I never had the time to write this when I had the car, so here goes. My 996 was in OPC Edinburgh for 2 days, so they said I could have a courtesy car. Last time I got a Cayman, which was good, but not a turbo which I was used to. This time, low and behold, a new 981 Boxster S with only a few hundred miles on the clock. First impressions in sitting in it, very nice indeed. The cockpit feeling you get, like the 991 is very comforting. I'm not the smallest person, and I easily fitted in and couldn't reach the pedals or steering wheel, which brings me to my first feature. When you jump in and put the key in the ignition, the seat moves forward and the steering wheel comes out to meet you. Obviously you can adjust them, but for someone my size, it made getting in and out a lot more comfortable. The key was a small plastic car shaped item, very nice, which slotted into the dash and brought the instrument cluster to life. Very familiar layout, but very modern with it's all digital display.
Setting off was very easy, with the electronic handbrake, and I was out of the car park and off to work. I work in Edinburgh city centre so a morning crawl through rush hour traffic was a bit daunting. After my experience last year of getting out of Turin at morning rush hour in my Pride&Joy, which can only be classed as character building, I thought I'd be in for a re-run in a brand new 981. I can honestly say that the drive in was a pleasure. No problems, no issues, no panics and no big deal to the car. I park in an under ground car park, so the car was safe and I headed into the office feeling better than I had expected.
The drive home was even better. Now up to this point I haven't mentioned the gearbox..................... well................ as some who thinks auto boxes have their place ( I had one in my 928 ), and tiptronic isn't my thing ( test driven a few 996 turbos with one )....................... I am now converted and believe my next Porsche will have a PDK box. It's not an auto, it's not a tiptronic, it's quite unbelievable that it feels so good and I didn't have a clutch?
The drive home is around 5 miles to get out of the city, then the A70 from Edinburgh to Carnwath for 20 miles, then into Lanark. This is an A road, but with twists and turns, long straights and plenty of hills. While showing the car the respect I had hoped they were showing my 996, I had so much fun driving home and back in the next morning. The feeling if weight distribution is quite reassuring. It was effortless to change gear, PSE sound better than my 996 Turbo and the flappy paddles were so precise. The sound system was great, the bluetooth worked without even trying and satnav is much better now you can use a postcode.
Would I have one? Yes in 10 years when the price has dropped.
