Four-point-whoa: The 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS

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  The weather wasn't great during my days with the new 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS, so you'll only be seeing Porsche's photos here. [credit: Porsche ]

Accidentally scheduling two different appointments for the same time slot is probably something all of us have done at least once or twice. In my case, that meant mistakenly booking a pair of test cars for the same week late last year. And they couldn't have been more different cars. I've already written about the Toyota Venza—it's an attractive and efficient hybrid crossover that charmed me far more than I expected after I drove from DC to upstate New York and back. I was already expecting good things from that week's other car—a 2021 Porsche 718 Boxster GTS—yet it, too, exceeded them.

The 718 Boxster is the entry point into the Porsche sports car range, but there's nothing entry-level about the $88,900 GTS. It sits almost at the top of the tree, between the cheaper, more everyday 718 Boxster S and the more expensive 718 Spyder, a car with which it shares an engine, which in this case is a 4.0L flat-six, an engine that makes Porsche nerds get a little weak at the knees.

Most of Porsche's power units have turned to turbocharging in the past few years—including the lesser variants of the 718—but not this four-liter lump, which remains resolutely naturally aspirated. Installed in the GTS, it makes 394hp (294kW), 20hp less than in the stripped-out Spyder. (Both GTS and Spyder make an identical 309lb-ft/420Nm). Although the engine isn't quite as rev-happy in the GTS as in the Spyder, it's not far off—the torque peak is between 5,000 to 6,500rpm, and peak power arrives at 7,000rpm, with a 7,800rpm redline to call time on things.

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