Come summer, it’ll be discount central at your local Porsche dealer. The factory is bolting its finest speed-making equipment to the Boxter to add another GTS model to its arsenal, which is a fancy way for Porsche to throw $10,000 on the hood and retain every last residual cent.
That’s about how much you’d need to spec a regular Boxster S with the additional standard features found on the GTS—and you still wouldn’t get the extra power. In GTS trim, the 3.4-liter flat-six jumps by 15 horses over the S model to 330 horsepower while torque rises 7 lb-ft to 273. Much like the 997-generation 911 CARRERA gts and the Boxster RS60 Spyder from 2008, the Boxster GTS gets two-stage adjustable dampers that drop the ride height by 0.4 inch and a sport exhaust that lets out evil crackles of unburned fuel.
Porsche says that the extra juice knocks a tenth off the 0-to-60-mph time of Boxsters equipped with the seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic, down to 4.4 seconds. Based on our last test of a Boxster S, which yielded a 4.2-second 0–60 sprint, we suspect the GTS may clock a sub four-second time without much drama. At the limit, the GTS edges its S counterpart by 1 mph for a top speed of 174 mph.
But the cosmetic upgrades are what truly signal your intent to carve corners. Everything that can be tinted or coated with a black finish appears in plain sight, including the restyled front and rear valences, bi-xenon headlamps and LED taillamps, subtle GTS scripts on the doors and decklid, and the exhaust tips. The gorgeous 20-inch Carrera S wheels also are available, and of course they come in black. Inside, black Alcantara trim covers the seat inserts, steering wheel, door panels, headliner, and central storage bin. The rest is trimmed in leather with carbon-fiber strips along the center console, dash, and doors, with “GTS” embroidered on the headrests and pasted on the tachometer.
Before driving off with that sweet, burbling engine behind your ears, you’ll need at least $74,495 for the Boxster GTS to avoid any grand theft auto charges. That temptation might be why Porsche won’t bring an example to next month’s New York auto show (in reality, it’s because European sales won’t start until May). But as soon as we wrench our test gear to these cars, we know we’ll have a difficult time handing the keys back.
