Porsche: 718 - the alternative to the 911
TEST DRIVE Are you one of those for whom only a Porsche is what starts with 9 and ends with 11? We have tested a small alternative. Clearly, the 911 is and remains the measure of all things Porsche. A quarter of a century ago, the Zuffenhausen company found itself in trouble due to the flood of roadsters from various sources. And threw a [...]
A quarter of a century ago, the Zuffenhausen company got into trouble because of the flood of roadsters from various sources. And they launched a model with a six-cylinder boxer engine (which gave the child its name) that was supposed to be somewhat reminiscent of the legendary Spyder era.
The 718 family consists of the Cayman and Boxster
The small cars were not pushed out of the market; on the contrary, the 986 caused a construction boom in Zuffenhausen. In December 2015, Porsche announced that in the future the two-door mid-engine sports cars Boxter (roadster) and Cayman (coupe) would operate as the 718 series. With two new variants, Porsche is doing justice to all those who felt the little ones didn't have enough pep under the gimbal tunnel. The first engines produced just over 200 hp, but a lot has changed in the meantime. Today, the 718s are powered by 2.5-liter four-cylinder turbo boxer engines, which would have pleased Ferry Porsche.
The bubbling and pseudo banging is really fun
Thanks to a newly developed intake tract and optimized turbochargers, the new GTS has 15 hp more, which increases its output to a strong 365 hp. That's neat, fun in any chassis mode, especially of course in S+ mode, the switch is easy to make by means of a small dial on the steering wheel. Audibly, by the way, the sound managers have included the typical bubbling and pseudo-banging.
A sporty dual-clutch transmission as an option
Everything about the 718 GTS is just right. There is an automatic transmission and a manual six-speed transmission, and the very fussy can order the Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) as an option. We drove all three variants, leaning toward the six-speed manual transmission because automatics are more for commuters and we don't get to the racetrack often enough to make a PDK worthwhile. Prices start at 101,000 Swiss francs (718 Cayman GTS).
