This week was quite historic in a South African Porsche sense — it was the first ever proper local launch of one of the Stuttgart cars when the latest Boxster and Cayman were revealed to local motoring scribes...

The event also celebrated the completion of Porsche Centre Umhlanga — in essence a 50 percent scale version of Toby's Paulshof facility in Sandton. "We need to service our growing Porsche car park in the Durban area," the dynamic SA Porsche boss explained. "Not to mention have a proper facility to best look after out clientelle and our growing range..."

Attention soon turned to the new model — its styling may be a mild evolution with newly-designed front and rear ends that don't stray too far from what we're used to. The new halogen headlights with their integrated direction indicators are reminiscent of the lights on the Carrera GT, while the new LED rear lights tapering out to the outside and integrated elegantly in the modified rear end of the car.

Big changes beneath the skin

The big changes are beneath the skin. The highlight of the new generation are the new flat-six boxer engines developed with new technical features from the ground up, providing not only more power but also significantly greater fuel efficiency than their predecessors.

A further improvement of both fuel economy and performance is guaranteed by perhaps the most mpressive aspect of the newcomer — the new Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) double-clutch gearbox.

Displacing 2.9 litres, the 'basic' engine develops 188kW in the Boxster and 195kW in the Cayman, 10 percent more power than before.

The 3.4-litre engine in the S-versions, benefiting from Direct Fuel Injection, now deliver 228kW in the Boxster S and 235kW in the Cayman S. Couple this to the PDK gearbox and Launch Control featured in the optional Sports Chrono Package, and it'll pelt from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds, while the Boxster with the standard six-speed manual gearbox sprints it in 5.9 seconds. The PDK gearbox allows the models to accelerate to 100km/h 0.1 seconds quicker than the six-speed manual versions.

There’s an economy advantage too. When mated to the PDK 'box, both the Boxster and Cayman fall below the 9.0-litres per 100km consumption mark for the first time, with a claimed combined cycle figure of 8.9l/00km. That's 11 percent less than the previous models fitted with Tiptronic S transmission. The 3.4-litre PDK versions offer an even greater consumption reduction amounting to 16 percent, with a combined figure of 9.2l/100km.

Responsive and easy to use

Talking about the new 'box, Venter explains it's a most responsive unit as he points out that the double-clutch transmission is actually a Porsche invention after all, which was run in the fearsome works 956 sports racers in the '80s.

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