Porsche 911 GT3-Powered 718 Boxster Spyder Is Coming

Khodrocar - Prepare to be blown away – Porsche is cooking up the most driver-focused Boxster to date and, according to a new report in British media, the automaker will swap the convertible’s turbo four-cylinder engine for the naturally aspirated flat-six unit of the 911 GT3.

Basically, Porsche wants to significantly increase the power and improve the engine response of the 718 Boxster by putting its high-revving 4.0-liter motor under the hood. The most powerful version of the roadster now, the GTS with 365 hp (271 kW), uses a 2.5-liter flat four with a turbocharger, but engineers at the company believe they can "achieve throttle response and immediacy a little bit better with an atmospheric high-revving engine than any kind of turbo,” as Andreas Preuninger, head of GT car development at Porsche, revealed to Autocar earlier this year.

The new track-focused Boxster, likely to be named the Boxster Spyder, will have somewhere in the region of 430 horsepower (321 kilowatts), or even less, to leave enough room for the more powerful 911 GT3, where the 4.0-liter engine delivers 494 hp (368 kW).

As standard, the driver-focused Boxster will be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox, while a seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic will be optionally available for those who want to be faster on track. As you would expect from a hardcore model from Porsche, the vehicle will also lose interior noise insulation and will even ditch the audio system and air conditioning in order to cut some weight.

Don’t look for the fancy electric folding soft top anymore, as it will be replaced by a much lighter manually removable "tent top,” according to the British publication. As far as the aerodynamics is concerned, the most powerful production Boxster ever will gain similar exterior package to the one found on the Boxster GTS.

No reveal date is confirmed, but most likely the hardcore Boxster Spyder will debut in the first half of 2018.

Source: Autocar