Are Spyders Becoming Extinct At OPCs!
- Thread starter daro911
- Start date
Good news for Boxster owners!
[link=http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/ownership/the-top-25-slowest-depreciating-cars-of-2015/ss-BBnD5RR?ocid=MSN_UK_NL_MO35]http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/ownership/the-top-25-slowest-depreciating-cars-of-2015/ss-BBnD5RR?ocid=MSN_UK_NL_MO35[/link]
Sorry cant find a similar report for Spyder owners [8|]
[link=http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/ownership/the-top-25-slowest-depreciating-cars-of-2015/ss-BBnD5RR?ocid=MSN_UK_NL_MO35]http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/ownership/the-top-25-slowest-depreciating-cars-of-2015/ss-BBnD5RR?ocid=MSN_UK_NL_MO35[/link]
Sorry cant find a similar report for Spyder owners [8|]
Makes 5 of the best
[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-news/best-2015/top-gears-top-five-super-roadsters#1]http://www.topgear.com/ca...five-super-roadsters#1[/link]
The thermometer at Florence airport is nudging 43ºC, parts of the superstrada are literally dissolving and the air is so thick with heat you can almost see it. It’s so hot, in fact, that we briefly consider keeping the roof up on the [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/boxster]Boxster[/link] Spyder and turning on the aircon.
But that would be a criminal waste of this car’s USP. Not to mention that aircon is a (no-cost) option on the Spyder, it adds 9kg to its overall weight, and it’s a pointless hypothesis because our car doesn’t have it anyway. Roof off it is for the full Tuscan hairdryer.
Lowering the Spyder’s top is a refreshing bit of manual labour in a lazy-arsed world of instant gratification. The previous Spyder’s roof was more of an umbrella than a hood but,[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/find/make/porsche]Porsche being Porsche[/link], v2.0’s roof is almost as ingenious as the one on [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/s-2dr-pdk/first-drive-0]the latest 911 Targa[/link].
A button on the centre console releases it by the windscreen header, you get out – sorry about that, traffic-light extroverts – detach the end ‘fins’ on the rear lid and clip them into little apertures, open the rear deck, stow hood, close cover flaps… It’s a lot easier and faster than it sounds, and shaves 11kg off the regular Boxster’s set-up.
[blockquote]This latest Porsche is a thing of uncommon beauty
[/blockquote]It’s also the best way to appreciate the Spyder’s form. Like the city we’ve just arrived in, this latest Porsche is a thing of uncommon beauty. If you were being wilfully judgemental, it’d be tempting to write the Boxster Spyder off as the poser’s Porsche. Purists – of which there are many in Porscheworld – would steer clear of a rag-top in favour of [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/cayman/38-gt4-2dr/first-drive]the Cayman GT4[/link], a structurally superior ‘proper’ Porsche infused with motorsport magic.
On the other hand, rifle through your history books, and the debate about what constitutes a proper Porsche can send you up an interesting strasse. The Boxster Spyder references 1953’s minimalist masterpiece, the 550 Spyder, while the double bubble – streamliners, in Porsche parlance – behind the headrests is a nod to the Sixties 718 Spyder.
And when you stop scratching your classic car beard for a moment and squint a bit, there are shades of [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/918-spyder]918 Spyder[/link] to it. This is probably the prettiest car Porsche currently makes.
It may also be the sweetest all-rounder to drive. For some reason, the Spyder instantly feels more special than the regular Boxster. It’s also only available with a six-speed manual gearbox, so it’s a bit like plonking the needle down on a vinyl record as opposed to streaming or wrapping your ears around some horribly compressed MP3 file.
Porsche reckons that, following the Cayman GT4 and [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/gt3-rs-2dr-pdk/first-drive]911 GT3 RS[/link], 2015 is the year of the ‘rigorous’ Porsche. Analogue might be another way of putting it. About bloody time is a third.
The Spyder has certainly got the tools to do the job, though it’s worth pointing out that Porsche’s Motorsport arm has had nothing to do with it, and it contains none of their otherworldly unobtanium. Porsche has become adept at mixing and matching different bits from its vast armoury so, like the Cayman GT4, the Spyder uses the 3.8-litre direct injection six-cylinder from the 911 Carrera S.
