Just back from Boxster launch evening, and.....
Discussion
Post your thoughts guys and girls!
Mine are easily summarised: OMFG I WANT ONE. It looks simply stunning in the metal, so much more purposeful and aggressive than previously, especially when fitted with the giant rims. There were three at my local OPC: A Metallic Black with Black roof and Cocoa interior (didn't like that interior), a Midnight Blue one with blue roof and black interior (nice but sand leather works best with the blue paintworks IMO) and a GT Silver one with red roof and red interior (my favourite, although I'm not sure I'd go for the full red interior!).
They also had some classics for viewing in the workshop, which included an absolutely IMMACULATE Carrera GT, a stunning 997 GT3RS 3.8, and a 908 Le Mans racer from back in the day.
To sum up, I think the direction Porsche is going design wise, starting with the 991 and now the 981, is certainly a step forward for me. Interior wise these are in a different class from the 997/987 generation.
As I said, I want one. Badly.
Cheers
Mine are easily summarised: OMFG I WANT ONE. It looks simply stunning in the metal, so much more purposeful and aggressive than previously, especially when fitted with the giant rims. There were three at my local OPC: A Metallic Black with Black roof and Cocoa interior (didn't like that interior), a Midnight Blue one with blue roof and black interior (nice but sand leather works best with the blue paintworks IMO) and a GT Silver one with red roof and red interior (my favourite, although I'm not sure I'd go for the full red interior!).
They also had some classics for viewing in the workshop, which included an absolutely IMMACULATE Carrera GT, a stunning 997 GT3RS 3.8, and a 908 Le Mans racer from back in the day.
To sum up, I think the direction Porsche is going design wise, starting with the 991 and now the 981, is certainly a step forward for me. Interior wise these are in a different class from the 997/987 generation.
As I said, I want one. Badly.
Cheers
.
lastexile69 said:
Post your thoughts guys and girls!
Mine are easily summarised: OMFG I WANT ONE. It looks simply stunning in the metal, so much more purposeful and aggressive than previously, especially when fitted with the giant rims. There were three at my local OPC: A Metallic Black with Black roof and Cocoa interior (didn't like that interior), a Midnight Blue one with blue roof and black interior (nice but sand leather works best with the blue paintworks IMO) and a GT Silver one with red roof and red interior (my favourite, although I'm not sure I'd go for the full red interior!).
They also had some classics for viewing in the workshop, which included an absolutely IMMACULATE Carrera GT, a stunning 997 GT3RS 3.8, and a 908 Le Mans racer from back in the day.
To sum up, I think the direction Porsche is going design wise, starting with the 991 and now the 981, is certainly a step forward for me. Interior wise these are in a different class from the 997/987 generation.
As I said, I want one. Badly.
Cheers
You must have been in Exeter last night!Mine are easily summarised: OMFG I WANT ONE. It looks simply stunning in the metal, so much more purposeful and aggressive than previously, especially when fitted with the giant rims. There were three at my local OPC: A Metallic Black with Black roof and Cocoa interior (didn't like that interior), a Midnight Blue one with blue roof and black interior (nice but sand leather works best with the blue paintworks IMO) and a GT Silver one with red roof and red interior (my favourite, although I'm not sure I'd go for the full red interior!).
They also had some classics for viewing in the workshop, which included an absolutely IMMACULATE Carrera GT, a stunning 997 GT3RS 3.8, and a 908 Le Mans racer from back in the day.
To sum up, I think the direction Porsche is going design wise, starting with the 991 and now the 981, is certainly a step forward for me. Interior wise these are in a different class from the 997/987 generation.
As I said, I want one. Badly.
Cheers
I was struck by how much bigger the new Boxster is compared to the older models. They are beautifully finished cars and no doubt will be a great drive, but personally don't grab me by the throat and say "buy me".
I loved the cars in the workshop, especially the 908- I remember seeing the pictures of that car in Motor Sport after it had been in the Targa Florio
I also went down to Exeter preview last night to take a look at the new cars. Unfortunately my camera was left in Macro so all the pictures are a bit blurry!
Thankfully, it didn't make me regret ordering one, or make me want to change my spec (well perhaps just a little temptation).
They had three cars there, all S models, a Basalt Black with Expresso full Leather, an Aqua Blue with Black full leather and a GT Silver with Red full leather. Interesting what options they are pushing as all cars were PDK, all had the Carrera S 20" wheels, all had full leather and all had the 14-way eletric seats.
The blue one had no PCM and was £55,306 (full leather, auto dim, rear park, deflector, 20", wheel crests, seat heating, 14-way electric seats, auto climate, PDK, PASM, phone prep, Sound Package Plus).
The Silver was £61,233 (GT Silver, Red Natural Leather, auto dim, rear park, deflector, 20", wheel crests, seat heating, light design, 14-way seats, auto climate, sport design wheel, PDK, Sport Chrono, PASM, PCM, phone module, sound package plus).
