And just like that, the Porsche 718 was gone...
The Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman have sad their farewells, and the world is slightly emptier without them. Some cars remain in your memory long after you’ve walked away from them. This is usually because people ask you about all the time - forcing your memory to hold the experience, others have convinced your head and slipped Into your heart when you weren’t looking. From the moment you thread a 718 down a twisting B-road, you know if you are in something special. The way it flows through corners and wiping away your cares of the world. At last, just time, a wheel, and road ahead. Too many of these occasions are thrown off balance when a journalist writes about exhilaration of clipping the corner just right, only to reveal to the audience that the experience is the other side of a mountainous price tag. Not so on the 718.
Admittedly, the early four-cylinder turbo models didn’t make the best first impression. Porsche fans aren’t the most forgiving (it’s the only brand with a world wide police on how to pronounce the name properly) and replacing the old flat-six with a turbocharged four-pot that sounded more Subaru than Stuttgart was never going to go down well. But once you got past the noise, the performance was undeniable—sharp throttle response, plenty of torque, and a chassis so good it almost didn’t matter what was sitting behind the seats. Almost.
Then, of course, Porsche did what Porsche does best: listened. When they dropped the 4.0-litre flat-six into the GTS, GT4, and Spyder, everything clicked into place. There was a 718 for the many, and one for the lucky few, the GTS 4.0 the great bridge between the two. That engine transformed the 718 into something truly special, a reminder of why we love naturally aspirated power in a world increasingly obsessed with turbos and batteries. The 718 was always great, but in its final years, it became properly, spine-tinglingly brilliant.
And yet, just as it reached its peak, the 718 is gone. Like that superstar singer that hits platinum three times in a row and exited the stage never to be seen again. Sadly, there is usually always a back story and the demise of the 718 is a complicated affair, but simply, the world changed. Not because of emissions regulations, not because sales dried up, but because of—wait for it—cybersecurity issues. Yes, in possibly the most 21st-century way for a sports car to die, the 718’s electronic architecture was deemed vulnerable to cyber threats, forcing Porsche to pull the plug. Not exactly the dramatic send-off a car like this deserved. What a world we have made for ourselves when the joy of a sports car can be wiped out because of the threat of a laptop.
But if you can get your hands on one, do it. Because in a world where driving is becoming less about feel and more about software updates, the 718 is a reminder of what we’re in danger of losing. A mid-engined masterpiece, gone too soon.
A note from Miles...
For taller dirvers the 718 is a squeeze, but its worth wedging yourself behind the wheel, there are few cars like the 718 in existence today, but even with a full field of competitors it would stand out as the one to own.
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