PCA Spotlight: A GT4 without a roof? We put the Porsche 718 Spyder on a lift to find out

We recently had the opportunity to drive the Porsche 718 Spyder for a week, and while we enjoyed our time behind the wheel, we also put it on a lift to see the upgraded suspension ourselves.

You see, the last Spyder had the same engine as the Cayman GT4, but different rear suspension. Since the GT4 was more of a track car than the Spyder, it naturally had the better setup. This time around, Porsche decided to make them equal. Mike Levitas, owner of TPC Racing, was happy to put the car in the air and walk us through what makes the Spyder better than the previous one.

[robertgregory]

I had to watch it again, picked up my Spyder from Porsche Mechanicsburg last week. What a fun car!

[gtsspeed]

Really enjoyed the dissection of the Spyder - thank you for recording it and posting. I have had my new Spyder for about 3 weeks now. What a machine.! Handling steering NASP mid-engine engine manual box - just perfect. The fact is the new Spyder is a GT4 with sol 😎. Thank You Porsche for making this analogue beauty.

[kam]

Brilliant video, loved this! Owned the 981 Spyder - brilliant car - now in the 718 - brilliant car. Both different, both legendary. Really interesting to see the underneath and the engine!! This explains why it feels so screwed down ; )

This man clearly knows his trade... wish he was my local mechanic!

[BigAppleEmperor]

Everyone complains about the muffled sound of the 718 Spyder, all you have to do is unplug steel braided hose off the vacuum valves and plug both ends with a high temp Silicone Rubber Protective end cap I got from Amazon, it takes less than 1 minute to do on each side, now is embarrassing loud all the time, otherwise, the exhaust valves won't open until above 4500-5000 RPMs. I notice no backpressure performance degradation what-so-ever.

I was going to purchase particular filter bypass pipes from Soul performance or Fab Speed, now I am having to rethink that, as it is really loud with the exhaust valves on all the time.

[pavelzhogin]

Awesome to see these guys nerding and appreciating the clever bits that boys from Porsche threw on this bad boy!

[michaelbranagan-harris]

An amazing find and so interesting to see whats under the car and see the engine!

[carlfrederick]

Fantastic video. I would love to have a separate video on how the Porsche sound synthisizer works, where it gets piped to to bring the sound of the engine to the interior and tips and part number list so I can add it to my Cayman R.

[AncientAviator]

Loved this walk-through! Thanks so much for posting this!

[winanderson]

An added curious aero piece is the golf ball textured panel behind the front splitter! Dimples on golf balls make them fly straighter. From Scientific American: "Dimples on a golf ball create a thin turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball's surface. This allows the smoothly flowing air to follow the ball's surface a little farther around the back side of the ball, thereby decreasing the size of the wake."

[MrPagnu]

The front splitter is like a golf ball for aero reasons. Those dimples keep the air layer attached to itself . You can find the same design on road bikes aero carbon wheels

[robertgregory]

Nice review and tear down of that amazing car.

[carcreationsyt]

First thing I thought when looking under it is, "lets cut those cats off" haha

[TheAnubite]

@7:40 lol what is a 'Manual PDK'

[notmark]

I honestly don’t know anything about these GTs but isn’t that rotor chipped at the top? 10:34

[maxmartz]

I love the Spyder, it’s a beast, but think I would just park it and wax it. Gearing is very tall. Boxster power roof saved the day last as rain fell early. Love that power top and 350hp w 309 ftlbs is plenty of fun.

[LuiS-xoqw]

It’s clear that Porsche listens to customer input. My guess is that the 2024 will have an automatic roof mechanism with extra horses, and the tall gearing changed to make it a 7 speed manual. The base Boxsters will go electric

[salangchoi]

When someone says, “I don’t care.” That is a strong indication of immaturity.

[seinsmeld]

Does this car have a particulate filter which lessens the exhaust sound? Is this exhaust the same as the one in Europe? Thanks for your excellent video!

[nafnaf]

Make this with a normal room, full sound suppressing, normal metal door handles, add 10mm of clearance, no alcantara everywhere, and regular summer performance tires. GTS 4.0 on steroids. Now we are talking

[massimilianozeni]

This guy sounds like magnus walker :) interesting