Noob here. First Porsche (Hell, first vehicle that wasn't a pickup truck). By coincidence I have gotten to compare 981 to 718 (Base Boxsters):

Found a 981 I like, test drove it 3 days. 2015 base PDK with 8000 miles. It had the tank/firewall rub. Bought it anyway and took home for a weekend to burn off the gas. Lovely car, though the dash sounded like it was made of wood.

Dealer dropped a 2017 718 loaner, which I am holding hostage. They found another rattle in my dash (steering column mount), broke some trim getting to it and are waiting for parts. I've had the 718 now for 12 days.

For acceleration, there is little comparison. The 718 is a *rocket*. Scary fast, everywhere through the torque curve. Not sure about the comments on PDK, both cars feel the same; computer seems to read your mind and hold gears if you need to.

My only 718 squawks would be the sound and how A-S-S does not stay off. It dies at the first stop to remind me.

I am ready to get the 981 back. Both cars are faster than I need and I adore the little flat 6 and the tapered rear end... But the 718 is one of the nicest accelerating cars I have ever experienced!

 

I had my 987 base Boxster in for service today at the dealer, and I thought I'd try a 718 to get a feel for how the new ones are and whether or not I should consider upgrading. My current 987 Boxster has a manual transmission, but the new base 718 Cayman I tried had a PDK.

Handling was amazing. My 987 Boxster was previously the best handling car I've ever driven (better than a 986 I test drove), but the 718 was on another level. My old Boxster feels nimble and steering feel is great, but you can feel a bit of body movement or delay in changing direction under sudden steering input of braking. The new 718 handled like a video game - point it in a direction and it goes there instantly with no body movement, while still having a comfortable level of suspension compliance. The reduction in steering feedback may be a slight loss, but steering is more precise than ever, and the chassis and suspension are massive upgrades over my 987.

In terms of the interior, I found the car quite comfortable and tall person friendly. People who get in my 987 already tend to remark that it has more legroom than they expect, and the 718 Cayman was a further improvement on that regard. The regular sport seats were comfortable, though perhaps a tad stiffer than my old ones. As you all know, the interior is also more modern and technologically advanced. However, before I actually drove the car, I thought the new interior would feel like a huge upgrade, but now that I have driven it, I realized that I pay little attention to the interior when driving so it doesn't make much of a difference to my enjoyment. The simple interior of the 987 is perfectly fine.

This was the first time I drove a car with a PDK. Matching the experiences of others, the PDK is a great transmission, with quick but smooth shifts, and good shifting logic in auto mode. However, at least on the short test drive (where I probably didn't have enough time to get comfortable with it), it just wasn't as fun as a manual transmission. The roads around here aren't very exciting, so rowing the gears is what keeps me entertained. Maybe I'll come to appreciate the PDK after some more seat time.

The weak link of the car was the engine. If I were to buy new, a 718S would stretch my budget, so I deliberately asked to try a base 718 instead. Coming in, I had apprehensions about turbo lag on the base engine, and the test drive confirmed it. At high RPMs, turbo lag was not much of an issue, but at 2000 RPM it was brutal. I sometimes stay in third gear when making a right turn. My 987 base Boxster feels a bit weak when doing this, but at least the little torque it has down there is available right away. On the base 718, even when flooring it, it felt like it took ages for the boost to come on around 2000 RPM in third gear. Nearly a 2 second delay I'd say from when I floored it to when the full torque came on. I was hoping that the low end torque of the turbo would make the car better suited for these scenarios, but it only made the car worse. The immediate torque at 2000 RPM felt weaker than my current Boxster, and the torque took too long to rise. For me, the only purpose of low end torque is to quickly get out of the way without having to shift in city driving. The turbo lag made the low end torque not very useful to me. At higher engine speeds (around 4000 RPM), turbo lag was much reduced, though it still wasn't as immediate and linear as my naturally aspirated Boxster. Also, despite the power and torque rating, the car didn't feel as fast as I expected it to be. The way I was driving it was probably to blame (I was reluctant to rev out a new car or push it on a city street). Turbo lag meant that two second bursts of acceleration were less dramatic than they would be on a naturally aspirated car with similar torque.

I expect the VTG turbo and lower boost pressure in 718 S to be much better in the areas that bothered me in the base 718, but I haven't tried one and it's out of my budget for now anyway.

