[Auto/Moto] The Porsche 718 Spyder RS Is Transcendent

[-_-Moltres-_-]

 

North Wales is driving paradise. The roads through Snowdonia National Park are, in the truest sense of the word, epic. Tight and twisting as you climb up the mountains, fast and flowing in the valleys, with sublime scenery surrounding the shadow of Mount Snowdon. Park on the side of the road for an hour and you may see three or four cars pass by. One of them might be someone who made the pilgrimage. Mostly it’s just you and the sheep. Our wooly friends are nonplussed about the car, as they are most things. I’m not. The Porsche 718 Spyder RS is the final salvo for the internal-combustion Boxster, complete with God’s Own Flat-Six—a 4.0-liter, 493-hp, 9,000-rpm engine lifted from the 911 GT3. Pair that with a chassis honed by Porsche’s Motorsport department, but optimized for the road, and you’ve got a car as epic as this place.In its current guise, the Porsche 718 Boxster has been with us since 2016, yet its bones date back to the 981-generation Boxster of 2012. Ancient in car terms, but this car still feels great. Porsche got the fundamentals just right. In all its guises, the Boxster has always offered perfect handling balance and a driving experience that’s hardly compromised compared to its tin-top Cayman counterpart. In fact, the Boxster is typically lighter than its Cayman equivalent, and so it is here with the Spyder RS. The funny thing is that Porsche doesn’t refer to this car as a “Boxster.” It is just, simply, the 718 Spyder RS, and that’s quite apt. Since its very beginning, the Boxster has always offered a blend of daily usability and sports-car fun, but the Spyder RS sacrifices some usability for more flare, more drama, more… more. Erecting the lightweight top is akin to pitching a tent. The top’s fabric offers about as much sound insulation and theft protection; the ride is quite tough at low speed; the gearing is relatively short, so the engine drones at highway speed; the bucket seats are a pain to climb in and out of. A Boxster GTS 4.0 is a car you can use every day, no problem. The Spyder RS demands more, but it also offers more. It takes the Boxster to new heights.The suspension that’s tough around town comes alive on a fast road. Snowdonia’s “B-roads” are lumpy and bumpy, heavily crowned to deal with the constant rain, and with weird dips at the inside of corners. And the occasional cattle grade to contend with. Here, the Spyder RS floats along the surface, adaptive dampers rounding off all the hard edges perfectly. Sport-mode suspension settings are often too hard for places like this, but in the Spyder RS, the dampers just keep the body tied down that little bit better, without ever upsetting the car. Porsche softened the spring rates compared with the Cayman GT4 RS and it pays dividends. On basically every road we threw at the Spyder RS, even the ones beyond Wales, the car ate them up. Like all Boxsters before it, the Spyder’s handling is perfectly calibrated. It pivots right around its center, with a chassis balance that responds so precisely to throttle inputs. Like the Cayman GT4 RS, the Spyder RS is a very fast car, but one that makes the driver feel immediately at ease. You get in and push hard straight away. The big brakes boost your confidence as well. I can’t remember the last time I drove a Porsche Motorsport car without their optional carbon-ceramics, but these cast-iron brakes stop more than well enough and offer perfect pedal feel.

https://www.motor1.com/reviews/729564/porsche-718-spyder-rs-review/