√2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS launch review: International first drive
Sell your house. Trade in your 911, because Porsche has saved the best for last, the 718 Spyder RS a fitting farewell to the open-top, mid-engine formula.
2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS
This is a farewell of sorts, an ode to an engineering format Porsche admits will be the last of its kind.
It’s cliched, but perhaps this really is a case of Porsche saving the best for last. A swansong.
The 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS is a furious and angry car. It’s a visceral and tactile smashing of your senses, of your emotions.
It’s the last sports car from Porsche with an engine in the middle fed purely by internal combustion. Electrification is coming to the format, and after spending a day with the 718 Spyder RS in the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Alps) region of Germany, there is more than a hint of sadness as that realisation dawns.
The Swabian Alps provide the perfect canvas to showcase Porsche’s latest mid-engine monster, the serpentine roads that snake around the ranges located only about an hour’s drive south of Stuttgart, the home of Porsche. If you want to feel Porsche engineering history, then these snaking roads are where you’ll find it.
The genesis of the 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS can be traced back 70 years. That’s when the fledgling company built the first of its roadsters, the Porsche 550 Spyder. It was followed in 1957 by the car that gave this, the current 718, its name – the Porsche 718.
Those progenitors established the formula – open-top, mid-engine, rear-wheel drive – that lives on in this, what is destined be the last of its kind from Zuffenhausen.
The 718 Spyder RS joins the Cayman GT4 RS in Porsche’s stable of heavily reworked road cars. But, while the Cayman GT’s reason for being is the racetrack, the 718 Spyder RS has been designed for the road.
That’s why the team at Porsche HQ have softened the springs – 55 per cent up front and 43 per cent out back. That’s why the ride height over the regular Boxster has been dropped 30mm, while the Cayman GT4’s stance has been lowered by 50mm against the regular Cayman.
The 718 Spyder RS is also endowed with less downforce. Underneath, the front splitter is 50mm shorter when compared against its roofed sibling, while the aerodynamic vanes (which produce downforce) found under the floor of the Cayman GT4 are absent on the Spyder RS.
And the large rear wing found on the Cayman has been ditched in favour of a subtle ducktail design that harks back to the heroic 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS.
Zuffenhausen’s boffins have also tweaked the steering tune, dialling out some of the Cayman GT4’s track-focused sharpness in favour of a more road-focused set-up.
The net result is, according to Andreas Preuninger, the boss of Porsche’s’ GT programme, “the perfect antidote for the engineering team – and for myself – to concentrate on a driver’s car again; a driver’s car that is not track bound, that is there for the joy of old-school driving vibes, for just getting into the car and driving for the sake of driving”.
Lofty aims, then, made loftier still by this, the last of the breed.
How much does the Porsche 718 Spyder RS cost in Australia?
The price for this driver-centric roadster is as lofty as the ambition behind the Porsche 718 Spyder RS. In Australia, where it will be available from the second quarter of 2024, it’ll set you back $336,800 before on-road costs and options. If you can get your hands on one, it’s worth every cent.
For those who prefer a roof, the Cayman GT4 RS is priced identically to the Spyder RS, or if your budget doesn’t quite stretch, the regular Boxster 718 Spyder without the RS badge is around $118,000 more affordable.
Options and personalisation are plentiful, including a palette of 115 paint colours. The big-ticket items, though, are the $14,960 carbon ceramic brakes and the $22,610 Weissach package.
The latter brings plenty of carbon fibre including the bonnet, mirror caps, air intake trims, roll-over hoops, and a gurney-flap mounted to the rear spoiler. There are also titanium exhaust tips, while selecting the Weissach pack option opens the door for you to spend an extra $28,110 for optional 20-inch forged magnesium wheels in place of the standard-fit 20-inch alloys.
How much space does the Porsche 718 Spyder RS have inside?
Forget blingy interior design. The cabin of the 718 Spyder RS is purposeful and thankfully bereft of so many of the gizmos that can blight the modern car.
There’s acres of Race-Tex material (suede-like material) and hectares of carbon-fibre weave accents. Contrast stitching does a good job of breaking up the sea of darkness inside, while the hard-backed carbon-fibre seats themselves remain supportive yet firm. They can be adjusted for height (electrically) and reach (manually).
The Race-Tex-wrapped steering wheel feels sublime, with a yellow swatch at top to denote centre. Peering through the rim, three dials provide all the driving information you’ll ever need, including front and centre, the tachometer that allures with its 9000rpm redline.
Further down, the infotainment screen is small, and there are myriad switches, dials and buttons to do your bidding.
Look for cupholders and you won’t immediately find them. They’re not housed in the centre console. Instead, they’re located behind a carbon-fibre section of the dash on the passenger side and pop out gracefully with a gentle push.
