保时捷兄弟车型对决：路试见高下

一些疑虑

    公众对收入平等问题日益敏感，我不免担心，在旧金山和西雅图这样有大量无家可归人口的城市，我开着豪车招摇过市的举动是否会引起一片哗然。但事实证明我的担心是多余的。我还担心，每天在路况复杂的道路上开着这么娇贵的车行驶200英里，它能受得了吗？我的座驾倒是胜任愉快，但我却常常产生别再这么糟蹋它的想法。最后一个担心是，开着这样手排挡的车如何应付旧金山依山而建、陡坡不断的地形呢？其实这也不是问题，只要踩着离合器，911的山路驻车控制系统就会防止车倒溜。

风尚设计

    基本配置已经足够多了。这两款车是如何整合它们的呢？每款车都有自己独到的整合之道，令人叹为观止。卡雷拉的车身用的是最新开发的银色金属漆（选装费为3,140美元），车顶为红色帆布。其内饰已升级，所用的“卡雷拉红”真皮色泽十分饱满（不过需要在基础价格上另加4840美元）。至于博科斯特，则可谓光芒四射。它那优雅的“玛瑙灰金属”漆显得极有档次，内饰比以前更注重细节。这是首款不再沿用911那种过时车门的博科斯特。设计师运用了全新的灵活手法，在车门上增加了进气孔和个性十足的线条，使整车极为有型。在这方面博科斯特完胜。

功能性

    就算是现在YouTube上有爸爸开着911送女儿上学，妈妈开着它去足球场的视频，也没人会买一辆保时捷用来拼车。而如果一辆车不够舒服，你也不会愿意在里面待下去。博科斯特够宽敞——前排空间很大，前后各有一个小型后备箱——因为它的引擎在座位后面，所以只好用它们来储物。而911的车身前部有个较大的后备箱——必须用保时捷那令人抓狂的隐藏式开关打开——后面还有两个较小的座位（可供儿童使用）。911还有无匙启动功能，这是电动天线发明以来最省力的配置了。很自然地，保时捷这方面也有自己的特色：它没有用常规的按钮，而是在点火处用了个空白键，因为“这能提供更好的触觉体验。”这一轮911胜出。

性能表现

    就算是全美橄榄球联盟（NFL）的替补裁判也懂得这一点：最能适应多变路况，马力最大的车胜出。911一路驶来，征服了各色各样的路况。在沿海公路弯道上，不断出现高高低低、蜿蜒曲折的路，这就要求汽车忽而降到二档，忽而全速冲上山头。在红杉林地带，没有路肩、穿过大片树林的双向车道很像柏油路，布满了各种提醒粗心驾驶者的标识和反光镜。911的第七档和400匹马力——对正常路况来说似乎有点过头——此时让人感到好处无穷。而相比之下，博科斯特只有六速变速器和265马力，只能用噪声较大、颇为粗糙的扁平轮胎对付着穿过华盛顿州那条坎坷不平的I-5公路。这一轮911完胜。

侧面评价

    旧金山的代客泊车员因为能开上911而欣喜若狂，不过最好的评价来自美加边境的移民官。为了把博科斯特开到加拿大境内，我需要一大堆的通行证，几乎像《北非谍影》里的维克多•拉塞罗和伊丽莎•兰德要逃离卡萨布兰卡时所需的一样多，保时捷为此给了我一份官方文件，阐明了我此行的目的。读了这份文件后，移民官在递还给我时说：“我也想有这么一份能开保时捷的工作。”这一轮两车打个平手。

Concerns

    With income equality looming larger in the public consciousness, I wondered whether there would be bad vibes in cities like San Francisco and Seattle with large homeless populations. There weren't. I worried, too, that driving 200 miles a day in demanding automobiles over challenging roads might be too much of a good thing. It wasn't, but I was rarely unwilling to quit. And finally, how would I handle those San Francisco hills with a manual transmission? No worries. The 911's hill hold feature keeps the car from rolling backward when the clutch is engaged.

Style

    Enough preliminaries. How did the two cars stack up? Each was striking in its own way. The Carrera was top-shelf trimmed with silver metallic body paint (a $3,140 option) topped by a red canvas roof. Porsche has upgraded its interiors, and the "Carrera Red" leather was succulent (although it added another $4840 to the base price). As for the Boxster, it glowed. Its elegant "Agate Gray Metallic" paint oozed class, and its trim revealed greater attention to details than in the past. This is the first Boxster that doesn't have to make do with hand-me-down doors from the 911. Designers made good use of their new flexibility by adding flourishes like air scoops and character lines that really dress up the car. The Boxster was the winner here.

Functionality

    Nobody buys a Porsche for car pools, even if a current YouTube clip shows Dad driving his daughter to school in a 911 Cabrio and Mom cruising to soccer practice. Still, if a car isn't comfortable, you aren't going to spend any time in it. The Boxster felt commodious enough -- the front seats were roomy and the car has two smallish trunks, front and rear -- but that's it for storage, since the engine fills the space behind the seat. For its part, the 911 has one larger trunk in front -- accessed with Porsche's maddening hidden lid release -- and two smaller seats in back (technically usable by children). But the 911 also came with keyless start, the best laborsaving device since the motorized antenna. Naturally, Porsche has its own spin: Instead of the usual button, it uses a key blank in the ignition "because it provides a more tactile experience." The 911 won this round.

Performance

    Even fill-in NFL refs could have figured this one out: The car with the best route and the most horsepower wins. All the interesting roads ran under the wheels of the 911. There were dozens of hairpins and switchbacks along coastal inlets that required downshifts to second gear, followed by lusty acceleration up to the top of the next hill. In redwood country, the shoulderless two-lane road threaded through groves of enormous trees so close to the asphalt, they were marked by signs and reflectors for the unwary. Seven forward gears and 400 hp -- seemingly excessive under normal conditions -- provided a banquet of benefits. The Boxster, by contrast, made do with six gears and 265 hp, and was forced to cope with miles of knobby I-5 through Washington State on low-profile tires that were both noisy and rough. The 911 won by a landslide.

Profiling

    The parking valets in San Francisco swooned over the 911, but the best comment came from the immigration official at the border. Since I needed nearly as many letters of transit to get the Boxster into Canada as Victor Laszlo and Ilsa Lund did to escape Casablanca, Porsche provided me with an official document explaining my mission. Upon reading it, the officer handed it back to me with the comment, "I wish my job required me to drive Porsches." This round was a tie.