Of course we didn’t know that at the time, though it was speculated. All we knew was that Porsche’s next new car would be this two seat roadster with an appearance that was more than a cap doff to the 550 Spyder of the 1950s and which would share its mid-mounted engine location, applying the configuration to the road car arena for the first time in its history. Which was interesting.
What was even more interesting was that while it would have a flat six engine located behind the driver, it was cooled not by what you breathed, but what you drank. This was a brand new engine with precisely nothing in common with any previous Porsche flat-six and from that even I could surmise what was coming next: a water-cooled 911. It was like the end of the world.
But that was still a couple of years off. For now there was this Boxster to consider and what struck me as strange about it was that while it was not exactly replacing the 968 ClubSport, it had succeeded it as the entry point to the Porsche range, but instead of having a 240PS (177kW), 3.0-litre engine and costing less than £30,000, it had a 201PS (148kW), 2.5-litre engine and cost £34,000. Less, for more in other words. Nor was I too knocked out by its open roof: then as now I prefer all such cars in coupe configuration.