Book Review by Kieron Fennelly: Porsche Boxster & Cayman 981 Series 2012 to 16
Author: Brian Long
Published by: Veloce Publishing: https://veloce.co.uk/
192 pages (hardback)
UK price: £55 UK price (U.S.A. price $80 USA price)
ISBN: 978-1-787117-93-8
The 981 was the last of the line – the final naturally aspirated Porsche sports car (the concurrent 911, the 991, met a similar fate at the same point). Barring some top end models such as the GT3 and 4, all Porsches henceforth were turbocharged and indeed the 982 Boxster Cayman would suffer the indignity of losing two cylinders harbouring instead the first flat four engine Porsche built for half a century.
The 981 pair is thus something of a landmark and Brian Long has produced another of his worthwhile and useful Porsche histories. He deals with Boxster and Cayman in separate chapters and as they are basically the same a degree of repetition is inevitable if forgivable.
His descriptions of engine and chassis cover familiar ground and feature cutaways and component shots which have mostly appeared elsewhere but are always informative. He does unearth an unexpected picture of a prototype Boxster with a V6 Audi diesel (which the product planners fortunately did not pursue).
His treatment of the exterior and interior design has a bit more sparkle as if he had rather more access to the 981’s stylists than its engineers and the carefully honed Boxster-Cayman shapes are well described. It is still disappointing to find former chief of design Harm Lagaaij spelt ‘Lagaay,’ an informal simplification which Lagaaij has said he was obliged to abandon in 2001.
While his prose is informal and engaging, the author has a habit of ending a sentence then beginning the next with, “Anyway.,” It is as if he feels he had digressed too far (one wonders indeed how a page devoted to the failed takeover of VW, or the 918 hybrid are relevant to the 981 story) or otherwise failed to convince the reader in the previous sentence. It slightly undermines the authority of his text.
VERDICT
The book is well illustrated making much use of full-page factory photography, but surprisingly a third of the book’s 190 pages are given over the reproducing the sales brochures for each model. It means actual text accounts for barely a third of a book which, priced at £55 breaks little fresh ground.