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Porsche 718 Boxster Base Spec Rendered with Plastic Bumpers and Steel Wheels

As you all know, Porsche just gave the Boxster a major refresh and called it the 718. The base version now comes with a 2-liter flat-4 engine producing 300 horsepower thanks to a turbocharger. That's amazing... if you don't live in the real world.
Base Spec Porsche 718 Boxster 1 photo
Photo: X-Tomi Design
While we'd love to get a 718 for free from some rich philanthropist, we wouldn't give Porsche our own money (if we had any left after car parts). You see, the new Boxster costs around 57,000 euros, which is just painful.

Couldn't they bring the price down a little? This rendering made by X-Tomi shows you what might happen if they tried. His back-to-basics formula includes steel wheels, unpainted bumpers and side trim and simpler headlights without the LEDs. There's something familiar about it, something borrowed from the old 914.

There are no two ways about it; the 718 Base Spec is ugly. However, getting rid of all the flourishes wouldn't make the car cheaper. Porsche would just call it a super-lightweight model and charge extra to fit the radio.

Just to prove Porsche has no right to charge that much for a 2-liter base model, we're going to list a few cars with 4-cylinder engines that are cheaper.

The Ford Focus is an icon car. For just over $25,000 you can have it with a 2.3-liter turbo making over 300 horsepower. You could also save all the money from the Boxster and buy a Golf R and a Mazda MX-5, which is among the best drivers’ cars in the world at any price ($24,915).

Yeah, but the Boxster has a horizontally opposed engine, right? But so does a Subaru BRZ or the WRX, which can also drift on snow thanks to all-wheel drive.

In fact, we have an entire list of awesome cars with 2-liter turbo engines for you to check out before heading down to your local Porsche dealer.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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