A Pair of All-New Porsches: Redesigned Boxster and Cayman at L.A. Auto Show

This is a piece about the LA Auto Show debut of the new Porsche Boxster and Cayman, neither of which is a hybrid, but first we need to mention something, since the show was so heavily hybrid.

Porsche invented the gas-electric hybrid. Ferdinand Porsche. Between 1901 and 1906, he built and sold 300 of them. “It shows wonderful speed when it is allowed to sprint,” critics said back then (even with batteries that weighed two tons), “but it suffers from limited range due to limited battery life.”

More things change, more they remain the same.

Ferdinand Porsche was a visionary. A guru, too. “One thing that is universal is the search for purpose,” he said.

You won’t catch us saying the purpose of life is to own a Porsche (although we might say something close). So we’ll leave those spiritual words in the large context of life, and move off the mountaintop, back to the glitter of L.A. We’re with Dr. Ferry Porsche, his son, who died in 1998, via video at the auto show.

“Creating something that time can’t erode is the ultimate victory,” he says. Aha. Porsche wins again.

We’re at the debut of the second generation Boxster and Cayman, joined at their lovely hips, almost literally. Time can’t erode the first generation of these landmark cars, introduced in 1997 and 2006 respectively, but technology can.

So for 2009 we have new flat-six engines and a new twin-clutch transmission. Optional active suspension. Revised intakes, lights, suspensions and interiors. Their body lines are still deeply rooted to the first Porsche racecar, the 550 RS Spyder, which was there on the stage with them, borrowed from the collection of Jerry Seinfeld, himself sitting in the front row. Time sure can’t erode the Spyder. The Boxster still looks much like this 1955 car, and we mean that in a really good way.

The handsome new noses feature larger air intakes, headlamps more like the Carrera, and LED running lights (taillights too). New wheels are slightly wider to accommodate the brakes.

There are two engines, a standard 2.9-liter and 3.4-liter in the S version of each car. The bigger engine uses DFI, or Direct Fuel Injection, for the first time, and makes 310 horsepower in the Boxster and 320 in the Cayman, while improving fuel mileage and throttle response.

The slowest of the four models, the 255-hp Boxster with 2.9-liter engine and 6-speed gearbox, will still accelerate from zero to 60 in 5.9 seconds; while the fastest, the Cayman S with the optional 7-speed PDK transmission and launch control, will get there in 4.9 seconds.

We described the PDK (short for Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe, but never mind) in our recent First Drive review of the all-new Porsche 911. It’s a twin-clutch automated manual paddle-shifting transmission like those used in Porsche racing cars for 25 years, only now it’s been made totally civilized with modes for the road or track. It shifts twice as fast as the Tiptronic it replaces.

Prices weren’t made official, but based on the small increase of the all-new Carrera 911, you can expect the new Boxster and Cayman to be a similar great deal.

But don’t expect a hybrid Porsche, at least not a sports car. That’s so 100 years ago.