In this guise, it produces 370bhp at 6,700rpm, 45 more than the Boxster GTS, and there are 44 more torques at 310lb ft overall. It’ll do 180mph – with the roof up – and accelerate to 62mph in 4.5 seconds. The combined fuel consumption figure is an impressive 28.5mpg, although use it like you mean it, and you can subtract at least 10 from that figure.
[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
[/link] [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
[/link] [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
[/link] [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
[/link] [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
[/link] The Spyder weighs 1,390kg, 30kg less than the GTS, and if you want aircon or an audio system, you have to raid the options list, as we’ve already noted. There’s rigour there, too, you see. There’s no PASM (Porsche’s electronic damping control), which saves another 5kg, and some of the sound-deadening has gone, saving the same again.
That swooping rear lid is made of aluminium, and the hood has an unheated polymer rear window. The seats are skinny carbon-shelled bucket jobs, and you open the doors using fabric straps rather than pointlessly over-engineered doorhandles. Why don’t all cars feel this good?
It’s equally dazzling to drive. The Spyder gets Porsche’s Sport Chrono package as standard, and has dynamic transmission mounts for extra stability as you fang through a corner. The rear wheels are wider (at 10.5in), it sits 20mm lower, and there’s a mechanical diff and torque-vectoring. The fully electric steering is borrowed from the 911 Turbo, and the Spyder turns in with more intensity than lesser Boxsters.
It also brakes with more ferocity: there are 340mm diameter front discs, and the overall set-up is borrowed from the 911 Carrera S. While all the control weights are sublime, the brakes are astonishingly well calibrated.
This is one of those cars that ‘thinks’ its way down the road, all the more keenly in Sport Plus mode. Yet again, that thought crosses your mind: what do these guys know that the others don’t?
[blockquote]The Boxster Spyder creates its own distinctive music
[/blockquote]The Spyder obviously majors on sensation. Nothing sounds like a Porsche, and while it doesn’t have the induction roar of a 911, the Boxster Spyder creates its own distinctive music. There’s a fantastic burble and crackle on the overrun from the exhaust, and the engine piles on the revs in a sonorous, addictive flow. You might want to cut that short by changing gear every now and then, because the (shorter) shift action is about as good as it gets. It even rides beautifully, too, 20in rims or not.
Turn all the electronics off and push really hard, and you can unstick it, but it’s so well balanced that any impending slidiness is well flagged up. Mid-engined cars always demand respect, but this one suffers fools more gladly than most. Anyway, there’s more fun to be had nibbling up close to the limit than overstepping it.
All in all, you’d need a mighty powerful microscope to detect any faults, but we’re not above nitpicking, so here goes. Depending on your interpretation of the classic Porsche Clubsport idiom, the Spyder could maybe use a little more rawness in the mix.
Our route through some spectacular scenery – as bakingly steamy as the Amazon rainforest – took in some cratered, unpredictably cambered roads, which it soaked up with impressive, passively damped nonchalance. So it’ll work on our rubbishy UK surfaces, but even so, it could be a bit less… polite.
Those same roads exposed just about the only other flaw: its gearing is too tall. On tight up- and downhill Italian mountain roads, we spent an awfully long time in second. At least with the PDK you can flick quickly and accurately up and down the ’box. Do that in the manual, and it seems like wasted effort.
But that’s enough whingeing. The Boxster Spyder is, by all the measures that matter most, magnificent. At £60,459, before options, it’s also a used low-mileage Golf GTI more than an entry-level Boxster. Sheesh. You’d have to really want one.
Yet if its predecessor is any guide, the Spyder is likely to be a rewarding investment, and not just an emotional one. Porsche only made 2,000 of those, and they’re appreciating assets. There’s no word on the production run this time out, but although this isn’t a limited-series car, it’ll remain a rare sight.
Besides, when everyone’s tooling about in autonomous EVs in 30 years’ time and downloading Taylor Swift’s 35th ‘song cycle’ directly to their cerebrum, it will also be a reminder of what a truly brilliant driver’s car really feels like.
[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-news/best-2015/top-gears-top-five-super-roadsters#1]http://www.topgear.com/ca...five-super-roadsters#1[/link]
The thermometer at Florence airport is nudging 43ºC, parts of the superstrada are literally dissolving and the air is so thick with heat you can almost see it. It’s so hot, in fact, that we briefly consider keeping the roof up on the [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/boxster]Boxster[/link] Spyder and turning on the aircon.
