Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Boxster S Drives

I took the Boxster out for a run from Salisbury to Gillingham, Dorset, and return, this morning.

Very, very different to driving Tarka: some thoughts.

The car is quick, but not as responsive as the big V8 when putting my right foot down at lowish speeds, despite all the technology: there is no throttle lag and the gearbox changes gear seamlessly, but it seems that in Sport mode the car wants to be in a lower gear than the computer thinks appropriate, easy to resolve by taking command to the box and driving as if it is a clutchless manual. More fun that way as well.
I know the road very well, there are a couple of tight, decreasing radius downhill corners that need care, I took one at a speed that initially made me think "oh Sh*t, too fast" but the car just went round the corner. Again the car really needs to be driven rather than controlled for maximum enjoyment. The lack of road and tyre noise was impressive, as was the volume of exhaust noise when in Sport Exhaust mode. It reminded me of a Subaru Impreza, rather than anything else: not unpleasant, but just different. The A/C is wonderful, 33c outside and cold air keeping my feet and everything else just nice.

When I have Tarka back I need to repeat the trip. But carefully..and without expecting much of the A/C!

Well, its important to find the limits, as long as you keep pushing the envelope and the expletives don't become the reality, it can be immense fun .Manual changes through clutch less gearboxes what will they think of next? I'd extend a word of caution that these new levels of performance can become additive and the new assumed norm, that other cars may struggle to emulate when pushed to do so.

I'm sure the Boxster will be immensely rewarding to drive and become the regular go to car.

I can agree that it's a lovely looking thing in the flesh (Peters reason for travelling to Gillingham) nice rim protection on the tyres, which could come in handy given some of our local roads not exactly being wide.

The lack of road noise was probably down to the exhaust Peter 😁

Hopefully it'll still be warm enough to need it Peter.

My wife once bought me a days race training at the Lotus track at Hethel using their Elises. My tutor was a retired Lotus F1 driver. I was staggered how much faster the Elise could go round corners on the track compoared to what I had thought pretty damn fast in my own Elise on the roads. I would never claim to be gods gift to driving but I am not known as captain slow to my pals. Nevertheless the speed the car could do was at least 50% greater than I thought it could based on road driving. I bet your Porker is the same.

Howard,

I know how you felt, I had a couple of hours at Mercedes World in a C43, then at the end the instructor drove a couple of hot laps, I don't suffer from car sickness, but on this occasion I came close. I think it was the violence of the changes of direction and braking.
The big take home is that the car is far, far more capable than I am and to trust the car, don't panic.

I suspect it may be worth adding some degree of relativity when comparing Some Morgans against the descriptions of the aspects of advances in roadholding and comforts of a Boxter, or indeed many other modern sports cars that may be fitted with all sorts of traction control devices and programming to help keep it out of the hedges..?

In my case that which was a mid 80`s +8 was found to be the ideal antidote to ever advancing automotive technology more than twenty years back when I was desirous of a more involvement with the decision making of the whole driving experience. I guess Morgans of the 21 century will have "advanced" to be reliant on digitisation to some degree, but perhaps a tad less so than many equivalent age sports cars in terms of ever more traction control programming etc..?

If indeed the above is the case then I can well understand as we age that some advanced automation and comforts as found in modern Porsches and other sports cars, may indeed allow us to feel that our driving skills might not have diminished all that much with the passage of time..

I dont think that the modern technology adds much to vehicle speed round bends on a track - that is limited by the rubber so that a morgan on a flat track and a lotus on the same track both with the same tyres will corner at much the same speed. Certainly thats what I found when doing tack days in my Elise. A lotus Elan or an Elite cornered at very similar speeds - the difference was in a straight line where modern engines and aero made a big difference cancelled to a degree by modern weight.

On a bumpy roads the situation would be very different.

Howard, I can well understand your thinking relative to track performance, however it seems in Porsche terms even my ten year old 991 is equiped with digital technology to improve performance of both engine and chassis, even on track..?

Porsche are renown for their use of acronyms but if you care to beam up PTV, Porsche Torque vectoring, or PTV Plus and PDCC Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control, you might find some interest in the technology. Also if you care to beam up one of the many YT vids on the new GT3RS you will note that even the aero package alters automatically relative to inputs from sensors activating rams that control the air flow and handling on that which Porsche seem to admit is a car very much designed for track use.

The world moves on faster than I can cope with..

https://youtu.be/CE-ZCQdpqeg

+1... I'm being left behind, because I've lost interest in so much of the rubbish that seems to occupy the minds of so many.