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NYIAS 2015: Porsche Spyder… 5 years later

The new Porsche Boxster Spyder was premiered at the 2015 NYIAS. The RainyDayGarage folks were there to see it first hand, and it is a beauty. We first reported on the Porsche Spyder when it was introduced in 2010. Five years later, Porsche has released an updated Spyder which keeps the original spirit of a minimalist sports car (manual top, no stereo, no A/C, etc), but offers a host of refinements to further the driving experience (lower ride height, more responsive steering, etc).

PorscheBooth

Porsche’s goal is to make the Boxster Spyder handles as agile as a go-cart yet accelerates as quickly as a high-performance sports car. To achieve that balance, everything about the new Spyder is about weight-to-power, aerodynamics, and center of balance. At 1,315 kilograms, the Spyder is the lightest sports car in the Boxster family. With a drag coefficient of 0.33 and a lower stance, it will slice through the air while staying glued to the ground. The mid-engine/rear-wheel drive combo efficiently transfers power to the wheels, which moves everything forward faster…like 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds, and a quarter mile in 12.7 seconds.

PorscheSpyderFront

Engine:

Water-cooled six-cylinder flat engine; aluminum engine block and cylinder heads; four overhead camshafts; four valves per cylinder; variable intake valve timing and lift (VarioCam Plus); hydraulic valve clearance compensation; gasoline direct injection; one three-way catalytic converter per cylinder bank, each with two oxygen sensors; engine oil 10.1 liters; electronic ignition with solid-state ignition distribution (six active ignition modules); thermal management for coolant circulation.

Brakes:

Dual-circuit brake system with separate circuits for front and rear axles; Porsche Stability Management (PSM); vacuum brake booster; brake assist; electric duo-servo parking brake; auto-hold function.

Front axle: six-piston aluminum monobloc brake calipers; perforated and internally ventilated brake rotors with 340 mm dia- meter and 34 mm thickness.

Convertible top:

Manually operated. Easy as one, two, three.

The sequence to manually lower/raise the convertible top was fast and smooth: unlatch the two anchors, open the rear truck lid to expose the storage compartment, fold back the top into the compartment, close the trunk lid, done. Once mastered, it should take less time the 12 seconds required by the automatic mechanism on the current Boxster. Of course, you will have to get out of the car.

PorscheSpyderTopDown123

PorscheSpyderTopInTrunk

The one thing to note is that the trunk lid CANNOT be raised without unlatching the convertible cover. So if the cover is up and you want to open the trunk to get something or to put something in, you HAVE to unlatch the two anchors. It is kind of an inexplicable user interface quirk that only engineers will tolerate. The answer from the guy demo’ing the car was “Hey, it’s a Spyder!” OK 🙂

Here are a few shots of the updated Porsche Spyder at the 2015 NYIAS:

PorscheSpyderDetails

We really like this 2015 Boxster Spyder. Do we like it enough to trade in our 2000 Boxster with 140K+ miles for it? Hmmm….PorscheSpyderTopDown

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