But that would be a criminal waste of this car’s USP. Not to mention that aircon is a (no-cost) option on the Spyder, it adds 9kg to its overall weight, and it’s a pointless hypothesis because our car doesn’t have it anyway. Roof off it is for the full Tuscan hairdryer.
Lowering the Spyder’s top is a refreshing bit of manual labour in a lazy-arsed world of instant gratification. The previous Spyder’s roof was more of an umbrella than a hood but,[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/find/make/porsche]Porsche being Porsche[/link], v2.0’s roof is almost as ingenious as the one on [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/s-2dr-pdk/first-drive-0]the latest 911 Targa[/link].
A button on the centre console releases it by the windscreen header, you get out – sorry about that, traffic-light extroverts – detach the end ‘fins’ on the rear lid and clip them into little apertures, open the rear deck, stow hood, close cover flaps… It’s a lot easier and faster than it sounds, and shaves 11kg off the regular Boxster’s set-up.
[blockquote]This latest Porsche is a thing of uncommon beauty
[/blockquote]It’s also the best way to appreciate the Spyder’s form. Like the city we’ve just arrived in, this latest Porsche is a thing of uncommon beauty. If you were being wilfully judgemental, it’d be tempting to write the Boxster Spyder off as the poser’s Porsche. Purists – of which there are many in Porscheworld – would steer clear of a rag-top in favour of [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/cayman/38-gt4-2dr/first-drive]the Cayman GT4[/link], a structurally superior ‘proper’ Porsche infused with motorsport magic.
On the other hand, rifle through your history books, and the debate about what constitutes a proper Porsche can send you up an interesting strasse. The Boxster Spyder references 1953’s minimalist masterpiece, the 550 Spyder, while the double bubble – streamliners, in Porsche parlance – behind the headrests is a nod to the Sixties 718 Spyder.
And when you stop scratching your classic car beard for a moment and squint a bit, there are shades of [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/918-spyder]918 Spyder[/link] to it. This is probably the prettiest car Porsche currently makes.
It may also be the sweetest all-rounder to drive. For some reason, the Spyder instantly feels more special than the regular Boxster. It’s also only available with a six-speed manual gearbox, so it’s a bit like plonking the needle down on a vinyl record as opposed to streaming or wrapping your ears around some horribly compressed MP3 file.
Porsche reckons that, following the Cayman GT4 and [link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/porsche/gt3-rs-2dr-pdk/first-drive]911 GT3 RS[/link], 2015 is the year of the ‘rigorous’ Porsche. Analogue might be another way of putting it. About bloody time is a third.
The Spyder has certainly got the tools to do the job, though it’s worth pointing out that Porsche’s Motorsport arm has had nothing to do with it, and it contains none of their otherworldly unobtanium. Porsche has become adept at mixing and matching different bits from its vast armoury so, like the Cayman GT4, the Spyder uses the 3.8-litre direct injection six-cylinder from the 911 Carrera S.
In this guise, it produces 370bhp at 6,700rpm, 45 more than the Boxster GTS, and there are 44 more torques at 310lb ft overall. It’ll do 180mph – with the roof up – and accelerate to 62mph in 4.5 seconds. The combined fuel consumption figure is an impressive 28.5mpg, although use it like you mean it, and you can subtract at least 10 from that figure.
[link=http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/boxster-spyder/first-drive]
That swooping rear lid is made of aluminium, and the hood has an unheated polymer rear window. The seats are skinny carbon-shelled bucket jobs, and you open the doors using fabric straps rather than pointlessly over-engineered doorhandles. Why don’t all cars feel this good?
It’s equally dazzling to drive. The Spyder gets Porsche’s Sport Chrono package as standard, and has dynamic transmission mounts for extra stability as you fang through a corner. The rear wheels are wider (at 10.5in), it sits 20mm lower, and there’s a mechanical diff and torque-vectoring. The fully electric steering is borrowed from the 911 Turbo, and the Spyder turns in with more intensity than lesser Boxsters.
It also brakes with more ferocity: there are 340mm diameter front discs, and the overall set-up is borrowed from the 911 Carrera S. While all the control weights are sublime, the brakes are astonishingly well calibrated.
This is one of those cars that ‘thinks’ its way down the road, all the more keenly in Sport Plus mode. Yet again, that thought crosses your mind: what do these guys know that the others don’t?