As for the sound of the turbo four - it was quite decent. I've heard people on this forum complain that it sounds like a broken Subaru or a Honda Civic with a ricer exhaust. I felt nothing like that. It was the nicest sounding four cylinder car I've driven. At low RPMs, I actually liked the four pot sound better than tha NA flat six in my Boxster. I like the lower pitched growl and hearing the individual cylinders fire. However, as expected, the turbo four didn't produce the exciting high pitched scream of the NA six cylinder at high RPMs - it was not bad, but just not as exciting. I didn't take it all the way to the top as I didn't want to excessively abuse the not yet broken in engine in their demo vehicle.

To summarize - a fantastic car, except for the throttle response on the base engine, particularly at low RPMs. Turbo lag made the low end torque not very usable for what I'd want it for. Also, the throttle response felt a bit nonlinear and not entirely predictable. The S model would probably be much better.

 

Nice review, wizee. Well detailed. You jumped into a model two generations away from yours. So, expectedly you were impressed. Good news is that you didn't say you preferred your 987 better (aside from steering, of course)!

One way to mitigate the turbo lag is to keep the revs higher, in the sweet spot. Yes, promised low-end torque comes in with a delay. But, if you plan your moves, you could find the right gear and floor it from optimal revs. Sure, it doesn't help with an emergency situation when you just want to floor it and get away.

Were you in third gear at 2k? If so, it may not be the right gear to begin with. I would be in first! Even NA has a lag too, albeit a different kind. That's why it is imperative to stay in optimal gear/revs.

 

Yes, third was the wrong gear for flooring it at 2000 RPM, but emergency maneuvers (and occasional laziness) are the only occasions where I care about low end torque. The new car may be faster when going through optimal gears, but my old 987 is also plenty quick when flooring it at 5000 RPM.

If I stay in optimal gears, the base engine is probably "good enough", but I still prefer the NA response to the base 718 engine. The only major advantage of a turbo is low end torque, but the slow delivery made it not very useful to me.

 

True. Turbo torque is quite different than huge displacement torque.

 

This is the best sounding production 4 cylinder in the world:

 

Hmmm. Maybe your tester was broken.

I was out yesterday and tried the following: base Boxster, PDK, sport mode, 2000 rpm in 2nd gear @ 46 kph (28.5 mph) and pushed the throttle about half-way. Before I was able to count "1 sec" I was pushed firmly back into the seat and was away.

I didn't have time to look at the boost pressure as I was already exceeding the speed limit by a fair margin.

I have noticed a bit of "lag" when cruising around and flooring the throttle, but that's the PDK shifting down 2 or 3 gears. If I shift down manually most of the lag disappears--and even more disappears if I don't floor it and have sport mode on.

It is SO much quicker than my 2 litre Subaru manual that I haven't found a need for full throttle at legal (and semi-legal) speeds. It has been a learning curve for me.

Anyway, buy what floats your boat and have fun driving it.

Greg

 

It sure is nice.
I sure am glad he doesn't live down my street.

Greg

 

Totally agree! You don't even need any after-market pipe. With stock pipe, it is one of the best sounding bikes ever! Planning to pick up an RF soon.

Here is another cool sounding bike, not withstanding the fact it's an in-line four:

First-gen F4





Actually, unlike Harleys with straight-pipes, sportbikes' sound get louder (and, better) as the RPM increases. Of course, there are exceptions. So, it is possible control the sound through neighborhoods by keeping the revs low.

 

this. I am a low torque fiend (aka lazy) but turbos dont do it for me. instant shove at low rpm floats my boat

 

Me too. It's possible to modify and tune an NA car to do this pretty well...

 

The sounds that come out of MVs are indeed glorious, Henry. My Brutale is the single best sounding mechanical device I've ever encountered.

 

Glad to hear you are a fellow MV aficionado, Nick! Good choice on the Brutale. Whatever you do, stay away from Euro 4-spec MVs. Just read MV's press release on Euro 4-spec F3. They proudly announced that the F3 is now about 43% quieter!! Unbelievable!! It's just wrong!

After 2020, Porsches are gonna be quiet as well, thanks to more onerous next gen Euro regs. Hope I am wrong; but, there are ominous signs.

 

Sooo... A C3 with a 454.

 

Easy way to deal with that.

Just straight pipe the car, forget the mufflers EVER EXISTED.