It’s been every week now since I drove the 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS within the rolling hills of the Swabian Alps in Germany. Usually I don’t get this a lot time to mirror on a day of driving a brand new automotive earlier than writing about it, however I’m glad that on this case, I did. See, the 718 Spyder RS is a comparatively easy automotive, but it surely generates some advanced emotions in me, not the least of which is remorse as a result of this would be the final mid-engine inside combustion automobile to return from Zuffenhausen. With that weight on its shoulders, the Spyder RS must make a press release. However does it succeed?
To start out, the best strategy to describe the 718 Spyder RS is because the roofless sibling of the Cayman GT4 RS. They share a drivetrain – the 911 GT3’s 4.0-liter 9,000-rpm 500-hp flat-six and that automotive’s seven-speed PDK dual-clutch gearbox, completely – and so they share some physique panels, too, plus an inside (minus the roof, obvs). The place they differ is of their supposed function and the tuning that Porsche GT czar Andy Preuninger has given them to realize that function.
The place the Cayman GT4 RS is a hardcore track-rat’s dream, with unflinching suspension and an enormous adjustable wing out again, the 718 Spyder RS is supposed as a automotive for the highway and for driving engagement. It’s a softer, extra snug automotive (although given the standard of German roads, it’s onerous to say by how a lot that’s noticeable) with much less aero because of a shorter entrance lip and the change to a ducktail spoiler with Gurney flap (or wicker invoice for those who’re a Corvette engineer studying this).
For those who’re pondering that it’s bizarre {that a} Porsche product with an enormous fats RS on the finish of its mannequin identify being arrange for quick, enjoyable highway driving is bizarre, you’re not unsuitable. When in comparison with one thing like the completely bananas 911 GT3 RS, it virtually doesn’t make since that Porsche didn’t name it one thing else. Nonetheless, I’ll verify to you now that this automotive remains to be razor sharp and impossibly fast down a curvy highway – seemingly faster and sharper than you might be as a driver, if we’re being sincere. Fortunately, it’s nonetheless a reasonably forgiving automotive, and Porsche’s digital security programs are among the many greatest within the enterprise, so that you’re not prone to want your brown pants for those who take the automotive out for an actual rip.
The suspension setup is mechanically virtually equivalent to what you’d discover on the GT4 RS, simply with considerably decreased spring charges. It’s nonetheless heim-jointed and ultra-adjustable, and whilst you’d usually really feel and listen to all of the vibrations, clunks, creaks and rattles {that a} hard-mounted suspension brings with it, on this automotive, you don’t, and that brings me to the subsequent neatest thing in regards to the Spyder RS: the intakes.
For those who’ve learn something in regards to the GT4 RS, then you definitely’ve seemingly heard folks wax on in regards to the automotive’s epic, all-consuming consumption noise. With that air-hungry GT3 motor spinning at 9,000 rpm, these facet window-mounted air scoops make for one hell of a racket, and within the Spyder, that racket is even wilder as a result of the intakes are open and mounted just about proper by your head.
In the course of the press drive, my co-driver used a cellphone app to measure the amount of that consumption honk beneath full throttle. He noticed a excessive of 106 dB. In fact, a cellphone app isn’t that correct, however even when it’s off by 5 decibels, that’s nonetheless loud sufficient to trigger everlasting listening to harm after half-hour. That is the primary time I’ve wished a pair of earplugs in a inventory highway automotive and whereas that’s undoubtedly gnarly, it’s additionally fairly fucking rock-and-roll for those who ask me.
Every little thing else in regards to the automotive and the way it drives is kind of improbable, however that shouldn’t come as a shock. The 718 platform is now fairly previous and intensely well-sorted. The drivetrain is a identified amount and probably the greatest ever created, although I do lament the shortage of a handbook transmission possibility. The explanation it doesn’t have one is two-fold. First, the six-speed from the 911 wouldn’t match (the axles are within the unsuitable place) and redeveloping it to work with a mid-engine platform simply wasn’t cost-effective. Secondly, Porsche maintains that RS fashions needs to be dual-clutch solely because it’s quicker.
The 718 Spyder’s different trick is its comparatively mild (a minimum of by at the moment’s requirements) curb weight of three,109 lbs (in European trim). That makes the automotive a whopping 88 kilos lighter than the PDK Boxster Spyder and 11 kilos lighter even than the Cayman GT4 RS. That delta will increase for those who buck up for the Weissach bundle which provides a bunch of carbon fiber bits and a titanium exhaust and you may spend much more ($15,650, to be particular) on magnesium wheels, which drop a complete of twenty-two lbs of unsprung and rotating mass.
The opposite large change from the 718 Boxster and Boxster Spyder is the transfer to a very handbook roof. The one energy element is you popping the rear clamshell to entry the roof and most of its fixings. As handbook roofs go, this one feels a little bit bit too DIY, but it surely’s not unmanageable, it provides two extra methods to expertise the automotive and it appears dope when its up. It’s a single layer of cloth, and the onerous elements are largely carbon fiber, so it’s depraved mild. How mild? Attempt 40 kilos, all in, and you may simply go away most of that 40 lbs at residence for those who’re satisfied it received’t rain. Bonus!
Right here’s a cellphone video of me making an attempt to place it up after having accomplished it for apply a number of occasions. I apologize for the wind noise and for being a spaz, but it surely was actually windy.
The halfway place with the primary a part of the highest up, however no wind deflector/rear window is perhaps my favourite strategy to drive the automotive. It acts like a solar sail and provides up loads of climate safety however doesn’t curb any of that giggle-inducing and ear-splitting consumption sound. One main annoyance with the highest is that if it’s put in, you may not open the rear clamshell. You must unbuckle the 2 rear tensioning flaps (manually, on both sides of the automotive) earlier than you may entry the rear trunk. Is it a dealbreaker? No. Does it sort of suck? Yeah, however that’s why you’ve gotten an enormous entrance trunk to make use of, proper?
So, we’ve up to now established that the 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS is a depraved quick and tremendous agile mid-engine sports activities automotive that’s approach much less handy to have and use than a daily ol’ 718 Boxster. We’ve established too that this isn’t the automotive for you for those who’re making an attempt to exit and chase lap occasions. Lastly, we’ve established that this automotive will most likely damage your listening to completely however that it’s price it. With all that, does the 718 Spyder RS make a sufficiently big assertion to justify its lofty $162,350 beginning worth (together with a $1,650 vacation spot cost)?
Hell sure, it does. It feels just like the GT division’s love letter to the outgoing mid-engine chassis, and it additionally looks like Andy and his crew letting free a little bit bit and making the sort of automotive that they’d need to drive quite than one which’s out to set Nurburgring lap occasions. It’s particular, and for therefore many causes, it’s a straightforward automotive to like. I can’t wait to spend extra time in it on my residence roads, the place my spouse and I can share a pair of earplugs (left for me, proper for her) and let that lovely flat-six yowl its guts out.
The 2024 718 Spyder RS is ready to hit the US market in early 2024, however the always-absurdly-granular Porsche configurator is dwell now, so present me your best spec. Right here’s how I’d have mine:
