Porsche 718 Spyder RS Review | Your hairdresser will hate it

There was a time when driving a Porsche Boxster attracted a few generalisations, one of which being that it was a hairdresser's car, that those who bought it simply wanted to pose and admire their reflection in shop windows as they bumble through town in first gear with exhaust valves open and top firmly down. Some might say that if you bought one, you were the kind of person that cared more about your Tresemme freezehold than your Porsche torque vectoring. And all I can say is that if that was you, then you're probably not going to like this latest version very much. Welcome to the Porsche 718 Spyder RS. It's essentially a Cayman GT4 RS but in drop-top Boxster form. So that means the same lightweight construction, the same beefed-up chassis and, most importantly, the same 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six stolen from the 911 GT3. If there were any more lingering questions about whether the Boxster is a proper Porsche, then this should answer them emphatically. It really is like the Cayman GT4 RS and a Boxster went off to a little side room at the Porsche Christmas party and this is the result. I mean, the front end is almost identical to the GT4 RS so you've still got the same CFRP bonnet with the dual NACA air ducts and they're quite clever because they can cool the brakes without interrupting the aerodynamics which is pretty important and it's why they use so much on racing cars. You've also got these same side blades at the front, you've got a little cutout behind the wheel and also the air vents on top of the wheel arch. We first saw these on the 991 GT3 RS and what they do is they reduce the pressure in the wheel well and that can then reduce the lift at the front end which is definitely something that you don't want so they are very important, they're not just there for show. Within the wheel well you've got the optional Vizac pack forged magnesium wheels so the regular wheels are forged aluminium, these are magnesium and that saves about 10kg which is a nice little saving actually and also standard across all the wheels are the centre locked wheels which are very cool and we've seen those on 911 GT3 RS and Cayman GT4 RS. Another thing which you can get on this is the optional front axle lift and that's the first time that we've seen that on a 718 convertible so it will stop you from scuffing the front splitter which by the way is the only different part from the Cayman GT4 RS so it's actually a little bit smaller and the reason for that is that there's not, as I'm sure you've noticed, a big big spoiler at the back, it's a lot more subtle so if you have the same size splitter with a smaller spoiler you get an aerodynamic imbalance and obviously that's not ideal so they've made it smaller and actually I wouldn't have put it past Porsche to put a ginormous spoiler on the back but I think the little ducktail more subtle design actually works more cohesively with that double bubble clamshell design and they do point out that the point of this car or the point of the aerodynamics rather isn't maximum downforce, it's about creating stable aerodynamics so you don't get blown to shreds when you've got the roof down and actually if we move down the side of the car we can see that it's still got the side intakes just behind the driver and the passenger's ears and that is crucial to getting that incredible noise when you hit the higher rpms and it sounds pretty simple keeping them in but actually they had to redesign lots of bits around the folding roof mechanism and the brackets and it was actually pretty complicated so they've kept it in and the good news is that it should sound even better than the GT4 RS but we'll find out. The cabin also gets the RS treatment with a Racetex covered wheel and contrasting coloured full bucket seats made from lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastic. All in the whole car weighs 1410 kilograms which is 40 kilograms less than the 718 Spider and five kilograms less than the Cayman GT4 RS. Now that last figure might grab your attention because usually when you've got a coupe and a convertible and they are ostensibly the same car you'll find that the convertible unless there's a carbon tub the convertible will be heavier and that's because you've got to strengthen it because you've taken away the roof which is integral to the structural rigidity but with this it was built from the ground up to be a drop top and that means that you can take the roof away and only make it a tiny bit less stiff but you get the full benefit of not having a big heavy metal roof and that means that in terms of driving dynamics there should be very little compromise. Porsche's backed that up by lowering the ride height by 30 millimeters as standard when compared with the 718 Boxster. There's also Porsche torque vectoring with a limited slip diff, ball-jointed suspension bearings to give greater precision when cornering and the whole front axle assembly is almost identical to the 991.2 911 GT3 RS. You can even adjust things like the camber, the anti-roll and the ride height and someone from Porsche UK was telling me that a lot of customers come in for a track setup on their GT4 RS and they'll knock the camber to minus four degrees just to dial out a little bit of understeer. It might be a roadster but this is still a serious serious performance car but thankfully Porsche has made one little concession. See one of the things that I felt let the Cayman GT4 RS down on our sports car giant test last year was that it was incredibly firm and it did struggle on some bumpier roads. However because the Spyder is a convertible and therefore more road-based the spring rates have been reduced by 55 percent at the