Boxster S 550 Spyder 50th Anniversary Edition

STORY

The Boxster is the car that saved Porsche. By the early 1990s the company was ageing, bleeding money and building only expensive niche models. Launched in 1996, the mid-engined, water-cooled roadster gave it a modern, attainable sports car and a lifeline.

Its layout nodded to the 550 Spyder and 914, placing a flat-six amidships for near-ideal balance, while shrewd engineering shared components with the incoming water-cooled 911 to slash costs. Demand was so strong that Porsche outsourced extra assembly to Valmet in Finland to keep up.

The Boxster restored Porsche to health and, with the Cayenne, funded everything that followed. Long unfairly cast as the "cheap" Porsche, it has since been celebrated for what it always was: one of the best-handling, best-value sports cars on sale.