Spyder reviewed by a blonde...

[kpm]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danger

The blonde bird wasn't bad until I saw the tattoo on the arm. Very trailer park trash.

She had arms?? I didn't notice.

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Well the comments that "all you get for an extra $10K" seem to fail to take into account how expensive some of those upgrades are. For starters those seats are ridonkulusly expensive. The old GT3 seats in my car still set you back about $2K.
These second generation GT3 seats probably go for at least $5K a set in the aftermarket. Those 19" wheels which are lighter than the 18" wheels on an S model are also crazy expensive. I recently tried to replace just one of my old Carrera 18 inchers and the cost for one new factory wheel was $900 ($500 used, per wheel). Slap on 19" rubber and those Boxster Spyder wheels easily set you back $6K. That's your extra $10K on the window sticker right there.
Also, Dropping the equivalent weight of an extra full grown adult passenger is no small feat in a sports car. Additionaly, 320 HP is more power out of the box than 99% of the Porsche Carreras ever built. The standard Carrera didn't cross the 300 HP mark until the 997 was unveiled only five years ago. And again that's 320 HP on a very light car that meets all modern day safety requirements with two trunks to boot. That's pretty darn impressive for a modern day RS. Sure its very expensive but not really anymore expensive than all other over-priced Porsches which are regularly outperformed or equalled on the track by less expensive cars. This Boxster Spyder, which in manual gearbox form was faster around the track than a PDK equipped Cayman S, from lap #1 is only going to get better with more power and less weight. That's sounds exciting to me, although I wish they would have come up with a retractable softop that didn't use a motor, some sort of ball bearing/track system to conserve weight but keep practical like you saw on the old Miata.

p.s.
someone give the blonde a sandwich and a protein shake.

Amen to that. ALL of that, especially the manually retractable soft top. I know there exists this "let's go Spartan for the sake of shedding pounds" mentality, and I guess it's good in theory, even good in practice with regard to many items one can have (or choose not to have) in a driving machine. But what Porsche chose to do in this case seems totally impractical and, well, just kind of silly.

[JTP]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danger

The blonde bird wasn't bad until I saw the tattoo on the arm. Very trailer park trash.

I thought the same thing but if you see her background she's highly educated. Just has poor taste.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by Frodo

Amen to that. ALL of that, especially the manually retractable soft top. I know there exists this "let's go Spartan for the sake of shedding pounds" mentality, and I guess it's good in theory, even good in practice with regard to many items one can have (or choose not to have) in a driving machine. But what Porsche chose to do in this case seems totally impractical and, well, just kind of silly.

I think some engineer at Porsche thought it would be more dramatic looking if it had the bikini top instead of a Miata top. I used to have a miata and even in the worst downpours I could flick that top up and lock it shut in two seconds with one hand. If Porsche had used a high tech, lighweight fabric, some carbon fiber bows/frame materials and titanium hardware, the whole manual top could have been made at less than 8 pounds. It would probably cost a few grand to replace at the dealer but they probably spent 1,000 x's that much reinvening the wheel with the bikini top in the egineering lab.

p.s.
I dated a blonde with a terrible tatoo near the top of the bikin line. She got it when she was right out of highschool and has hated it every day since. That wasn't about to stop me from asking her out when I met her on the beach because she was a near perfect 10 otherwise.

[JTP]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

I think some engineer at Porsche thought it would be more dramatic looking if it had the bikini top instead of a Miata top. I used to have a miata and even in the worst downpours I could flick that top up and lock it shut in two seconds with one hand. If Porsche had used a high tech, lighweight fabric, some carbon fiber bows/frame materials and titanium hardware, the whole manual top could have been made at less than 8 pounds. It would probably cost a few grand to replace at the dealer but they probably spent 1,000 x's that much reinvening the wheel with the bikini top in the egineering lab.

I think the decision to go with the 'build it yourself' top has more to do with wanting to highlight the humps. A manual top wouldn't work with the way the humps go right up to the toll bars.

[husker boxster]

I thought I heard somewhere that Porsche is changing the top on this year's Spyder. Has anyone seen or heard that too? A design change would address the Spyder's weakest point.

The current bikini top would be impractical everywhere but SoCal, where it never rains. Opps, check that, it's impractical everywhere.

[JTP]

The Spyder's bikini top isn't that much more impractical than a Targa top from a 911 or a 914. Not that I can afford to go out and buy one but for me, the added performance of the Spyder is worth living without a power top and interior luxuries.

They will probably sell more Spyders in the UK than anywhere else despite the crappy weather there. Most Morgan owners never bother putting their tops up.