Cupra Leon swapped for Boxster GTS
MONDAY
Decent week for quick cars. Today, the fastest Cupra estate (the 306bhp Leon 4Drive with seven-speed dual-clutch ’box) gets delivered to my place, mainly because it’s a handy droppingoff point for something the road testers have in mind. Rude not to take a quick whizz up the road so I do – and discover it’s much better than I expected. I’ve tended to file all Golf-based Volkswagen Group models under ‘G’, but in this case, it’s a mistake.
This car has its own good looks, its own character and its own driving position, control layout and feel. It’s hugely quick for a dog-toter (0-62mph in 4.9sec) and the performance is easy to deploy. You can stroke it along pretty quickly on favourite A- and B-roads, enjoying a different kind of neatness and balance. Sure, I got lost in the multifarious menus of its infotainment, but who doesn’t? Best of all, the Leon is due to be swapped in a couple of days for our Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 long-termer, which tester Ricky Lane will leave with me for a few days.
TUESDAY
When not driving, I seem to be reading. I’ve just scored Evro Publishing’s reprint of Karl Ludvigsen’s remarkable book about Lotus founder Colin Chapman, Inside the Innovator, which I failed to read when it first appeared in 2010. You couldn’t call it a biography, but its discussion of Chapman’s view and progress on important technical subjects (concepts, structures, downforce and more) gives a fantastic insight into the man himself, especially as his associates are liberally quoted. Ludvigsen has written over 60 erudite books; this is surely one of his finest.
WEDNESDAY
Boxster day: Ricky and I swap cars at that unique outpost for car lovers, Caffeine & Machine, just off the Fosse Way at Ettington. We sit half an hour in the sunshine over a coffee. Then I head home on back routes because the Fosse is clogged with holiday traffic and some wizard of road repairs has chosen today to set up a one-way system in Moreton-in-marsh’s main drag. On market day. This spares me an excruciating 25 minutes of queueing. Surely, major improvements to progress would result if the authorities applied a little awareness to the hold-ups they create, rather than evidently giving the repairers carte blanche?
❝ The Boxster GTS 4.0 is terrific but I’m not instantly hooked
❞
THURSDAY
Time for a Cotswolds sprint in our Boxster, the normally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six model Porsche’s buyers and testers demanded after the company relaunched the car with a turbo flat four that (some claim) sounded like a vacuum cleaner. It’s as terrific as expected, and more practical in my world than a 911 because it’s smaller and better balanced. But I’m surprised not to instantly join the gotta-have-one camp that contains so many other scribblers. To me, the Boxster’s 25-year-old sports car character is changed in this car. You now have to drive ferocious speeds to hear it in full voice and feel the meat of the performance. And I get the feeling the lighter engine in the lesser car might feel nicer, too. Anyway, I’ve asked to borrow a flatfour car, even if only to discover how wrong I am.