[blockquote]The Boxster Spyder creates its own distinctive music
[/blockquote]The Spyder obviously majors on sensation. Nothing sounds like a Porsche, and while it doesn’t have the induction roar of a 911, the Boxster Spyder creates its own distinctive music. There’s a fantastic burble and crackle on the overrun from the exhaust, and the engine piles on the revs in a sonorous, addictive flow. You might want to cut that short by changing gear every now and then, because the (shorter) shift action is about as good as it gets. It even rides beautifully, too, 20in rims or not.
Turn all the electronics off and push really hard, and you can unstick it, but it’s so well balanced that any impending slidiness is well flagged up. Mid-engined cars always demand respect, but this one suffers fools more gladly than most. Anyway, there’s more fun to be had nibbling up close to the limit than overstepping it.
All in all, you’d need a mighty powerful microscope to detect any faults, but we’re not above nitpicking, so here goes. Depending on your interpretation of the classic Porsche Clubsport idiom, the Spyder could maybe use a little more rawness in the mix.
Our route through some spectacular scenery – as bakingly steamy as the Amazon rainforest – took in some cratered, unpredictably cambered roads, which it soaked up with impressive, passively damped nonchalance. So it’ll work on our rubbishy UK surfaces, but even so, it could be a bit less… polite.
Those same roads exposed just about the only other flaw: its gearing is too tall. On tight up- and downhill Italian mountain roads, we spent an awfully long time in second. At least with the PDK you can flick quickly and accurately up and down the ’box. Do that in the manual, and it seems like wasted effort.
But that’s enough whingeing. The Boxster Spyder is, by all the measures that matter most, magnificent. At £60,459, before options, it’s also a used low-mileage Golf GTI more than an entry-level Boxster. Sheesh. You’d have to really want one.
Yet if its predecessor is any guide, the Spyder is likely to be a rewarding investment, and not just an emotional one. Porsche only made 2,000 of those, and they’re appreciating assets. There’s no word on the production run this time out, but although this isn’t a limited-series car, it’ll remain a rare sight.
Besides, when everyone’s tooling about in autonomous EVs in 30 years’ time and downloading Taylor Swift’s 35th ‘song cycle’ directly to their cerebrum, it will also be a reminder of what a truly brilliant driver’s car really feels like.
philnotts99
Member
Boxster7 said:Hi Phil
I'm collecting her tomorrow, so will report back then.
But I have paid just under £1300 for the full treatment.
If you go onto his website he's got a tool that produces a quote for the various options available.
She's looking good though []
Just wondering how you are finding the film a few days on? Would you recommend?
Thanks,
Phil
Well I've given the car some stick over the last few days, Sunday's drive over Dartmoor was a little bit rougher than I planned !!
So today was the first proper wash (using my new buckets, mitts and shampoo from Santa) since I collected her.
Washing is definately easier as the water just falls off the paintwork.
Plus the film seems to be doing the job as couldn't spot any chips.
But the light was fading by the time I finished and now she is tucked away in the garage as Frank approaches !!
You really can't see the film is there unless you are really taking a very close up look.
Overall I'm very pleased I went this route, if nothing else, it easy my worries as I'm pushing on []
Will try and and post some close up pics when Frank has moved on.....
So today was the first proper wash (using my new buckets, mitts and shampoo from Santa) since I collected her.
Washing is definately easier as the water just falls off the paintwork.
Plus the film seems to be doing the job as couldn't spot any chips.
But the light was fading by the time I finished and now she is tucked away in the garage as Frank approaches !!
You really can't see the film is there unless you are really taking a very close up look.
Overall I'm very pleased I went this route, if nothing else, it easy my worries as I'm pushing on [
]Will try and and post some close up pics when Frank has moved on.....
Just found this on the internet. I'd guess about £8k over list? I like the Agate Grey but the black wheels to me look terrible and the interior is too dark.
Might sell quicker if they stop describing it as an RS60 Spyder!
[link=http://www.hippoprestige.co.uk/vehicle-used-details/Porsche-Boxster-U10219/]http://www.hippoprestige....orsche-Boxster-U10219/[/link]
Might sell quicker if they stop describing it as an RS60 Spyder!
