I was beyond thrilled to have spent five wonderful days with my daughter Erica and son in law Dennis in southern Washington state last week.
I was also more than thrilled to have covered nearly 500 miles with Dennis, in his 2018 718 Boxster GTS…with the majority of these miles featuring both extraordinary scenery plus a large number of great sweepers and mind-blowing twisties. At several intervals over the course of those miles, Dennis managed to achieve lateral g-force readings approaching 1.2 - not bad considering this car’s lateral g maximum of 1.4!
I was also truly honored to have Dennis hand over his keys for nearly half of those miles…and while I didn’t exactly come close to achieving his lateral g-force readings, I still had and absolute blast…reveling in this cars remarkable behavior. Most impressive to me was the perfect balance of liveliness and composure when pushing this car around curves featuring multiple dips and bumps…with the “sticky” Michelin Pilots remaining perfectly planted while under the influence of second level “sports mode” suspension bias. Oh - and the “sports-mode” downshift rev-matching…what a trip! Nor could I exactly complain about this car's 365 wonderful horses - with a truly impressive pull from around 2Krpm and up (and up and up!)...Wow!
But perhaps what amazed me most about this whole “Boxster GTS” experience was the aspect of lineage…with the all-around driving characteristics of the 718, while miles ahead of those of my 944, nonetheless viscerally sensed as a direct and linear evolution from the earlier car. The same liveliness, the same urge to be pushed just a bit harder…but only much (much, much!) more so.
Put in another way…if I were to have driven the 718 without knowing its identity, it would have been the nearly instant, “yup - this is a Porsche!” recognition of its shared DNA that would have left no question.
But - in some wonderful universe where I could trade my 944 for a 718 GTS…would I? Hmmm…I’d hate to give up the practicality of my 944, which offers (at least to a guy pushing 70) a great balance of driving pleasure and fun, with the ability to carry lots of stuff (like groceries and camera gear), and/or to go “car-tent/canoe camping” as I’d posted about recently. While the 718 actually has a fair amount of (front and rear) trunk space, I'd be hard pressed to strap on a canoe, to say nothing of a car-camping tent!. I guess the obvious answer would be, in an even more wonderful universe…to own both!
At any rate…I close with a photo of my son in law Dennis and his wonderful 718 GTS, along with myself…the old guy taking up too much space:
