Steppe. What the Porsche Boxster has become after 12 years of evolution

But once upon a time, Targa Florio was considered the most insane race in Europe. And one of the most significant: neither Le Mans nor Mille Miglia existed back then. This race was invented in 1906 by Sicilian enthusiast Vincenzo Florio. He was a curious man: his love for cars flared up after a trip to France, where he saw and immediately bought a three-wheeled De Dion. True, Florio didn't think about the fact that gasoline had never been available on his native Sicily. When this became clear, he had to arrange fuel supplies himself. Then he also had to organize races. But since Vincenzo had the only car on the entire island, he had to compete with horses and bicycles. However, quite soon Florio infected his friends with his passion, and things took off: first joint trips to the Keiser Preis and Gordon Bennett Cup races in France, and then the creation of his own stage at home, in Sicily. In the first Targa Florio race in 1906, only 10 crews participated, and already in the second — more than fifty. Every year the race became more and more popular. For Porsche, this race means no less than the Nürburgring: the brand has 11 victories — more than anyone else (Alfa Romeo has ten, Ferrari seven). And this despite the fact that before 1955, non-Italian cars won here only five times! But from 1956, the Germans actually took over the race. Then Umberto Maglioli finished first in a Porsche 550 roadster with a mid-engine layout, beating more powerful competitors. In 1974, for safety reasons, Targa Florio was downgraded to national status, and later completely closed, but almost all this time Porsche models competed and won here. Direct successors of the 550: 718 RSK, 718 RS60 Spyder, 718 RS64, 904 GTS, 906 Carrera 6, 910, prototypes 907, 908/2, 908/3, and a specially prepared 911 Carrera RSR. The track consisted of 72-kilometer laps of sheer madness. A straight section of a couple hundred meters is already a rarity. And if you drive a truly fast car... That's what they raced here: the Porsche 908/3 prototype, for example, had 350 hp with a weight of only 650 kg! Imagine what a daredevil you need to be to drive such a car for five hundred kilometers at the limit on a narrow winding road, with rocks on one side and a cliff on the other. If Ferdinand Porsche was awarded an academic degree for his cars' achievements, pilots should have been given medals for courage. The updated Boxster, of course, will be heavier — 1335 kg in the base version and 1355 in the S version. But among civilian sports cars (not counting light and Spartan Lotus and the like), it remains one of the lightest and most power-to-weight efficient. The powertrains are the same as those of the recently updated Cayman coupe. The base one, with a volume of 2.9 liters, and a more powerful one — 3.4. These engines have nothing in common with those that were on the previous Boxster. They were created based on the 911's engines. They differ from the Cayman only in the settings of the control electronics: in the coupe, the peak power occurs at higher revs. The engines have not only become more powerful (the base Boxster produces 255 hp instead of the previous 245, and the "S" — 310 versus 295), but also more economical. Both have a dry-sump lubrication system, variable valve timing and valve lift (Variocam Plus). The more powerful unit additionally received direct fuel injection: and the 2.9 engine is helped to save fuel by a six-speed manual (previously the base version had to settle for a "five-speed"). But the main novelty of the Boxster is the seven-speed robotic gearbox PDK with two clutches, Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe, which replaced the "automatic". Everything like the 911. Although for the Boxster and Cayman layout, the gearbox had to be designed anew. But most parts are common: for example, two clutches of different sizes. The larger one is responsible for odd gears, and the smaller one for even ones. At the presentation, there were only S versions with PDK gearboxes. The "S" growls richly. And this is not the roar of a young predator, but the voice of a seasoned wolf: low, hungry. And what will the sound of the Boxster be with the new sports exhaust system (available as an option), which with a button press becomes almost straight-through! And here's a familiar toy — the Launch Control system, which is included in the Sport Chrono options package. You press the Sport Plus button on the center console, hold the car with the brake and rev the engine to 6500 rpm. The inscription Launch Control Activated lights up and... PDK shifts lightning-fast: five seconds — and the speedometer already shows "a hundred". Another 13 seconds — and the open roadster races under two hundred. You can play endlessly, unlike the same BMW M3, where the "robot" after the start will require a pause. "You can start even a hundred times in a row," — Porsche engineers seem to invite me to street racing. Both the engine and the gearbox are good! Not on the track, but on a winding road, I never regretted that I was not driving a "manual": shifts are very fast and timely. Moreover, when you release the gas just for a breather, PDK is in no hurry to engage a higher gear. You press the pedal again — and you get instant acceleration. And you release the gas with the thought "Okay, you can be calmer" — and the gearbox immediately adjusts to a measured rhythm. All this applies to the Standard and Sport modes. But if the Sport Plus button is pressed, the car becomes indomitable: it doesn't react except to cries of "Ah-ah-ah! We're going to crash!" Any press on the gas — and PDK quickly drops a couple of gears down. Braking — and immediately rev-matching. Also, the active PASM dampers become stiffer (they, like the regular ones, are supplied to Porsche by Bilstein). No, this mode is only for the track. Acceleration is also helped by the self-locking differential that appeared in the options list. True, the locking degree is small — only 22% during acceleration and 27 during braking. "For civilian use, this is a reasonable maximum," the engineers explain, "otherwise the locking will negatively affect the braking distance and directional stability. Especially on poor surfaces." And Sicily is not some Germany: road workers here like to cut corners. Either a joint, a pothole, or a bump. And crazy drivers in old Fiats, brazenly pulling out in front of you from a secondary road, are in place. You drive as if through Crimea. And the racing Porsche 908/03 set the Targa Florio lap record on these very roads: the car flew 72 kilometers in 33 minutes and 36 seconds — at an average speed of 128.5 km/h! But the Boxster also holds confidently on these roads. The wheels — with Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires sized 235/35 R19 front and 265/35 R19 rear. But how this "insulating tape" isolates from potholes! Bumps — without slowing down, speed bumps — at full speed! As Porsche engineers later explained to me, three things are needed for such indestructibility: a very rigid body, a properly tuned suspension, and the lowest possible unsprung masses. That's why, by the way, Porsche doesn't use run-flat tires: they are too heavy.

History

Behind the scenes

We arrived in Sicily directly from Stuttgart, where the Porsche Museum opening was taking place. The Boxster in the famous Gulf livery — exactly the paint scheme in which the 908/3 set a record on the Targa Florio track — blue, with an asymmetric orange arrow on the hood and black wheels, was waiting at the hotel. But, to my regret, it was assigned to the Chinese group of journalists. I got the yellow one.