38 10BEST FOR 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG PAJO ~ JANUARY 2020 ~ CAR AND DRIVER
that the C8’s performance advan-
tage would turn the Cayman’s even-
money base price into a punchline.
Yet it didn’t.
There’s a purity of purpose to
both the Boxster and Cayman that
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fessional cynicism and makes any
journey memorable. You get the
sense that every dynamic detail
has been considered to an almost
fetishistic degree, from the per-
fect weighting of the steering to
exactly the right level of resistance
in the shift action of the six-speed
manual. (The optional dual-clutch
automatic is class leading, too.) That
perfection is also seen in the chas-
sis damping and handling balance,
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cornering line.
Dynamically, these Porsches are
calligraphy pens in a world of drive-
way mops. Even the BMW M2 Com-
petition feels like a blunt weapon in
comparison. Then there’s the killer
fact that you don’t need to go fast to
have fun, which is categorically not
the case with most rivals. While
we have no doubt we’d feel special
driving these attention-grabbing
Porsches on Nice’s Promenade des
Anglais, we can attest that’s equally
true when maneuvering around
the rusted Tahoes in the local Jet’s
Pizza parking lot.
We can grumble, of course. So
we will. We would have preferred if
Porsche had stuck with the ripping
and sweet six-cylinder engines of
previous generations, although
the turbocharged fours deliver
much more usable low-end grunt.
We’d also like a more inspiring
soundtrack and for a few more of the
extra-cost toys to come standard.
For example, the base Boxster still
uses manual climate control rather
than automatic. But put us up for a
week in a French château and we’d
complain that it was drafty. As the
internal-combustion sports car
enters what is likely its 11th hour,
and as Porsche rushes toward its
own battery-powered future, the
Boxster and Cayman remain proof
that the brand has not abandoned
the values that made it great.
There’s a romantic escape in every
turn of the wheel. ²:VXR1bWhen the kids outgrow
the 911’s back seat, there’s
the Porsche Macan.In the quest for speed, you’ll need power and grip,
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The Porsche Macan excels at power and grip, but it’s
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It communicates in many subtle ways. Bits of
information come up through the steering, brakes,
and suspension. The result is that it feels alive at any
speed, a trait that runs through Porsche’s entire
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in just the right way. You can’t push it too far. It never
feels out of sorts or on the ragged edge. Yet, surpris-
ingly among sporty SUVs, it rides well; the Macan
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among its competition just as it does on the Tail
of the Dragon, a motorcycle-heav y road on the
Tennessee-North Carolina border where we wentThe Great