The Boxster at 25

Yes, I’d have a Spyder if I could, because the magic that the GT department worked on the chassis elevates it even further and makes it my favourite current Porsche, GT3 included. But the GTS is its equal in many areas and even nicks a point or two back for having a roof that doesn’t require you to stop to put it up when it rains.

Probably the only real misgiving I had about this particular Boxster was the way it looked, because it wasn’t actually a GTS, but the mechanically identical Boxster 25 Years. I know: who thought the ‘Years’ was really necessary in that name? It starts at a whisker under £74,000, which is worryingly close to the price of the aforementioned Spyder, but there are about £10,000 of options for the £6000 uplift over a normal GTS. Bargain.

Anyway, I rather liked it when I saw the photos back in January. But as anyone who has ever used a dating app will know, you can’t really rely on those. In the cold light of an Autumn day it looked a bit less attractive as it rolled off a trailer. The wheels were very bold. There was much more gold, sorry Neodyne, than I was expecting, too.

But it was the Bordeaux roof and matching interior that really didn’t work for me. So much going on. Like someone had spilt white wine on a pale carpet and then tried to rectify the damage by pouring half a bottle of red all over it.

Thankfully there are other colour options for the Boxster 25 Years. You could have Deep Black Metallic or Carrara White Metallic instead of the GT Silver Metallic paint. The roof and interior could both be dulled all the way down to black as well, if you wanted. Black, black and black with the highlights in that shade of Chardonnay could be quite attractive. Bear with me a minute…chat amongst yourselves… Yes, I’ve just been on the Porsche configurator and that spec does look much better. A lot better.

But then it rather misses the point. It needs to be silver and red otherwise it doesn’t really pay homage to what happened 28 years ago. You think that’s a typo, but it’s not. This should be the Boxster 28 Years. Or it should have been released in 2018, because it was in 1993 that this colour scheme first broke cover on something called a Boxster.

I was only 11 at the time and more concerned with speed than future model strategy so I wasn’t really paying attention. I also preferred Ferraris. But I’ve gone back and done a bit more reading (Randy Leffingwell’s book A History of Excellence gave the most interesting account), which shed a whole new light on the car I had parked outside.

The short story is that the Boxster appeared at the Detroit motor show in 1993 after Arno Bohn (Porsche CEO) and Harm Lagaay (Director of Design) had walked round the Tokyo show in late 1991  and the CEO had questioned why Porsche never did any concepts. Lagaay’s eyes lit up. There was some sort of intercontinental brainstorm via fax that night and Lagaay presented the first sketch of the Boxster to Bohn over the hotel cornflakes the following morning. That sketch belonged to Montana-born Grant Larson who had taken inspiration from the legendary 550 Spyder and the RSK. So really you could say it was conceived 30 years ago.

There was a worry that, this being Porsche, there would be the need for a full engineering study to be worked up, when all Lagaay wanted was a spaceframe to build the show car around. Thankfully nothing got in Harm’s way. During the course of 1992 the sketch was worked up into a full-size model and although the initial plan was for it to be unveiled at Geneva in March the following year, the decision was taken to waste no time and show it in January at the International Auto Show in Detroit.

It seems hard to believe now, but Porsche was tucked away in a corner on a tiny stand, as befitted its status back then. The recession had not been kind to the Stuttgart marque and times were very tough. The night before the show opened there was a crisis meeting amongst those due to be on the stand. They all worked out how they would answer the anticipated awkward questions from the journalists. Questions like ‘What will become of Porsche when it goes bankrupt?’ Note it was ‘when’ not ‘if’. Things really were that bad.

Anticipating it might be the last ever, hundreds of reporters turned up for the Porsche press conference the next day. The US distributor gave a speech, asked the throng if there were any questions and someone enquired what was under the cover. The silky sheet was pulled off and suddenly nobody cared about balance sheets. This silver, mid-engined car with gold highlights and a red interior was the future. The Boxer-Speedster, known as Boxster, had shown the way out of the darkness and people hurried to put down deposits there and then.

Clearly there was still much work to do before the company was saved, not least getting the Boxster into production three years later, but the concept meant the circling vultures increased their altitude. Porsche wasn’t dead just yet.

And that’s why, 28 years later, you’d have to order a Boxster 25 Years in silver with a red interior. Yes, it might get tiresome having to explain your curious choice of colour scheme to people, but at least it will make a change from explaining why you bought a Boxster not a 911.