On the Road with the 2016 Boxster Spyder

EVO doesn’t mess around in their new video diary/review of the 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder, the cherry on top of the Boxster lineup. They take the car up to one of the highest mountain passes in the Alps (and one of the most dangerous), the Passo di Gavia in Italt. Narrator/reviewer Henry Catchpole put a gorgeous yellow number through its paces on not particularly well-maintained Alpine switchbacks, straighaways, curves and tunnels, showcasing the new Boxster’s speed (topping out at 180 mph, with a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds) and agility.

The only knock I can see in the new Boxster is the droptop. Like the transmission, it’s manual. As viewers note in the comments, why would Porsche put a manual roof on such a high-end vehicle? Poor Catchpole has to get out and relatively laboriously get the thing up before hitting the pavement. Weight savings, sure… But how many Spyder owners are actually going to spend the majority of their time on the track?

Still, I can more than forgive that (for one, I won’t be buying one of these anytime soon), especially given the car’s operatic baritone of an exhaust note. The 370 horsepower flat-six growls magnificently when Catchpole races through an echo chamber of a seemingly endless mountain tunnel. I’ll trade that sound for an automatic convertible top any day of the week.