[link=http://www.hippoprestige.co.uk/vehicle-used-details/Porsche-Boxster-U10219/]http://www.hippoprestige....orsche-Boxster-U10219/[/link]
philnotts99
Member
Agree about the black alloys... Nice spec though.
[link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/new-cars/porsche-boxster-spyder-my-best-car-2015]http://www.autocar.co.uk/...pyder-my-best-car-2015[/link]
I drove the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/boxster-spyder]Spyder[/link] in Italy on its international launch earlier this year and liked it. It was fast and sonorous, a little bit gristly - in a good way - and looked fantastic.
I said so at the time, but honestly, by the time our Handling Day shootout came around, the memory of it was overshadowed by the extraordinary nature of its first cousin, the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/cayman-gt4]Cayman GT4[/link], which came with downforce at both ends and all manner of trick chassis items.
The Boxster doesn’t get these. It’s on the same suspension as the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/cayman-gts]GTS[/link], albeit with a beefed-up anti-roll bar. It also doesn’t have the convenience of a roof or even a button that provides one. The switch on the centre console merely unlatches the hood; you do all the fiddly manual labour yourself. But it does have the same 3.8-litre flat six plundered from the 911, and with 370bhp and 310lb ft, it’s easily the most powerful Boxster yet.
It wasn’t until last month, though, and a convertible group test to the Isle of Skye, that the combination really took hold. Somewhere between Keswick and Loch Lomond, somewhere deserted and dramatic, the Spyder hunkered down, opened its lungs and blew me away.
Not because it’s very quick or loud or stirring - although it is - but because every single individual thing it does feels as though it’s in total mechanical harmony with everything else it’s doing. Driving it is like listening to Dire Straits: as if the melody were coming from an impeccable solitary source rather than four or five fallible blokes.
And because of that, because the steering, the ride, the handling, the engine, the gearbox and the noise are all so spectacularly perfect, the experience came with a distinctly bittersweet edge. And that’s because next year, of course, Porsche will reach into the Boxster and carefully remove some of its soul.
I’ve no doubt its replacement, the turbocharged four-pot [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/2016-porsche-718-boxster-first-ride]718[/link], will be brilliant, but that didn’t stop the Spyder feeling like something of a swansong; especially with the flat-six chatter bouncing back at me from the rocks on Applecross. Best car of the year? Well, let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t have exchanged it at that moment for anything else in the world.
I drove the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/boxster-spyder]Spyder[/link] in Italy on its international launch earlier this year and liked it. It was fast and sonorous, a little bit gristly - in a good way - and looked fantastic.
I said so at the time, but honestly, by the time our Handling Day shootout came around, the memory of it was overshadowed by the extraordinary nature of its first cousin, the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/cayman-gt4]Cayman GT4[/link], which came with downforce at both ends and all manner of trick chassis items.
The Boxster doesn’t get these. It’s on the same suspension as the [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/porsche/cayman-gts]GTS[/link], albeit with a beefed-up anti-roll bar. It also doesn’t have the convenience of a roof or even a button that provides one. The switch on the centre console merely unlatches the hood; you do all the fiddly manual labour yourself. But it does have the same 3.8-litre flat six plundered from the 911, and with 370bhp and 310lb ft, it’s easily the most powerful Boxster yet.
It wasn’t until last month, though, and a convertible group test to the Isle of Skye, that the combination really took hold. Somewhere between Keswick and Loch Lomond, somewhere deserted and dramatic, the Spyder hunkered down, opened its lungs and blew me away.
Not because it’s very quick or loud or stirring - although it is - but because every single individual thing it does feels as though it’s in total mechanical harmony with everything else it’s doing. Driving it is like listening to Dire Straits: as if the melody were coming from an impeccable solitary source rather than four or five fallible blokes.
And because of that, because the steering, the ride, the handling, the engine, the gearbox and the noise are all so spectacularly perfect, the experience came with a distinctly bittersweet edge. And that’s because next year, of course, Porsche will reach into the Boxster and carefully remove some of its soul.
I’ve no doubt its replacement, the turbocharged four-pot [link=http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/2016-porsche-718-boxster-first-ride]718[/link], will be brilliant, but that didn’t stop the Spyder feeling like something of a swansong; especially with the flat-six chatter bouncing back at me from the rocks on Applecross. Best car of the year? Well, let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t have exchanged it at that moment for anything else in the world.
philnotts99
Member
What are the dates for the classic?
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