Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman

[IMOA]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

Yeah man, but most of the 911s also have considerably more horsepower! Haha.

Not considerably more than a GT4 though

[serialk11r]

"Virtual gears" is so strange. Engaged both 2nd and 3rd gear at the same time is flat out wrong because if your engine speed is in between the 2, one clutch will be slowing the car down for no reason. Sounds like C&D bullshitted this.

It has to be a crawl forward function that works in higher gears not just 1st, where it'll go into a gear that's a little bit too high (maybe landing rpms at like 600-700 if the clutch were fully engaged) and slipping the clutch just a little bit. That way you don't have to coast and slow down, and so you can do 6mph in 2nd gear instead of 1st.

I find it really strange they included this because the PDK ratios are already rather close together, besides the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. I guess it would help with really slow moving traffic.

I'm surprised they gave the base Boxster so much power and I like the looks a lot. The rev limit from the videos appears to be 7200, which is...meh. A 4 banger needs 8k to sound good. It's probably not quite go-kart enough for my taste.

[Talus1]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

"Virtual gears" is so strange. Engaged both 2nd and 3rd gear at the same time is flat out wrong because if your engine speed is in between the 2, one clutch will be slowing the car down for no reason. Sounds like C&D bullshitted this.

It has to be a crawl forward function that works in higher gears not just 1st, where it'll go into a gear that's a little bit too high (maybe landing rpms at like 600-700 if the clutch were fully engaged) and slipping the clutch just a little bit. That way you don't have to coast and slow down, and so you can do 6mph in 2nd gear instead of 1st.

I find it really strange they included this because the PDK ratios are already rather close together, besides the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. I guess it would help with really slow moving traffic.

I'm surprised they gave the base Boxster so much power and I like the looks a lot. The rev limit from the videos appears to be 7200, which is...meh. A 4 banger needs 8k to sound good. It's probably not quite go-kart enough for my taste.

Found this on the Porsche website, in a PDF about the new 911 Turbo. Presumably the same thing as in the 718s:

PDK with virtual intermediate gears

Further development of the Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) transmission plays a significant part in the 911 Turbo models’ performance and fuel economy improvements. Porsche engineers supplemented the seven primary driving gears with virtual intermediate gears that further improve fuel economy and comfort. The virtual intermediate gears reduce engine speed during constant speed cruising when the next higher gear would reduce engine too much. This function is achieved by partially engaging two adjacent gears simultaneously while slipping both clutches slightly to achieve an effective gear ratio in-between them. When acceleration is called for, the Doppelkupplung rapidly exits this mode and downshifts. Since the PDK employs dual wet clutches (oil-bathed), the virtual intermediate gear function results in no added wear.

[WolfpackS2k]

Honestly I'm not sure if I believe them whey they state there's no additional wear to the clutches. Porsche also claims that the clutches in the PDK are good for the life of the vehicle. I'm leery of that as well.

PDK transmission replacement is $15-20k...

[serialk11r]

That still makes no sense. If 6th is 1500rpm and 7th is 1000rpm, and you turn the engine at 1250rpm, 6th gear is applying negative torque to the driveshaft no matter what. It doesn't give you a ratio "in between".

The only other possibility is that if say 4th would be 900rpm and 5th would be something lower, you run the engine at 1000 and use the clutch for 5th gear to take some load off of the clutch for 4th. That seems completely useless given that the clutch seems to be just fine when the car is crawling at 3mph. Or maybe PDKs secretly are using 1st and 2nd together when crawling and I just didn't know.

[vh_supra26]

[vh_supra26]

While the name Porsche 718 Boxster will take some getting used to, the car fits right in at the Geneva Motor Show stand – it's unmistakably a Porsche.

The 718 Boxster made its official debut Tuesday at the show, sporting a newly toned and sculpted exterior from the outgoing just plain Boxster. Take a few minutes to spot the differences, though. Changes are evolutionary, and even that might be stretching the description.

