2001 Porsche Boxster S Road Test

Take one of the best handling sports cars ever created, add a larger, more powerful engine, one extra gear, superior braking and what do you have? Near perfection. That said the 'base' Boxster, with its mid-mounted 2.7-litre, horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder engine and 5-speed manual gearbox is better since last year. Porsche addressed initial criticism of less than optimal power by upping output from 204 hp to a robust 217. To tell you the truth, if I had never sat behind the wheel of the new 'S' I would probably have been totally satisfied not knowing what I was missing. Well, maybe not totally satisfied. I just can't remember.