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Thanks for the pictures and the video, gentlemen. It sounds almost as good as the 981. Probably, even bit louder. That could be the Euro-spec sample with the dreaded Particulate Filter. The US-spec could be even better. Or so we hope!
Mash, thanks for posting up the great photos from FOS. Sure wish I could have been there. I don't know if they're your pics, but if you were there and saw the car firsthand, please share your general first impressions if you can. Would love to hear some first hand accounts.
I'm certainly no aerodynamacist, but it's clear the rear diffuser looks the way it does for a reason. It's not a gratuitous hunk of boy-racer plastic often found slapped on pretender/pseudo-sportscars. We know from the initial AP interviews and press material that a lot of time and attention went into increasing downforce at the rear on the GT4/Spyder and this diffuser apparently accomplishes that. Can't recall the specifics, but 26 lbs. of additional downforce is the figure that keeps popping into my head.
Do I wish its integration was more seamless and it appeared a bit less ungainly? Absolutely, but I'm trying to temper my aesthetic hesitations with the fact that this diffuser is the real deal. Form is following function. The 982 is a GT product so you have to expect a more aggressive design with more aggression in the bodywork, both front and rear. And, by perhaps selecting darker exterior colors, one can minimize to some extent how much the diffuser stands out.
Speaking of the the front, less body color and more black plastic is consistent with the treatment at the rear, so in this way there is some design uniformity fore and aft.
It's exciting for the car to finally make its public debut. After FOS, it's off to Scotland for the automotive press intro. I hope and suspect we'll soon be reading some great things about the car!
Hello, yes pictures are taken by me at FOS. Car looks sexy in the flesh as in the pics. I would have loved to see it in a different color, GT silver perhaps.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of black wheels. I feel like it hides the design of the wheel. I’d rather see silver wheels.
Overall, she looks gorgeous!
Lets hope we get to see video reviews, many different colors and variations soon.
Nice! Higher redline, more HP at higher rpms, same torque but much wider band, only 30kg (65lbs) heavier so better hp/kg ratio, wider tires especially in the back. This will feel much more like a GT car than the previous Spyder, for better or worse.
In a perfect world I’d prefer if it was 65lbs lighter vs 65lbs heavier but everything else seems like an improvement. Maybe the auto-top Boxster 6 will have the same engine but the lighter X73 suspension, smaller (lighter) brakes, and narrower (lighter) wheels hence weigh the same or even less?
Love to see how Andreas always seems to explain much more details with Mr Catchpole than with any other interviewer (video above), thanks for the "Just In Time" post.
Spyder is now a GT family (like the 911 Speedster) so, like someone said, that's for better or for worst... I personally believe that's for better and, as for this release, the big improvements are on the Spyder, so I perfectly understand GT4 owners arguing that this is not enough to make them want trade for a new GT4.
Regarding emissions, I believe that CO2 is just related to fuel consumption in every combustion engine, so the more displacement means more fuel so more CO2 (and more taxes to pay), but that's very different to the outgoing gasses composition, or answering the question of how much cleaner those exit gasses are.
There's one thing that concern me a bit though, and it is regarding the ride eight for the street, because as per spec sheet someone could understand that now the Spyder it's 10mm lower... with my old 981 Spyder was each speed bump was an stress...
I would really appreciate if some 981 GT4 owner could clear out if the 30mm refers to lowest possible setting (that you can manually adjust), meaning that the factory setting would stands just at the same 20mm of the X73? or better getting used to the idea of having 10mm less from factory now?
PS: At least this street/scrapping situation is something that the GT team seems to be very aware of, otherwise they wouldn't bother to have "chopped" a little bit the front splitter on the new Spyder (images below)