I had to check with Daro911 on this as I was wondering if it was just the smooth track surface that gave the 981 an advantage, but he confirmed it blew him away on normal roads too! Surprisingly, the 987 is possibly less compliant than my [link=tel:2001%20360]2001 360[/link] spider! Why any keen driver would bother speccing PASM even on a normal 981 Boxster, I’m not too sure when you can choose the communicative and compliant sports chassis. The ride didn’t seem harsh at all, yet the body roll feels non-existent — the car corners extremely flat. It’s just amazing. The game really has moved on a long way! I didn't note which tyres the car was running. —————————————————— Interior —————————————————— Getting back into the 987 the interior felt very dated to me. I never had any issue with the 987 interior, but coming back to these cars, you do notice the effect of time on the design. I liked the 981 interior but wasn’t a massive fan of the classic interior in the Spyder at the PEC. It’s not as bad as the photos might have you believe (the red is better and the slightly ill thought out red bit behind the seats isn’t as bad in real life as I thought it would be), but it’s not as classy as I would have hoped for from the early Porsche marketing shot. The big revelation for me regarding the interior was just how comfortable the bucket seats were. I left thinking my wife will be very happy in them, which is obviously good news for a happy life! I’m about 5’10” and they fitted me perfectly. I was worried I’d find them a lot less comfortable than my 360 spider’s daytona seats and those in my M135i. In terms of comfort they are better than the M135i seats by a long shot in my opinion. A pleasant surprise. We wanted to sit in the 918 seats in the GT4 for comparison, but by the time we had the chance the car was being detailed for some photography. I’ve no regrets in not speccing the 918 seats, as ultimately I found the tried and tested normal buckets comfortable and they can be heated of course. —————————————————— Gearbox/Engine —————————————————— My favourite gear-shift to date has actually been that of the MK1 MX5! This box is equally excellent - the best I’ve tried in a Porsche. Less notchy than my old short-shift equipped 987S, so no complaints at all here. Where as I seem to almost wrestle with my 360, at the same time very much enjoying the click-clack of the open-gate box, the Porsche shift is a well-engineered efficiently evolved German masterpiece. The electric handbrake is silly as Chris Harris pointed out years ago in his review of the standard 981, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it fast and forget about it. Perhaps the big question for those who’ve not driven a 981 manual (other than the steering) is about those gear ratios. Nearly every review has pointed out that they are too long. It didn’t bother me too much, but the engine seemed to come on cam around 4k RPM, and on the PEC circuit you do end up in 2nd gear a lot unless you’re a driving god with balls of steel. I think it was the EVO review that pointed out that you only really know you’ve got the 3.8 when you’re in the power band. This could be a very fair point, but I have no reference point (i.e. GTS) to confirm this. You certainly get a bit of a kick when entering the power-band which is a first for a Boxster! I would need to be on the road to decide how much of an issue the ratios are day to day. When I hopped in the PDK 987, equally I didn’t feel like it had much extra excitment in the gear ratio department, so make of that what you will. I can’t be conclusive, but I was driving the 981 with the ratios in mind and I didn’t feel it was a massive issue and I forgot about ratios when concentrating on driving. In conclusion, it’s just too early to say if it would get frustrating. What I will say is that the moments when the engine passed 4,000 or so were wonderful, and I wished there were more of them. That does suggest the ratios are too long, but then there is so little opportunity to open the engine up of *any* Porsche on the PEC circuit whenever I’ve been there. Ratios aside, I would definitely not want a PDK box in the car as for me it really takes away from the engagement with the car. —————————————————— Brakes —————————————————— I didn't get to push the car hard enough to really see how good the brakes were, but they seemed excellent from what I could tell. When I first applied them they bit harder than I expected, and then every application from then on was easy. I was expecting them to be over-assisted, but I didn't find this to be the case. —————————————————— Exhaust Note —————————————————— I had read on some German forums words to the effect of “the exhaust note is really loud/amazing/raucous - watch it through towns and villages” etc. Well, I’m sorry but it’s not that loud or raucous (maybe that’s good news for some). No one is going to think you are a hooligan. While my 360 has an unreasonably loud Challenge Stradale exhaust and 2 hungry extra cylinders over the Boxster (fed rather liberally by 5 valves), I don’t think the Spyder is a particularly loud car by any stretch. Modern cars obviously aren’t permitted to be too loud due to the evermore stringent European regulations in place. That said, I’m sure over the miles the exhaust sound will open up more as it beds in. I should caveat the above with the fact that on an open track there is less vertical surface for the sound to reflect off back to the driver, so on the road especially when driving on a good alpine pass in Europe or driving past buildings, the exhaust is definitely going to be louder. It’s not just about volume of course, but also tone, and it’s a great note. One of the best from a modern Porsche I think. An important consideration for me is that the pops and crackles are not annoying. Watching some videos of the GTS on YouTube, I thought the crackles sounded a bit samey and annoying
