2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder Exhaust Sound and Drive – Video

 

The Spyder is compliant and balanced and moves beautifully. Chatty steering, surgical turn-in, docile oversteer. It’s all fluid, the sort of thing you can manhandle with fingertips, hugely forgiving without feeling too sanitized. Good. But whereas the previous Boxster Spyder shed 176 pounds and gained 10 hp, this one flips the script. This time, curb weight drops a claimed 66 pounds, while output climbs 45 hp. The ideological shift is apparent behind the wheel.

The new Spyder engine, a bottlenecked 3.8-liter from the Carrera S, dominates the driving experience. The traction control, the suspension tuning, the tire setup—it all feels oriented toward putting power down, not managing speed bend-to-bend. And that mega-short-stroke lump needs revs, 4750 of them, to get all 310 lb-ft torque pumping.

Price: $83,095

Powertrain: 3.8-liter H-6, 375 hp, 310 lb-ft; RWD, 6-speed manual

Weight: 2900 lb

0–60 mph: 4.3 sec

Top speed: 180 mph