Not that it's a bad thing Porsche freshened the lights, door handles and wheels. Attempts to make the front more aggressive are mostly successful, too. Current Boxster fans are unlikely to complain much over the newness here.

Of course the real story about the 718 can't be completely understood under the show lights. Wedged in the middle of the car is the new turbocharged 2.5-liter flat four that powers the Boxster replacement, with 300 horsepower in the standard car and 350 in the S model. Team that with what Porsche says is steering that's 10 percent more direct and a newly available Porsche Active Suspension Management sport chassis for a 20 millimeter lower ride height and the mission is clear.

The 718 is the old Boxster that's been to spin class on a regular basis.

[zberz]

The back is hot, not digging the new front though. The recessed lower bumper just doesn't seem Porschey enough to me. Still don't see cupholders, inconvenient, but still awesome.

sent from my phone using black magic

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by zberz

The back is hot, not digging the new front though. The recessed lower bumper just doesn't seem Porschey enough to me. Still don't see cupholders, inconvenient, but still awesome.

sent from my phone using black magic

The cupholders are retractable and come out of the dash. You press that silver bar thingy on the passenger side and they pop out.

I think I said this somewhere already...maybe on Spyderchat, but I don't really like what they did with this car. 4 cylinders instead of 6 should have meant ~100 lbs taken out of the shortblock, with like 50 added back in for the turbo. Instead the car weighs more than the 981? Combine that with a lower rev limit and a rather crappy exhaust note, this is markedly less sporty than the 981 from the looks of it, minus the changes to the steering.

Porsche unfortunately doesn't really try to play the lightweight game with the Cayman/Boxster which is kind of a shame IMO, because they have the technical capability to. Their chassis are better than some of the more expensive and heavier all-aluminum ones coming from Britain and their bigger 6 cylinder engines are fantastic, but somehow the entry level Boxster doesn't manage to be much lighter than the monster flagship 911 models.

[WolfpackS2k]

The base Boxster is 2900 lb and change, which is at least 300 lbs heavier than a base 911. That's more than a 10% difference, which is significant.

That above quoted article is crap though. "Been to spin class"? Who goes to spin class and GAINS weight Also that article makes it sound like both models use a 2.5 liter 4. That's incorrect - base has 2.0, S has 2.5.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

The base Boxster is 2900 lb and change, which is at least 300 lbs heavier than a base 911. That's more than a 10% difference, which is significant.

That above quoted article is crap though. "Been to spin class"? Who goes to spin class and GAINS weight Also that article makes it sound like both models use a 2.5 liter 4. That's incorrect - base has 2.0, S has 2.5.

Naw, the 981 is claimed to be 2890...but when people actually weigh them they're closer to 3000. Now the 718 is claiming to be...heavier? The non-optioned 911s come out to ~3150 (some guy with a sunroof and speaker upgraded got a bit over 3200 on the scales in a 991S), and they have rear seats, which if you dump might bring the cars within 150 lbs of each other, especially when you go with the bigger engines on the 981S.

I'm starting to feel like my only hope for a car that's as fun as my MR2 is if Lotus gets their shit together and makes their non-Evora models US legal. I still don't understand how they had the resources to make the V6 Exiges but not bring them to the US, where you know, the biggest car market in the world is... I would prefer something in between the Elise and the V6 Exige, but the V6 Exige is already very svelte by modern standards.

[Sideways&Smiling]

Originally Posted by vh_supra26

Damn, that looks like the ultimate playground.

[strat61caster]

~3,000 lbs, 295hp base, 345 S, mid engined boxer

= me fully erect, maybe a 718 Cayman will be my cushy retirement car... that will see track time.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71dPKCqVegs"]Porsche 718 Boxster S - (Portugal) One Take - YouTube[/ame]

[NyC Zn6]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

~3,000 lbs, 295hp base, 345 S, mid engined boxer

= me fully erect, maybe a 718 Cayman will be my cushy retirement car... that will see track time.

i can has one too ....very subie burbly sounding