Motors North

Make

ANY AC AIXAM ALFA ROMEO ASIA ASTON MARTIN AUBURN AUDI AUSTIN BENTLEY BMW BRISTOL BUGATTI CADILLAC CATERHAM CHEVROLET CHRYSLER CITROEN COLEMAN MILNE DAEWOO DAIHATSU DAIMLER DATSUN DAX DE TOMASO DODGE FERRARI FIAT FORD FSO GINETTA GMC HILLMAN HOLDEN HONDA HUMMER HYUNDAI INFINITI ISUZU JAGUAR JEEP JENSEN KIA KOENIGSEGG LADA LAMBORGHINI LANCIA LAND ROVER LEXUS LIGIER LINCOLN LOTUS MARCOS MASERATI MAYBACH MAZDA MCLAREN MERCEDES-BENZ MERCURY MG MICROCAR MINI MITSUBISHI MITSUOKA MORGAN MORRIS NISSAN NOBLE OPEL PAGANI PANTHER PERODUA PEUGEOT PILGRIM PLYMOUTH PONTIAC PORSCHE PROTON RELIANT RENAULT RILEY ROLLS-ROYCE ROVER SAAB SEAT SINGER SKODA SMART SSANGYONG SUBARU SUNBEAM SUZUKI TALBOT TATA TOYOTA TRIUMPH TVR ULTIMA VAUXHALL VOLKSWAGEN VOLVO WESTFIELD WOLSELEY YUGO

Model

ANY

Area

ANY Badenoch and Strathspey Caithness Inverness Inverness Area and Loch Ness Lochaber Moray Nairn and District Ross and Cromarty Sutherland Other

Price From

0 500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000

Price To

500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000

Your Local Newspaper

Inverness Courier Highland News
North Star Lochaber News Northern Scot
Ross-shire Journal Caithness Courier
John O Groat Journal Northern Times
Forres Gazette Banffshire Journal
Strathspey and Badenoch Herald

Copyright SPP Group

our test drives or view them all

Porsche Boxster RS 60 Spyder

YOU learn something every day. Here’s me thinking the American car-buying public have little or no taste and then I find out they’ve ordered almost half the entire production run of Porsche’s special-edition mid-engined Boxster RS 60 Spyder.

More than 800 of the production run of 1960 are destined to cross the pond – good news in a way, but bad because it robs Europe of a fine two-seater.

However I doubt Porsche minds. It’s a well-heeled car-maker whose cars are in constant high demand. And even while Europe trembles in the draught of economic meltdown in stock markets around the world, Porsche has found the time to dip into its vast cash reserves and bring its stake in Volkswagen up to an impressive 35.14 per cent.

The Stuttgart sports car builders are huge global players – an indication of the firm’s outstanding design and construction skills that fuels demand for its cars worldwide. The expensive RS 60 Spyder is no exception.

The production run of just 1960 RS 60 cars marks the competition success, 38 years ago, of the iconic Porsche 718 RS 60 Spyder – a classic sports racing car that trounced the opposition despite having a smaller engine than most and went on to win the long-distance Sebring 12 hour race in Florida with Hans Herrmann and Olivier Gendebien sharing the victory.

I spent last week with the modern reincarnation of that car – RS 60 No 384. Finished in GT silver metallic complete with the Spyder’s trademark red leather interior it is an expensive choice compared to “ordinary” Boxster fare – but the £45,400 RS 60 is no “ordinary” car.

I have a soft spot for Porsche coupes and roadsters – you’ll notice I don’t include the ugly and over-rated Cayenne 4x4. Though I’ll drive anything, I have a dread of being asked to climb behind the wheel of that admittedly impressive but pretentious, expensively badged Volkswagen Touareg.

Anyway, back to real Porsche machinery.

The RS 60’s precision build, its razor-sharp driving experience and the symphonic howl from its flat-six 3.4 litre engine melt into one glorious memory.

There is nothing quite like driving a Porsche – be it mid-engined Boxster and Cayman or glorious rear-engined 911. They’re special.

My RS 60 was no different – apart from a load of optional equipment that boosted the final cost to £55,909, an eye-watering bill that included a set of Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes at a cool £5349. Mind you, they were spectacular – fade free, powerful and very clean with no sign of the usual unsightly brake dust stains you get on most cars.

The mid-mounted RS 60 Spyder is a limited edition Boxster S powered by a familiar 3.4 litre water-cooled flat-six delivering 303bhp at 6250rpm. It does so with a subdued growl in standard setting, but push the dashboard "sport" button and exhaust baffles allow a less-restricted gas flow and electronic engine management changes kick in to turn the exhaust note into a bark that builds to a deep-throated guttural snarl as you flick through the switch-like sports shift manual change.

