Four-point-whoa: The 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS
The weather wasn't great during my days with the new 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS, so you'll only be seeing Porsche's photos here. [credit: Porsche ]
Accidentally scheduling two different appointments for the same time slot is probably something all of us have done at least once or twice. In my case, that meant mistakenly booking a pair of test cars for the same week late last year. And they couldn't have been more different cars. I've already written about the Toyota Venza-it's an attractive and efficient hybrid crossover that charmed me far more than I expected after I drove from DC to upstate New York and back. I was already expecting good things from that week's other car-a 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS-yet it, too, exceeded them.
The 718 Boxster is the entry point into the Porsche sports car range, but there's nothing entry-level about the $88,900 GTS. It sits almost at the top of the tree, between the cheaper, more everyday 718 Boxster S and the more expensive 718 Spyder, a car with which it shares an engine, which in this case is a 4.0L flat-six, an engine that makes Porsche nerds get a little weak at the knees.
Most of Porsche's power units have turned to turbocharging in the past few years-including the lesser variants of the 718-but not this four-liter lump, which remains resolutely naturally aspirated. Installed in the GTS, it makes 394hp (294kW), 20hp less than in the stripped-out Spyder. (Both GTS and Spyder make an identical 309lb-ft/420Nm). Although the engine isn't quite as rev-happy in the GTS as in the Spyder, it's not far off-the torque peak is between 5,000 to 6,500rpm, and peak power arrives at 7,000rpm, with a 7,800rpm redline to call time on things.
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