Tested: 2022 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 PDK Is Plenty Quick and Sounds Great

In just the last two years, our Car and Driver test team has vetted many flavors of Porsche, 34 to be exact. Of the stack from Stuttgart, 11 were GTS models, four of those 718s, but this Python Green ($2580) 718 is the first Boxster GTS we've tested with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The average launch to 60 mph for all those Porsches, from the base Taycan to 911 Turbo S Lightweight, is a frantic 3.1 seconds. This souped-up Boxster is just 0.3 second below that average and not all that far from the 911's performance feats.

The 718 is available as a hardtop Cayman coupe or a convertible-top Boxster. In base form, they're powered by a Subaru-sounding 300-hp turbocharged flat-four, but the GTS ushers in the glorious tenor of a 394-hp flat-six engine. This engine is a detuned version of the Cayman GT4's 414-hp unit, and you don't need to crank the 4.0-liter to its 7800-rpm redline to enjoy it. The GTS's standard Sport Exhaust is a good set of pipes, and in our sound-level tests, the difference between the Boxster (with its top closed) and the hardtop Cayman at wide-open throttle and at a 70-mph cruising speed was negligible.

The Boxster is some five seconds quicker than the 670-hp Corvette Z06—that is, in terms of roof operation, performing its powered ceiling dance in roughly 10 seconds. Where acceleration is concerned, our 718 Boxster GTS's 3.4-second 60-mph time was 0.4 second quicker than the six-speed manual 718 Boxster GTS and identical to its hardtop 718 Cayman GTS PDK counterpart. It's also just 0.2 second behind the base 911 Carrera's sprint to 60 mph. More impressively, its 8.2-second run to 100 mph puts it only a few tenths of a second behind wildly more expensive and powerful convertibles such as the $284,150 911 Speedster and the 540-hp Audi R8 V10 Spyder.

This PDK-equipped Boxster 718 GTS reached the quarter-mile in 11.7 seconds at 119 mph. Using similar tires with the same size wheels, the PDK-equipped 718 Cayman GTS 4.0, which weighed about 20 fewer pounds than the Boxster, narrowly beat it in the quarter-mile by 0.1 second at 121 mph. The two cars' braking performance is as similar as their appearance below the beltline. The Boxster stops from 70 mph in 145 feet and from 100 mph in 294 feet, while the Cayman does so in 149 feet and 301 feet, respectively.