The "sport" button also delivers a very hard and bouncy setting – one you can cancel with another dash button and revert to the superb standard firm setting. Much more comfortable – and crucially, you retain the exhaust snarl until you tire of its drone in the cruise.

Personally I’d be deaf before I tired of that glorious sound. It sharpens the car, my driving senses and the enjoyment factor.

Despite its rest to 62mph time of 5.4 seconds and 170mph top speed, the rear-drive RS 60 is a demon drive at much lower velocities.

With the electric folding hood tucked away, the drive from Moray to Scourie and back was a sheer delight.

From Bonar Bridge it flowed along the A838 then south from Scourie on the dips and dives of the A894 through Inchnadamph to Ledmore junction and back on the A837 through Oykel Bridge – sports car roads conceived in heaven. I’m still smiling!

The RS 60 Spyder is based on the £39,266 296bhp Boxster S, but with enhanced performance and features.

From outside you can tell it’s an RS 60 from its unique front spoiler and 19-inch SportDesign alloys with spacer plates moving them outwards to fill the wheel arches. A modified sports exhaust system combined with dual tailpipes increases engine output to 303bhp with Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) adding further dynamism to the Boxster chassis.

The unique GT Silver metallic paint gets controversial natural leather interior in Carrera Red. The roof is also finished in red. Personally I would have preferred traditional black leather and was delighted my test car came with an optional black hood. The red interior and hood trim may single out this special edition – but it feels tacky on such a prestigious and bale able roadster.

Inside, stainless steel door trim strips carry the "RS 60 Spyder" designation while the leather trim has a textured surface on the centre sections of the sports seats, centre door linings, the steering wheel rim and handbrake lever. Completing the sporting ambience is a bespoke gear lever.

Here’s another "special edition" frippery that goes just a little too far for me --  instrument dials finished in GT Silver metallic and a redesigned instrument cowl with the large central rev counter flanked by a hard-to-read speedo to the left and contents info on the right. It’s just as well that speed is also carried in a large digital panel below the rev counter as the traditional speedo is impossible to read accurately at a glance.

Further RS 60 features include the windscreen surround finished in black, as well as the centre console, the seat backrests and the roll hoops all finished in GT Silver metallic with seat belts also finished in silver.

Finally the limited-run RS 60 gets a silver-coloured plaque on the lid of the glove compartment.

Wonderful as this car is, I’d happily settle for the standard 3.4 litre Boxster S. The Americans are welcome to their appetite for the RS 60. Don’t get me wrong, this celebration Boxster is a fine car, but so are the 2.7 and 3.4 Boxsters and they’re a lot cheaper with the 245bhp 2.7 starting at just £33,375.

But as roadsters go, the Boxster family are kings – finely designed and executed two-seaters that are pure driving machines with an audio exhaust soundtrack that will keep you smiling all day.

And before you turn away in disgust at their environmental impact, let me tell you, Porsche is planning to become the most efficient and "cleanest" high performance car maker on the planet. Meanwhile the RS 60 will average 26mpg and produces a reasonable 262g/km of CO2 – not bad given its position in the performance car pecking order.

And here’s another thing. From the outside you’d think there’s little room for luggage, but you’d be wrong. In the nose there’s a deep bin with 150 litres of space that’s good for two substantial squashy bags while, thanks to that mid-engined flat-six, there’s another 130 litres of lined boot space in the tail. So, it’s fairly practical too.

However, for those engine fans who like to see the "bits" under the bonnet there’s disappointment. The closest you get to the engine is water and oil fillers tucked behind a panel at the rear of the tail-end luggage compartment – the engine is nowhere to be seen and buried under the floor.

This is a car for the driving connoisseur.

Rating: 9/10

FINAL THOUGHT:

For a company that’s now got a 35.14 per cent share in Volkswagen, Porsche seems a million miles away from the concept of a “peoples’ car” with the rear-drive £45,400 Boxster RS 60 Spyder – but what a joy to drive. It has its critics, but I’m not one. The Boxster is a driver’s delight in all of its forms but the RS 60 Spyder is a special car with stunning performance and road poise few can match. I took this car on my favourite drive deep into the north-west Highlands where it flowed like poetry on some of Europe’s most demanding roads. It was a sheer joy. Quality is unimpeachable – the Boxster, like its 911 big sister, is screwed together with the precision of the finest Swiss watch. It could do with some more luggage capacity, but then it wouldn’t be a Boxster would it?

 

CAR FACTS – Porsche Boxster RS 60 Spyder

• Price: £45,400 (£55,909 as tested)
• Capacity: 3387cc
• Power: 303bhp
• 0-62mph: 5.4 seconds
  
• Maximum speed: 170mph
  
• Economy: Combined 26.7mpg
  
• CO2 emissions: 254g/km
  
• ESP: Standard
• Insurance: Group 19