Esquire Names 2013 Porsche Boxster Its Sports Car of the Year

The radically redesigned 2013 Porsche Boxster recently was heralded as “the best sports car in the business” by Esquire magazine, which appropriately named the potent Porsche its 2012 Sports Car of the Year.

Noted auto scribe Sam Smith, writing for Esquire, had nothing but praise for the new Boxster, calling out the mid-engined coupe as now a better choice than even the iconic Porsche 911. The latter may still be a “genuine world-beater” according to Smith, but the aggressive, performance-oriented upgrades to the latter, combined with its relatively affordable starting point of $49,500—as opposed to the 911’s MSRP of $82,100—give the Boxster an unbeatable advantage.

Of course, it also helps that Porsche’s comprehensive redesign of the Boxster followed Lotus’ longstanding dictum to “add lightness,” and then engineers complemented the car’s lower curb weight with more power. As a result, the 2013 Porsche Boxster weighs about 55 to 77 lbs. less than the 2012 version, depending on model—each of which weighs under 3,000 lbs.—while squeezing out an extra 5 and 10 hp from its four- and six-cylinder engines. And as an added bonus, the new Boxster is up to 15 percent more fuel-efficient, too.

The 2.7-liter I4 now produces 265 hp, 206 lb.-ft. of torque, 0-62 mph times of 5.5 seconds, a top speed in excess of 155 mph, and EPA marks of up to 22 mpg city/32 mpg highway/26 mpg combined.

With its 3.4-liter V6, those numbers are ratcheted up to 315 hp and 265 lb.-ft. of twist, delivering up 0-62 runs in 4.8 seconds, a terminal velocity up above 165 mph, and an EPA line of 21/30/24.

Perhaps more impressively, when the 2013 Porsche Boxster S took to the Nürburgring for performance evaluations, it also took 12 seconds off the quickest lap time of the comparably equipped 2012 model—and completed the course’s 154 turns and 12.9 miles in just 7:58.

So it’s no wonder Esquire’s editor in chief, David Granger, reported that the award-winning 2013 Porsche Boxster “is a near perfect sports car. It’s fun, aggressive and sounds great. 

“It serves as a thrilling reminder that cars still maintain the power to stimulate the imagination."