The Yardstick Roadster

Porsche 718 Boxster S

- Kenny Yeo

If you are scratching your head at the 718 moniker, you are not alone. Apparently, it’s a reference to the Porsche 718 race car of Fifties and Sixties. I haven’t heard of it until now, but it won Porsche a lot of races. The important bit, however, is that it was powered by a four-cylinder boxer engine, the same as Porsche’s new 718 Boxster roadsters.

Porsche has boldly decided to ditch the Boxster’s signature naturally aspirated flat-six engines for smaller turbo charged flat-fours. The same predicament has also befallen the Boxster’s sibling, the Cayman. The reason for this major change is to reduce carbon emissions, which probably won’t sit well with a lot of Boxster and Porsche enthusiasts. However, Porsche is quick to point out that it’s not all gloom and doom, and though the Boxster loses two cylinders, it is more powerful and also efficient.

The 718 Boxster I drove was the more powerful S variant. It puts out 345hp and 320nm of torque, that’s 10% more hp and 15% more torque than the outgoing Boxster S. In a straight line, the results are staggering. The new 718 Boxster S will hit 100km/h in just 4.2 seconds - almost as quick as a 911 Carrera S and a full half a second quicker than the old Boxster S. And though the new car is faster, Porsche claims that it will be up to 13% more fuel efficient.