Open-top Motoring In The Porsche Boxter Never Looked This Powerful… Or Mean

• Porsche 718 Spyder RS revealed.

• It is an open-top counterpart of the 718 Cayman GT4 RS.

• Its two-part soft-top roof is manually operated and can be stowed away entirely.

• Gets the same 500PS and 450Nm 4-litre flat-six naturally aspirated engine as the 911 GT3.

• Does 0-100kmph in 3.4 seconds and will go all the way to 308kmph. 

• It could come to India sometime next year.

If the stripped-out, track-focused, Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS wasn’t engaging enough for you (get help), this 718 Spyder RS will surely offer you the immersive and connected experience that you’re longing for. The recipe is rather familiar and simple - take the four-litre flat-six engine of the 911 GT3 along with the bits and pieces from the Cayman GT4 RS and strap them onto the Boxter body style. 

The result? The same track-focused, no-nonsense experience, but here, you're even more involved as there’s nothing separating you and the car from the environment. So you get the same treatment effectively - a whole lot of wings, fins and slats all around - to make it stick to the ground but instead of a roof above, you’ve got endless skies for an even more visceral experience. 

Visually too, the Cayman GT4 RS and the Spyder RS are largely similar, save for one big miss that has been given to the Boxter - the wing. Yes, you don’t get the colossal swan-neck wing that the GT4 RS gets. But honestly, the two hoops, which are reminiscent of the 911 Speedster, along with the ducktail spoiler, give it a distinctive identity, one which looks cleaner with lesser obstructions. 

The cabin is also stripped-down to the basics with only one thing in mind - performance. Full bucket seats are offered as standard and you get the ‘Spyder RS’ logo on the headrest, reminding you of its fierce nature. There’s leather all around the dash, and the seat covers are also made of black leather. 

The mid-mounted 4-litre flat-6 naturally aspirated engine, derived from the 911 GT3, produces the same 500PS and 450Nm of output, which makes this the most powerful Boxter variant in the history of Boxsters. Transmission duties are carried out by the same 7-speed PDK DCT. Surprisingly, the 0-100kmph time of 3.4 seconds is the same as the Cayman GT4 RS and the top speed is 308kmph. 

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In terms of suspension, the setup is a mingle of components from both the standard Spyder and the 718 Cayman GT4 RS, but the spring and damper rates have been softened up in comparison to the Cayman GT4 RS. The ride height can be adjusted as can the tyre camber, track and anti-roll bar. As a result, you can tweak a lot of things according to your preference and tweak them as per the tarmac you plan to pilot it on.

The numerous modifications allow you to set it up perfectly in the most aggressive setting for hitting a track or dial everything back down for when you want to drive it back home after some thrashing around. Proper race car stuff on a car that wears number plates!

With such a potent, high-revving engine packed into a track-focused package, the 718 Spyder RS sits at the zenith of Porsche's mid-engined open-top family. It also becomes the most powerful Boxster iteration ever made, and you can expect it to come to India sometime next year, carrying a price tag of around Rs 3 crore.