front and 43 percent at the rear in theory giving a more compliant feel. Now as I'm sure you can see on some of the outside shots these German roads are wonderfully smooth they're like a snooker table they are absolutely perfect and that means that it's hard to make a comparison to the GT4 RS but I drove that in the UK where the roads are less than perfect. However having looked high and low for some little bumps and ruts that I can find on these lovely German roads I'm pretty confident in saying that you can feel a difference and that's not surprising when you see how much they've actually softened it off by. So the big difference is it doesn't hop around at the rear end as much the tyres are more in contact with the road more of the time not to mention the fact that when you're just cruising around it's more comfortable for sure. And something else that I've noticed which again might just be down to the surface quality of the roads but switching the dampers into their firmer setting doesn't make as much difference as I think it did in the GT4 RS or in fact any other Porsche RS model. It's usually quite a noticeable change but in this I reckon you could drive pretty much any road in the regular damper setting and it would be absolutely spot on. On track yeah then you'd notice the difference but out here I don't think you would that much. I still think though that like in the GT4 RS there could be more steering feel and more positivity just off centre. Remember it shares pretty much the same front axle setup as the 991.2 GT3 RS and while that's impressive newer Porsche GT products with the upgraded double wishbone front suspension do feel like a watershed moment for Porsche's sports car. They definitely have a better front end and actually speaking of water oh oh no oh. Now despite the fact that the Spyder RS's roof is only really for emergency downpours it does have some neat stats to go along with it. Porsche proudly advertises that it weighs just 18.3 kilos almost half the mass of the arrangement in the 718 Boxster. It's also been completely redesigned from the base car owing to the air intakes taking up the existing space. From a dynamics point of view it is very impressive but it does take some getting used to as you can see. Oh my god oh no oh my car's getting wet what do I do right okay right now it's all slippery as well oh no I'm gonna do open this up oh my god just start over there oh no okay I made a start it's getting caught all right hang on yes right done that bit finally oh thank god the rain's eased off this comes over here that goes in there that goes in there like so wonderful and we hook that in there come around the other side where's that got to shut that right that goes in there cool and that goes in there and then right in fairness to Porsche it wasn't designed so the journalists who'd only just learned how to do the roof today could do it quickly I think once you've owned the car and it's yours and you've done it 10 times over you'll be able to do it a lot quicker than me because that that wasn't very quick and I'm out of breath but I'm dry. It's at this point where you may well be questioning whether the soft top is indeed worth it after all the GT4 RS is equally weatherproofed without the hassle yet while the removable roof adds complication it does allow you to experience that incredible intake sound with even greater clarity. I wondered how taking the roof off would change that incredible intake sound because all the acoustics are going to be different but in reality it's even better I'm going so far as to say that with the sun cover on and the rain cover off it makes it like an echo chamber and in that case it's almost too loud it's yeah like that but another 50 percent oh my weight is going to bounce off the cliff here or the rock face oh oh man wow engine 493 brake horsepower at about 8,300 rpm and it will go to 9,000 if you really want to wring it out it's a little bit less power than the GT3 because the exhausts have got a longer way to go but should you care no no absolutely not zero to 62 miles an hour under three and a half seconds zero to 99 miles an hour in just over seven now when you say that the speed of this car isn't its strongest asset then it makes you realize how good the rest of it is the responses from this engine are savage I mean I'm in the power band now second gear really really razor sharp zero delay and interestingly I reckon that the gearbox on this the seven speed PDK is actually different to the seven speed PDK on the GT3 and the GT3 RS and I think this is even quicker I mean of course it would be lovely if you could have a manual option wouldn't that be incredible but I can't take away anything from this gearbox I mean fifth gear now listen fourth third second it rev matches perfectly for those spending £123,000 on a 718 Spyder RS the question of cash is perhaps a bit of a moot point and yet it's hard to ignore the fact that this car is exactly the same price as the 718 Cayman GT4 RS it really is a straight up choice between the two do you have the additional focus and firmness of the Cayman or put up with the Spyder's roof for those perfect moments where you can ruin your hair with abandon and drink in that spine tingling flat six soundtrack with even greater theatre I honestly think I would have this because the amount that you lose in outright sharpness and that little bit of stiffness and the ability to have the stiffer springs I think that loss versus the gain that you get from having all of this and also having the softer springs that makes it more usable and usable is the key because you want to use a car like this that's worth it and honestly if this really is the final combustion engine Porsche Boxster Porsche Cayman and what a way to go out