The black soft top apart – you can choose other colours – the dark theme continues on the inside. Get into the sports bucket-seat and the leather and alcantara combo just make you want to never get out. And then there’s the stitching. The contrast white stitching in two ways points to the attention to detail which seems almost shovelled into it until you think about the painstaking effort every Porsche builder puts into each car.
The interior is extremely high-quality and, being a compact two-seater, is very snug; especially for a six-footer like yours truly. That said, by no means is it uncomfortable. The powered steering wheel, and seat controls for not just the slide and recline functions, but also for the side and lower bolsters and lumbar support, make finding the perfect driving position in the GTS a breeze. The instrument console has a speedo marked up to 300 km/h, with 100 km/h appearing at about 9 o’clock, very deceptive on the move indeed. The centre-piece, however, is the big rev-counter red-lining at close to 8,000 RPM; smile-widening stuff. Stick the Porsche-shaped key into the ignition slot and turn. Six pistons fire to life and bark into the silence engulfed by cold morning air. Memories of Porscheplatz and flat-sixes singing to glory rush through my mind.
The engine is the 3,436-cc Boxer-six unit, which, in the Boxster GTS, makes 330 PS and 370 Nm; 15 PS and 10 Nm up from the Boxster S (and just 20 PS and 20 Nm down on the 911 Carrera). It is well-known that the Volkswagen Group have a lot under their umbrella, but this engine is signature Porsche. Unlike its Italian cousin, however, it is longitudinally mid-mounted, just inches away from my transverse posterior for that matter. Thankfully, the amount of material is more than enough to keep things from getting just a little too hot, but not too much to drown out the glorious engine note.
Like a bassmeister, the flat-six delivers a baritone note post its throat-clearing bark. Step on the throttle and the bass volume rises — it so melodic, it sticks to the scale and, just as it is about to peak, the Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe shifts up a gear akin to the bassist changing a chord. The note is constant, the change is evident, the result is euphoric! Not only is the exhaust note from the brilliant sports exhaust mesmerising, the accompanying increase in speed ensures you don’t close your eyes in appreciation, rather it makes absolutely sure that your ears and eyes are processing the input enough to keep your brain on full alert.
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