Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman race their way to PH

Martin Limpert presents the features of the new 718 models.

Roberto Coyiuto III welcomes guests to the exciting reveal of the new 718 models.

PGA Cars, Inc., the country’s distributor for Porsche and purveyor of ultra-luxury and supercar brands, unveiled something very exciting last Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Whitespace Manila.

The much-anticipated launch of the Porsche 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman was greeted by over a hundred VIP guests and car aficionados.

The pair of 718s signals Porsche’s direction in coming up with more efficient and smaller displacement turbocharged engines that can outperform bigger engines used by its predecessor models, giving better carbon footprints and fuel efficiency.

When it comes for legendary Porsches, most of us will be familiar with models with numbers like 356, 550 and 911. There was one model though, the 718, that one can say stands out among the giants of its time in the race tracks.

Built for racing

The Porsche 718 was a very successful racing car built between 1957 and 1962. What’s quite special about this car is the small 4-cylinder boxer engine that powers it.

It also had the audacity to compete with cars having three times more the number of cylinders.

Because of its agility, it was able to outrun rival marques in the race track with its huge V12 engines, thanks to its lightweight construction and well-balanced weight distribution.

The original 718 was an evolution of the successful Porsche 550A that came with improvements in body work and suspension.

It had a mid-engine layout and used a Type 547/3 quad-cam 1.5-liter engine that gave out 142 horsepower.

Debut at Le Mans

It made its racing debut at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Umberto Maglioli and Edgar Barth.

By 1958, the 718 finished first in class and third overall at Le Mans under Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann. Jean Behra also finished second at the Targa Florio that same year.

Shown with the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman are (from right) Porsche Asia Pacific managing director Martin Limpert, Porsche Philippines president Roberto Coyiuto III and Porsche Asia Pacific sales director Alexander Schuchert.

In 1959, the 718, driven by Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel, emerged as the overall champion at the Targa Florio.

Another Porsche 718 also won the European Hill Climb Championship in both 1958 and 1959.

A similarly notable win was made in 1961 when Masten Gregory and Bob Holbert drove a 718/4 RS Spyder to a class win at Le Mans.

With Porsche’s shift to 4-cylinder engines for its Boxster and Cayman models, the choice in naming it the 718 became obvious.

With its lightweight construction, modern design, and a smaller but turbocharged, four-cylinder, mid-mounted engine, the new 718 model series continues the racing heritage of this legendary model and its proven 4-cylinder concept.

The use of 4-cylinder engines though is not new. The 919 Hybrid LMP1 race car also uses a highly-efficient, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine with a mere 2-liter engine displacement.

Porsche’s centrepiece of the new model series is its newly developed turbocharged 4-cylinder flat engine which comes in two variants.

The 718 Boxster

The 718 Boxster develops 220 kW (300 hp) of power from two liters of engine displacement, while the 718 Boxster S attains 257 kW (350 hp) from 2.5 liters of displacement.

The new 718 Boxster quicker, and with the PDK and the Sport Chrono Package option, can sprint from zero to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds.

In the S-model, Porsche also uses a turbocharger with variable turbine geometry. Equipping these engines with a turbocharger gives a higher torque rating as well.

Its two-liter engine 718 Boxster variant has a maximum torque of 380 Newton meters while the 2.5-liter engine of the 718 Boxster S variant attains 420 Nm, about 100 Nm more and 60 Nm more, respectively, from the previous models.

This makes the new 718 Boxster quicker, and with the PDK and the Sport Chrono Package option, can sprint from zero to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds (0.8 seconds faster than the previous model).

The 718 Boxster S with the same equipment options does it in 4.2 seconds (0.6 seconds faster than the previous model).

The sporty and high-tech interior of the 718 Boxster and Cayman.

German Embassy Manila commercial attache is impressed with Porsche’s exciting new models.

The top speed of the 718 Boxster is 275 km/h, while that of the 718 Boxster S is 285 km/h.

On the outside, the front end carries a much more sculptural form, designed with a wider and more masculine stance.

Its larger cooling air intakes at the front tell you that this Porsche means business, and it wants to suck as much air as possible to feed its newly designed turbo engine.

The new 718 Boxster looks more rounded with its new front design, and is fitted with bi-xenon headlights integrated with LED daytime running lights.

It also has a LED headlight with four-point daytime running lights available as an option.

The 718 features a larger air inlet panels with two fins to bring out the car’s dynamic look, and the doors now come with the more classic-looking door handles without recess covers.

It is also fitted with new 19-inch diameter wheels standard on the 718 Boxster S, with 20-inch diameter wheels available as an option.

The 718 Cayman

The 718 Cayman has the same new four-cylinder flat engines for both variants. This will be the first time the roadster and coupe-bodied siblings will have an identical engine output.

The 718 Cayman with PDK and optional Sport Chrono Package sprints from zero to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds.

The Boxster’s hardtop sibling has been further refined and more comprehensively developed in its body design.

Notably, its taut proportions and similar prominent air intakes at the front and sides, and low side profile gives the new 718 Cayman a more aggressive and yet sleeker profile.

On the inside, similar revisions are visible for both the 718 Cayman and the 718 Boxster.

The dash panel’s upper portion including air vents is newly designed and features the new sport steering wheel of the 918 Spyder along with the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system.

We’ll have more about the driving dynamics of the 718 Boxster in our future issue as this writer had the opportunity to test drive the car on the back roads and highways of Singapore.