Saturday, August 06, 2005
"It stops like a slammed door"
Good car writing is a lot of fun, dancing between erotica and the hard-boiled detective story in tone, if not content. There's an excellent example of it in tomorrow's New York Times. Ted West reviews the 2005 Porsche Boxter and the Carrera S Cabriolet, and finds them very up to snuff. West first manipulates your mood:
Being a matinee idol has become easier. You just slick back your hair and drive slowly by the local sidewalk cafe in your "speed yellow" Porsche Carrera S convertible. People drop their ham sandwiches, point loudly and behave like fox terriers getting the Heimlich maneuver.
Of course, here in the belly of Westchester County's Porsche Belt, they're eating prosciutto on olive oil ciabatta with mesclun - but a ham sandwich is a ham sandwich. They gawk, plotz and wonder aloud what you're doing for Sunday brunch. You'll gain friends. You'll eat free. And you'll lose nothing more important than your privacy - but with Internet spam proffering Cialis by the case, don't talk to me about privacy.
Driving a loud-yellow Porsche with the top down on a summer day can take the place of a personality. This convertible ("Cabriolet," to those who know it personally) is better at making friends than your Aunt Latifah on a cruise. You may have set out for nothing more glamorous than a spool of dental floss, but when you park your yellow Porsche, every man, woman and real estate agent croons, "Cool car!"
Oh yeah. Give it to me, baby!
They're right. Intuitively, they seem to know that for the moment this hot yellow blob is the fastest 911 Porsche sells. Not indecently fast, of course. It won't peel your eyelids around the back of your head like the new Porsche Turbo is sure to do next year. But with 355 horsepower, 0-to-60 performance in 4.7 seconds and a top speed of 182 miles an hour, just how sheepish and self-effacing do you need to be?...
To get my feet on the ground before tackling the Carrera S, I first sampled the plainest-jane Boxster (not the measurably crisper Boxster S). But I'm lying already - the very plainest-jane Boxster, in terms of performance if not price, has a five-speed Tiptronic S automatic transmission. I said "plain," not downright wart-faced. With a five-speed manual, the Boxster gets to 60 m.p.h. in a reasonably brisk 5.9 seconds; the automatic takes 6.8 seconds.
Just to prove that life isn't all fun, I planned to drive the Boxster to Cape Hatteras on that jam-packed all-skate known as Interstate 95. If I could do 600 miles without losing all hope of enjoying myself when I arrived, the Boxster had something.
In truth, it is folly to drive 12 hours to Cape Hatteras without stopping in Virginia for psychotherapy and mood levelers. When the Boxster finally put down in North Carolina, I was seeing double. Which was good - the beach was twice as gorgeous.
In a way, the Boxster (base price $44,595; as tested, $48,565) is what all Porsches once were. Its 240 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque are adequate and pleasing, though hardly overwhelming by today's standards. It delivers superb grip. It stops like a slammed door. And it perfectly communicates the mood of the pavement under your wheels, a vital component of safety.
And as for the Carrera S:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Carrera S with a six-speed manual goes like a scalded wide receiver, arriving at 100 m.p.h. in just over 11 seconds. What you do next is between you and your spiritual adviser.
If you like car porn, read the whole thing.
2 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sat Aug 06, 04:44:00 PM:
One teensy-weensy little test drive can't hurt, can it Cass? :)
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Aug 07, 05:18:00 PM:
At least your little brother isn't your co-blogger... :)