A small storage bin in the centre console can take items like phones and wallets, while the door pockets can accommodate small bottles. Just. There are also nets in the door pockets that can hold… something.
Look for door handles inside and you won’t find them. Instead, racecar-inspired nylon straps do the job of opening the doors from inside. If you value storage and practicality, then this probably isn’t the car for you.
Instead, focus on the thoroughbred nature of this roadster that feels as special inside as it looks from the outside. The gear selector, solid, stubby and redolent of an old-school manual shifter, has been purposely designed to look exactly like that.
Still, there is a modicum of creature comfort packaged into the cockpit. Air-conditioning and power windows are standard fit, as is satellite navigation projected onto that small by today’s standard touchscreen. It matters little, though, the real enjoyment, the real raison d’etre of this car found behind your ears and in the sky over your head.
The roof, such as it is, is manually operated. It’s there almost as a token. And it requires some training. We had to pass a fitment test before we were allowed to head out into the mountains. The target time was two minutes, and on our first attempt we went a smidge over. By the end, we had it down to 90 seconds. The keys, for the day, were ours.
More a sail, than a roof – Preuninger refers to it as being like a canvas canopy found on small boats – it lives carefully stowed away in a small compartment just behind your head. It’s in two parts – the canvas top and a smaller canvas screen with a window that sits at the rear to completely enclose the cabin.
The whole set-up weighs just 18.3kg, some 16.5kg lighter than the roof found in a regular Porsche Boxster.
You can, if you want to run the gauntlet against the gods of weather, leave the roof at home. After all, a lighter car is a better car, right?
Or you can, if you choose, have only the top canvas in place, leaving the rear exposed for a more visceral and engaging experience.
We encountered some rain on our drive and the canvas top, sans the vertical rear pane and window, worked just fine in keeping the rain out. The bonus here, of course, is all that glorious engine song from just behind your head enters the cabin unfiltered and uncensored. Glorious.
The boot (120L) is good for a couple of smaller suitcases, while a generous compartment under the bonnet (125L) could hold the weekend shopping without any issue. Still, we’d suggest this isn’t the car to take shopping.
| 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS | |
| Seats | Two |
| Boot volume | 120L rear 125L front |
| Length | 4418mm |
| Width | 1822mm |
| Height | 1252mm |
| Wheelbase | 2482mm |
Does the Porsche 718 have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
The essentials of modern infotainment tech are in place. There’s a small touchscreen that plays host to Apple CarPlay as well as native satellite navigation. Android Auto? Nope, not there, as is the Porsche way for older-generation models like the 718.
We used the sat-nav extensively and it worked seamlessly in the mountainous regions around Stuttgart, regions not always serviced by mobile reception.
What we didn’t use was the inbuilt sound system (it’s a Bose and it can be deleted as a no-cost option). It’s simply no match for the symphony of unfiltered 4.0-litre boxer-six howling mere inches from just behind your ears. Listening to the unfettered howl of engine revolutions climbing at a mesmerising rate is all the infotainment you need.
Is the Porsche 718 a safe car?
Forget ANCAP, forget Euro NCAP. There’s no safety rating attached to the Porsche 718 Spyder RS. Or any 718 for that matter – whether Cayman or Boxster.
And modern safety nannies such as AEB, blind-spot, lane-keep et al are conspicuous by their absence. There’s no adaptive cruise control either, the 718 Spyder RS getting by with good old-fashioned regular cruise control.
Instead, there are airbags for the driver and passenger and the mandated braking (ABS), stability (ESC), and traction (TC) assistants.
There are also rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera as well as tyre pressure monitoring.
| 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS | |
| ANCAP rating | Untested |
How much does the Porsche 718 Spyder RS cost to maintain?
Porsche says the 718 Spyder RS will need to visit your local Porsche centre every 12 months or 15,000km for a check-up. Pricing has not been released at the time of writing.
Porsche covers its latest roadster with its standard three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. With the Spyder RS still to arrive in Australia, we were unable to obtain an indicative comprehensive insurance quote.
| At a glance | 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS |
| Warranty | Three years, unlimited km |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Servicing costs | N/A |
Is the Porsche 718 Spyder RS fuel-efficient?
Porsche says the Spyder RS will use 13.0L per 100km of 98-octane premium unleaded.
We didn’t note actual consumption after our time behind the wheel, our senses too engorged by the aural and visceral delights of the roadster. But, considering the nature of our blast through the mountains around Stuttgart, it’s safe to expect consumption would have been much higher than claimed. Not that you’d care. And nor should you.
Fuel Consumption – brought to you by bp
| Fuel Useage | Fuel Stats |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 13.0L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | N/A |
| Fuel type | 98-octane premium unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 64L |
What is the Porsche 718 Spyder RS like to drive?
Buckle up and hold onto your hat. This is why the Porsche 718 Spyder RS exists, to be driven and enjoyed on the kind of roads that inhabit your daydreams.
