IT’S A SIGN OF THE TIMES THAT DESPITE being the fastest, sharpest, most powerful, most expensive and most extreme Boxster ever made, it is for the sad honour of being the last combustion-engined Boxster that the 718 Spyder RS will be best remembered. Let that sink in for a moment. The next time we see Porsche’s entry-level sports car it will be powered by batteries.
Whether this product strategy proves to be prescient genius or premature folly remains to be seen. What we can say is that the finality of this moment makes the Spyder RS unusually significant. Thankfully, Andreas Preuninger and his team have made sure the ICE Boxster is receiving the best possible send-off, with a full suite of changes commensurate with being the first soft-top Porsche to be given the RS nameplate.
It’s an approach and treatment consistent with the last few RS models. The wildly bewinged 992 GT3 RS and hard-as-nails Cayman GT4 RS both felt as if the architects of Porsche’s GT model line didn’t want to leave anything on the table for fear it remained unused as their fast-car world pivots to one of lithium-ion and four-wheel torque vectoring. The £123,000 Spyder RS has the same end-of-days demob-happiness about it.
Its similarities with the GT4 RS are