(like in this video [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS-QvzbDAqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS-QvzbDAqg[/link]). Some find them very synthetic. I didn’t feel this today driving the Spyder. Perhaps on the road you end up backing off the throttle more and hearing it all the time - I’m not sure, but sitting in the driving seat I liked the crackles surprisingly. I also loved the rev matching - you don’t have to have it on, afterall. My takeaway listening to all the cars on the track was that the GT3RS and Spyder sounded the best, with the 981 GTS a very close second. All modern Porsches sound overly bunged up/muffled to me, with cats/restrictions compared to my stone-age (but wonderful) 360 spider. The game is clearly up for less restricted properly fruity sounding exhausts! —————————————————— Looks/Build/Roof —————————————————— I thought the PEC demo car looked very bland in GT Silver. Daro911’s 987 Spyder looked more exciting in white. I still think the 981 looks better than the 987 personally, and am of the opinion that owners of the 987s are just attached to the looks, but in silver the 981 Spyder looked like “just another boxster with a funny roof” to me. I’m biased, but I’m glad I’m ordering it in a colour. It deserves a colour to avoid blending in with the rep-mobiles. White, red, or one of the PTS colours is going to look wonderful in my heavily biased opinion! Apart from the fact it is manual and therefore slower to operate, the roof on the 981 Spyder is fine, the only other noteworthy negative being that the rear boot feels flimsy and not very German at all. The roof was my biggest disappointment with the 987, and I left feeling that the 981 version is actually an every day car. This is a massive benefit for long touring around Europe (which I intend to do) and general usability in my opinion. The releases for the 2 “tent” bits of the roof are fiddly and hard to find/operate at first. The fact that you have to open the front of the roof to open the rear boot is poor design. —————————————————— Conclusions —————————————————— If I already owned a 987 Spyder, I would probably conclude it’s not worth the upgrade cost to upgrade to a 981. It never is worth upgrading most cars on a financial basis, though. I remember borrowing a 987 Spyder for 5 days and thinking it wasn’t 40k better than my 987S years ago, but leaving very impressed with the car nonetheless (bar the roof). I could have spent a few thousand on modifications for my 987/stripped weight out and saved money if arguing logically! Finances aside I would pick the 981 every time over a 987 Spyder without question. Today’s drive also cemented my decision not to sell the 360 spider - the only possible doubt for me being whether I will get to do enough miles in it to make it worth keeping, but I don’t need to decide yet. This is a seriously useable car and not just an occasional 2nd or 3rd car in my opinion. Ignore the marketing. The suspension is firm yet more compliant for road use than a 997 GT3, for example. Don’t be fooled by the fact it’s a Spyder - perhaps if it really is “just a GTS with a 3.8”, then this could be its biggest strength! The difference with this generation of Boxster/Cayman is that Porsche had already perfected the sports chassis before the launch of the Spyder, unlike with the 987, therefore the improvements are probably smaller by comparison I would think. In summary, after my short drive I left with the impression that the car is far more comfortable, refined and useable than I expected it to be, and at the same time extremely fast and enjoyable. I think life is too short to be in the wrong car on the right road, and this will be an incredible all rounder to own. If I could change one thing it would probably be the gear ratios, but it's too early to say if it's going to spoil the car for me. I think you’d have to be mad or rich (or both!) to own a 987 *and* a 981 Spyder. I couldn’t see the point as they are actually more similar than I expected (in a good way!) in terms of what you could want from the cars and what they deliver on, despite the observations I made. I went into today expecting to have a slightly empty feeling climbing into Daro911's 987 Spyder at the end of the day, but I didn't feel that way at all. Perhaps the real confirmation of how good the 981 drives is in Daro911's change of heart - he's decided to sell his 987 after the 981 drive impressed him so much!