The centrepiece of that enjoyment isn’t the lack of a roof, leaving nothing between you and the wind and the sun and a thousand emotions. No, the centrepiece, the showcase of all of Porsche’s engineering muscle, sits just behind your ears.
It’s the naturally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six as found in the back of the company’s 911 GT3 Cup car. And that means 368kW and 450Nm and a 0–100km/h sprint time of 3.4 seconds and a 0–200km/h dash of just 10.9 seconds. Top speed is an unfettered 308km/h.
Sending those outputs to the rear wheels is Porsche’s excellent PDK seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. There is no manual option.
Porsche has fine-tuned the PDK for the Spyder RS even further, now featuring shorter ratios resulting in even faster shifts and an eager willingness to hit that 9000rpm redline. Porsche says this is by design to better showcase the Spyder RS’s free-revving nature. And after even a short time behind the wheel, we’re grateful.
Why? Because this is a car that can be driven any way you want to and it will reward. At city speeds, the reward comes in just how easy and comfortable it is to drive. Yes, all that noise from the engine can get a little tiresome at low speeds, but the seven-speed dual-clutch does a good job of rifling through the gears on its own to reach cruising speed with a minimum amount of fuss.
And thanks to Porsche taking great care to make this a more driver-focused car and softening off the springs, the ride over regular roads, roughshod as they inevitably are no matter where in the world, the Spyder RS remains a remarkably composed and comfortable car at city speeds.
But, give the Spyder RS its head, and believe me you will want to, and it transforms into an intoxicating monster with a soundtrack that could only have been composed by the gods of combustion.
It starts by flicking the gear selector into manual mode and then using the paddle-shifters behind the steering wheel to effect your own gear changes. Why? So you can let that glorious flat-six howl in the way it’s designed to.
Let the engine run out beyond the 4500rpm mark and its character changes dramatically, transforming from an already visceral soundtrack into something else altogether, a chimera of sound and induction that mesmerises as it sings. A siren call, teasing and tempting the wary and unwary in equal measure. It’s glorious above 4500rpm, more glorious still as you approach that 9000rpm redline.
But sound is one thing, performance another altogether. Here, the 718 Spyder RS does not disappoint. Yes, the soundtrack is mesmerising, but so too is the prodigious performance, not just in terms of outright speed (that’s evident in buckets), but also in the way the roadster composes itself.
That softened suspension remains firm enough to offer the kind of feedback required for an adventurous jaunt up the Swabian Alps, with comfort and feedback in equal measure. It’s a remarkable suspension tune, all the more so for its dual nature – comfortable on everyday roads, yet confidence-inspiring when it needs to inspire.
Tipping the scales at a claimed 1410kg (dry), the Porsche Spyder RS remains remarkably lithesome. Equally at home on long, sweeping bends as it is navigating tight hairpin corners, the roadster remains pleasingly stable. Body roll is virtually non-existent, while even the firmest throttle application will do little to unsettle the rear end.
Instead, the Spyder RS handles whatever you throw it with more confidence than you will ever muster within yourself, a rewarding and tactile experience that thrills and beguiles.
The steering, too, dialled down a notch, remains beautifully tactile and direct, but without some of that twitchy dartiness found in the track-focused Cayman GT4 RS. Instead, it feels reassuringly precise but also forgiving in nature.
Similarly, the seven-speed PDK is at its best when you’re in charge and conducting that finely honed six-cylinder orchestra. Shifts are rapid-fire, near instantaneous, each change of ratio accompanied by an accompanying crescendo.
The sum of all the Spyder RS’s prodigiously engineered elements working together is an open-top, mid-engine sports car arguably beyond peer.
| Key details | 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS |
| Engine | 4.0-litre six-cylinder aspirated petrol |
| Power | 368kW @ 8400rpm |
| Torque | 450Nm @ 6750rpm |
| Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
| Transmission | Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic |
| Power-to-weight ratio | 261kW/t |
| Weight (tare) | 1410kg |
| Spare tyre type | Tyre repair kit |
| Turning circle | 11.4m |
Should I buy a Porsche 718 Spyder RS?
The 2024 Porsche 718 Spyder RS is a fitting farewell to the breed. In its current guise, the Spyder RS bookends 70 years of sports car engineering in a package that is arguably the best open-top Porsche ever built.
It’s as much a celebration of all that is right and proper about combustion as it is a farewell. We’ll miss these types of cars when they’re gone, miss their rowdy and unfiltered songbook, miss their uncompromising performance, their ability to astonish and beguile in equal measure.
This last of breed is destined to be a classic, a reminder to future generations of the pleasure of driving purely for the joy of driving.
Sell your house. Trade in your Porsche 911. Do whatever it takes, but get yourself into the Porsche 718 Spyder RS if you can. You won’t be disappointed.
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