Porsche 718 Boxster Spyder review

Because the Spyder is derived from a regular Boxster, it shares many of its excellent qualities, including the driving position. It’s pretty much spot on, stretching your legs out to meet the perfectly placed pedals, and a steering wheel that's nicely in line with both. There’s an extensive range of reach and height adjustment, too.

Our test car had optional bucket seats. These are truly enveloping, holding you firmly through bends, but you cannot adjust the backrest angle. Fore and aft adjustment is achieved manually, and electric height adjustment is still provided, but those who enjoy a bit more flexibility should stick with the standard seats. 

Visibility is good out the front but restricted rearwards with the roof up. Roof down, those restrictions disappear and you can see easily in every direction. In any case the usual array of parking sensors are available, and at night you get bright, bi-xenon headlights that can be upgraded to adaptive LEDs.

Infotainment is the standard Boxster’s 7.0in touchscreen with sat-nav, Bluetooth, a DAB radio and Apple CarPlay. It’s pretty good but outdone by the Z4’s system for both features and functionality. Of course, it's possible that won’t matter to you and you’ll choose Porsche’s weight-saving option of deleting the infotainment entirely, leaving you with a shelf instead — for a small map, perhaps?

It all feels very well bolted together and nicely finished with lashings of leather and Alcantara — the steering wheel is so trimmed and feels great to the touch. 

For more general information about the regular Boxster, head to our main review.