The Black one was a breathtaking £65K+ and had just about everything, including BOSE and a TV tuner, ventilated seats, etc. Quite a feat to get to more than £65K with ceramics.
Shame they didn't have an Agate Grey (brown?) car to see how looked ....
Quite well attended, quite a high average age I would say, got there early and got a clear look at the cars.
Lots of sparkly booze and "Micro food" as my mate called it. Trays several feet wide with morsels of food less than an inch across. I couldn't be bothered with any of the food as I didn't recognise anything (no pork pies or sausages).
Observations (many subjective):
The quality of the new car feels much better than my old 987 Gen 1.
Definitely more room inside. My mate who is 6ft 2in had no problem without moving the seats all the way back. The electric adjust of the steering wheel upwards also helped with knees. Seemed plenty of head room.
20" wheels looked nice, but the open wheels do give a clear view of the various bits of engineering behind when looking straight at the wheel from side on. I guess this would be much the same with the 19" wheels.
All the cars had the speaker grills behind the seats but on the none BOSE cars they are blanks, no sounds come out of them.
I've got so used to the look of Sport Chrono clock on the dash that it looked a bit plain on the blue car without SC.
GT Silver looked great, hope the Platinum Silver is close to being as good.
I thought the red interior was nice but preferred the black for long term ownership. Wasn't too sure about the brown, but it wasn't terrible.
The wind deflector looked better than the glass one on my 987, which often needed cleaning.
Not sure the door pockets are an improvement, harder to tuck stuff out of the way as it may still be visible.
Not really keen on the aluminium fiish on the central dial on the S model, might prefer the standard black.
They were taking bookings for an hour slot to test drive the car from May 5th. Each booking had an hour left free afterwards, presumably for the salesman to talk you into ordering one!
I booked a drive even though I've already got one on order, as it will probably be another couple of months before I actually get delivery. Told spec should freeze end of this week.
The Porsche Experience guy was very nice and urged us to take up our invitations.
Cheers,
Geoff
Thankfully, it didn't make me regret ordering one, or make me want to change my spec (well perhaps just a little temptation).
They had three cars there, all S models, a Basalt Black with Expresso full Leather, an Aqua Blue with Black full leather and a GT Silver with Red full leather. Interesting what options they are pushing as all cars were PDK, all had the Carrera S 20" wheels, all had full leather and all had the 14-way eletric seats.
The blue one had no PCM and was £55,306 (full leather, auto dim, rear park, deflector, 20", wheel crests, seat heating, 14-way electric seats, auto climate, PDK, PASM, phone prep, Sound Package Plus).
The Silver was £61,233 (GT Silver, Red Natural Leather, auto dim, rear park, deflector, 20", wheel crests, seat heating, light design, 14-way seats, auto climate, sport design wheel, PDK, Sport Chrono, PASM, PCM, phone module, sound package plus).
The Black one was a breathtaking £65K+ and had just about everything, including BOSE and a TV tuner, ventilated seats, etc. Quite a feat to get to more than £65K with ceramics.
Shame they didn't have an Agate Grey (brown?) car to see how looked ....
Quite well attended, quite a high average age I would say, got there early and got a clear look at the cars.
Lots of sparkly booze and "Micro food" as my mate called it. Trays several feet wide with morsels of food less than an inch across. I couldn't be bothered with any of the food as I didn't recognise anything (no pork pies or sausages).
Observations (many subjective):
The quality of the new car feels much better than my old 987 Gen 1.
Definitely more room inside. My mate who is 6ft 2in had no problem without moving the seats all the way back. The electric adjust of the steering wheel upwards also helped with knees. Seemed plenty of head room.
20" wheels looked nice, but the open wheels do give a clear view of the various bits of engineering behind when looking straight at the wheel from side on. I guess this would be much the same with the 19" wheels.
All the cars had the speaker grills behind the seats but on the none BOSE cars they are blanks, no sounds come out of them.
I've got so used to the look of Sport Chrono clock on the dash that it looked a bit plain on the blue car without SC.
GT Silver looked great, hope the Platinum Silver is close to being as good.
I thought the red interior was nice but preferred the black for long term ownership. Wasn't too sure about the brown, but it wasn't terrible.
The wind deflector looked better than the glass one on my 987, which often needed cleaning.
Not sure the door pockets are an improvement, harder to tuck stuff out of the way as it may still be visible.
Not really keen on the aluminium fiish on the central dial on the S model, might prefer the standard black.
They were taking bookings for an hour slot to test drive the car from May 5th. Each booking had an hour left free afterwards, presumably for the salesman to talk you into ordering one!
I booked a drive even though I've already got one on order, as it will probably be another couple of months before I actually get delivery. Told spec should freeze end of this week.
The Porsche Experience guy was very nice and urged us to take up our invitations.
Cheers,
Geoff
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