Porsche’s tough little powerhouse

The Boxster saved Porsche from going broke.

There is a road north of Frankfurt that Porsche uses to test its cars. It's a motorway - part of Germany's autobahn network - 6km long, gunbarrel-straight, with a smooth tarseal surface. It is pretty much always in the best condition, not for Porsche but for Nato, as an emergency air strip if war breaks out. It's been a back-up strip for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation since the Cold War days, when the Soviet Bloc kept wheeling out its weapons.

It has no speed limit, like many of the autobahns. Porsche runs high-speed tests on it because the findings come from public road and not private track conditions. The results add credibility to the Porsche cause.

So do conditions in other countries. Porsche used to use the dirt tracks and free-speed highways in Australia's Northern Territory for hot-weather tests before it switched to South Africa and its friendlier time zone, cheaper hotels and fuel and more varied road surfaces.

Also, the South African Government allows Porsche test drivers to travel at speeds up to 250km/h in the less populated north of the country. South Africa has a history with German carmakers: Mercedes-Benz and BMW have assembly plants there.

Porsche also does hot-weather tests in the United States. Cold-weather tests are mostly confined to Europe, although it has used the snow farm near Wanaka for winter tyre tests.

One of the carmaker's most celebrated test drivers is former rally ace Walter Rohrl. He wasn't at the Australia and New Zealand launch of the new Boxster north-west of Sydney the other day, but stories about his expertise were.

One, told by Porsche Australia boss Michael Winkler, was about Rohrl driving an immaculate, privately owned 1950's Porsche 356 in the Targa Tasmania rally a couple of years ago.

Rohrl went into the rally cold. His co-driver was told by officials to warn him about a small bridge on a closed section. Going over it at speed would risk damaging the bottom of the car.

As they neared the bridge, the co-driver said: "Walter, remember the bridge." Rohrl kept hammering ahead. "Walter, the bridge is coming up." Seconds later: "Walter, the bridge ... WALTER!"

The 356 cleared it, wheels off the ground. Not a scratch. Rohrl somehow stepped the car over it without missing a beat and powered on. "Remember," he told his co-driver. "You must walk the car like the dog."

No one deliberately stepped the latest Boxster over bridges on good and bad roads around the Hunter Valley. Nor did they offer any wisdom about cars and dogs.

There was some, however, from former Sydney chemist Peter Ireland, who learned stone-masonry in the 1970s so he could build a two-storey sandstone home and antique business in Pokolbin.

Ireland established Pepper's Creek, a handsome lodge built from sandstone. It came about seven years ago after he stumbled on a rare find of original sandstone blocks being demolished from the old Grace Bros store in Broadway, Sydney.

"The 300 tonnes of sandstone was mine, on the proviso that I could move it off site within three days, so I did," he said.

"It's always been the case that whenever I stumble on such a rare find, I bring it home and eventually find a practical use for it."

Porsche stumbled on a rare find when it first launched the Boxster in 1996. The two-seater roadster occupies a special place in the carmaker's world, in that it basically saved it from going broke.

It was built mostly from the 911 parts bin. Porsche sales through the early 1990s weren't strong and money was tight. The Boxster had to work. Nine years and more than 120,000 models on it has, thanks mostly to mid-life revisions and bigger, more powerful engines in 1999.

The new model and its choice of standard 2.7-litre or Boxster S 3.2-litre flat-six engines has more of everything: power, strength, agility, driveability, sportability and style. It has more legroom for drivers, thanks to the pedals being moved 10mm forwards, and better seating. The cabin is classier, too.

The suspension is stronger, stiffer, and lighter, with more use of aluminium to reduce unsprung weight. The track is wider. Spring and damper rates have been revised. So have the gearboxes, five- and six-speed manuals and a Tiptronic unit. The new car also gets bigger brakes and 17-inch wheels and the variable ratio steering rack from the new 911.

The mid-engined Boxster has also been a good handler with great directional stability. But the new model, although heavier than the outgoing car, is clearly the best yet, one of the best drives on the market.

Its superb chassis shakes off mid-corner corrections and dismisses the worst surfaces as mere irritations. Ride quality is magnificent and the steering is gloriously responsive and informative.

The standard 2.7-litre flat six Boxster produces 176kW (240bhp) at 6400rpm, 8kW more than its predecessor. Torque is also up, to 270Nm between 4700-6000. It costs $119,000.

The 3.2-litre engine in the Boxster S produces 206kW (280bhp) at 6200rpm, up from 191kW. Torque is 320Nm between 4700-6000rpm. It costs $139,900. The list of options includes ceramic brakes for the S. They cost around $20,000. The 18-inch alloys are $4830. The Porsche Stability Management system is a $2370 option. It's an electronic whizzbang unit that might help prevent the careless driver from turning the car on its ear. Such a driver would have to do something dumber than dumb for that to happen.