Porsche Boxster 982 718 Spyder 4.0 Approved

In an age where manufacturers trip over themselves chasing the highest horsepower figures, the quickest 0-62 and the most dazzling touchscreen, Porsche did something almost revolutionary back in 2019: they built a car with less. Fewer bells, fewer whistles, fewer gadgets. And that choice comes with a stick. A proper stick, with six gears you get to row through yourself. It sounds like a detail, but in this day and age it is practically a political statement.

You see, the 718 Spyder is not a car you buy because you need it. Nobody needs a manual mid-engined roadster with a four-litre six-cylinder boxer. You buy it because you understand what Porsche has done here: they took the engine from the GT4, mounted it right behind your head and bolted on a soft top you largely have to work by hand. No automatic, no electric fuss, just you and the mechanics. That is the point. That is the whole point.

And then there is that engine. The naturally aspirated 4.0-litre six that wants to spin well past 7,000 rpm, with no turbo to muddy the waters. A sound that starts as a deep gurgle and builds to a crescendo you would normally need a season ticket to the Royal Albert Hall for. The Sportabgasanlage lends a hand, should you somehow have forgotten what a real Porsche is meant to sound like.

Four hundred and twenty horsepower, all of it on tap without any trickery. This is Porsche as Ferry intended, albeit with thirty years of extra engineering in the chassis.

Right, back to the Spyder standing here with us in Katwijk. A 2021 example, finished in GT Silver metallic, a shade of grey that sits just right on a car that never shouts for attention but gets it anyway. The interior is trimmed in leather with alcantara, a combination that draws your fingers straight to the gear knob. The original Michelin summer tyres are still fitted, 245 up front and 265 at the rear, exactly as it should be.

What makes this Spyder special is not just what it is, but how it has been looked after. Delivered at Porsche Zentrum Kiel, then diligently serviced at Porsche Zentrum Fulda and now in the trusted hands of Porsche Centrum Twente in Deventer. A full Porsche service history, in other words, with a major service that included replacing the six spark plugs, refreshing the brake fluid and even giving the air conditioning a service. MOT valid until early 2027. In short: someone has treated this car exactly the way a 718 Spyder deserves to be treated.

Granted, for the money you could buy a tidy stack of other sports cars. But most of them come with an automatic, paddles behind the wheel and a sound simulator blaring through the speakers. This Spyder needs no simulator. This one has a clutch pedal, a gear knob and a boxer engine that delivers all the emotion you could ask for. It is the purist among modern Porsches, the car you buy when you understand that driving is about more than simply arriving.

In my time I have seen plenty of cars that were faster on paper, prettier, more exclusive. But there is something about a manual roadster with the engine in the middle that you will never catch in a spec sheet. It is the way the car thinks along with you, or rather deliberately does not, and leaves everything entirely up to you. A summer's day with the roof down along an empty country lane: that is what this car was made for. Not for the statistics, but for the feeling.

This is one of those cars that, fifteen years from now, will be mentioned with a knowing wink as the final chapter of a dying breed. The manual, naturally aspirated roadster. They do not make them like this any more, and they are not going to start again.

Grab that stick while you still can, before all that is left is a screen where your clutch used to be.

Key features

• Built 2021, colour GT Silver metallic
• Naturally aspirated 4.0-litre six-cylinder boxer, 420 bhp
• Manual six-speed gearbox, no automatic
• Nose protected with XPELL ppf
• Sportabgasanlage (sports exhaust)
• PASM adaptive suspension and PSM stability management
• Sport switch and cruise control
• Interior in leather with alcantara
• Original Michelin summer tyres (245/35/20 front, 265/30/20 rear)
• Full Porsche service history (Kiel, Fulda, Deventer)
• Recent major service: spark plugs, brake fluid and air conditioning service
• Margin car

Between two bends of the Großglockner

Nick Slinger

Copywriter · HooG Selections