BOX FRESH

摘要

The wraps don't come off the new Porsche Boxster until next year, but Greg Kable has just ridden shotgun in a disguised one - and the omens are good Porsche has changed the Boxster's character. We can confirm this after riding shotgun with Porsche's development engineers on a validation drive of the third-generation roadster from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Details of next year's new model have yet to be revealed officially, but our time in the passenger seat of a prototype reveals that the new Boxster is a bigger divergence from the outgoing model than that model was when it arrived in 2005. With the exception of certain driveline components, the disguised car you see here is completely new, both in its engineering and what Porsche calls "dynamic philosophy". Those changes will also find their way into the second-generation Cayman -just one of a raft of new Porsches we'll see nextyear. Following developments brought to the latest 911, with which the new Boxster shares its compete front end sub-assembly, the mid-engined roadster forgoes steel construction for a lightweight aluminium bodyshell. This makes it, in the words of the man doing the driving, Boxster development boss Hans-Jurgen Wohler, "the lightest car in its class".