It was a revelation, and the car that even Porsche would quietly credit as the one that saved it from being swallowed up by Volkswagen. The production Porsche Boxster was launched in Europe in 1996, then in 1997 in the UK. Taking cues from the 911 and Porsche 550 Spyder, the 1993 Detroit concept was a show-stopper. Of various styling proposals offered to the Porsche board, the one chosen by Harm Lagaay, Porsche’s director of vehicle styling and designer of the original 924, was one styled by Pinky Lai and Grant Larson.

What Porsche needed urgently in order to stay alive and independent was a new sports car: a two-seater that could also share many parts with the next-generation 911. The Porsche 911 was a problem child: it sold well at a high price but was very expensive to make. The competition was modernising rapidly – not least the BMW E36 M3 – and Porsche needed some fresh new models sharing nothing with previous cars, yet also giving the nod to its most popular model. As good as it was, the 968 was only a facelift of what even then was a fairly tired design – the 17-year-old Porsche 924. The financial crash had seriously harmed the company’s balance sheet and although the revised 964-model 911 was selling quite well, the Porsche 928 was near enough finished, and the revised Porsche 944 – the 968 – was never to sell in big enough numbers. It’s now a good 25 years since the 986-generation Porsche Boxster went on sale in the UK, and 28 years since the Boxster concept car was shown in Detroit to rave reviews.īack in 1992, Porsche was in serious trouble.

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