The mission was set. Each pundit selected their choice weapon. At the end of the day, only one will emerge the best. Melding punchy performance and drop-top eye-catching good looks.
Photos: Joel Tam & Low Fai Ming
It took some thorough deliberation behind closed doors. Our market may be small, but where roadsters are concerned, Singaporeans are spoilt for choice. Which led us to narrow it down to the 'old school', soft-top, strictly two-seater formula. I quickly decided on the Audi TTS, ol’ man Joel picked the Porsche Boxster S and Krado, our in-house JDM fan, went straight for the Nissan 370Z Roadster. As you can see for yourself, the choices were diverse.
It was a wet morning as we all made our way to the rendezvous point in the eastern part of our little island. Great, now how on earth are we going to enjoy driving with the roof down in such crappy weather? Well, let’s just say the dude above wanted us to have a blast, so lo and behold, the weather stopped almost instantly by the time we arrived. Well, you should know what wet roads lead to — over steering antics, that sort. In the case of the 370Z and the Boxster S, it wasn't hard. Switch off the traction control, floor the pedal at the right time, steer with confidence and tadaa… “dorift-o”, as what Krado would say. Not so easy with the four-wheel driven TTS though — but a little pull of the handbrake with no traction control will see it go sideways, although not as spectacular as the other two.
After some driving, we stopped for a photo-shoot. As expected, eyes were stuck on the three beauties. We were attracting so much attention with S$760k worth of road jewels, we decided to drive around a little bit more, to get fully acquainted with each of our chosen cars before swapping.
I’ll begin with my choice, the face-lifted TTS. It has the smallest engine among the trio, but it is also the priciest — try S$282,973 to be more precise. It feels the liveliest, and most complete as a package — be it punts to work, evening cruises or as a show-off car. Under its bonnet lies the prolific 2.0-litre TFSI turbocharged lump mated to a six-speed twin-clutch S-tronic transmission, has a total of 272 bhp and 350 Nm worth of torque to play around with. All that power is delivered to Audi’s famous quattro four-wheel drive system, and that came in very useful in giving it the handling edge over the other two.
The downside? It feels mechanical and predictable, you end up feeling detached and less of a driver, overall it lacks in character. But still, you will enjoy throwing it hard into every sweeping bend — especially when you engage the complicated suspension’s sport mode that hardens and sharpens everything. And when a cat crosses the road, it stops confidently thanks to those responsive anchors.
I swapped over to the Boxster S after that. It has the second biggest engine, and what’s surprising is how it undercuts the TTS’ price — at S$256,888 (shouldn’t you be surprised too?)! Honestly, we felt the Boxster S has the highest chance to win this comparison. In terms of brand pedigree, it has the most to boast about. The properly finished and specified interior is another.
The Boxster S is powered by — what else? — a 3.4-litre six-cylinder Boxer engine, and paired to Porsche’s twin-clutch seven-speed PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung bla bla bla is too long for me to type here) ‘box, whips out a potent 310 bhp and 360 Nm worth of torque. They say you need to have skill to handle a Porsche, and it shows greatly here — let your hands off the steering when flooring it and you probably have a long insurance report to write (sorry Sir, I was adjusting my hair when the light turned green). But when you’re as one with the car, you get one of the world’s best roadsters to enjoy, this side of the price range (particularly in Sport mode, no less) — the helm is weighty and precise, you know how and when to exploit all that power and the engine note, wow, its on its very own.
Next was the 370Z for my judgement. Well I have to say the exterior is the most outstanding among the pack — curvy, proportionate and just so right. Some might even opine that it has that tinge of femininity, but you wouldn't care about that bit. Ironically, it has the biggest engine here, but the smallest price tag — that’s S$221,300 for you, Sir. The 370Z is powered by — as the name suggests — a VQ37VHR 3.7-litre V6 powerplant.
It has the only six-speed manual transmission here, which features Nissan’s innovative SynchroRev Match which makes even the dullest driver a touge hero — what this does is blip the throttle automatically as you clutch in to shift to a lower gear. Rubbery shift actions aside, the 370Z is a definite joy to drive even as a daily runner. It gets up to speed effortlessly, and handles very well in corners. What it needs though, is tighter body control and a sharper steering. Oh, how can I forget — the V6 note is rather addictive too, you just want to just rev it to its redline every single time.
By this point, nothing was clear. I was still torn among the three. The TTS is the easiest and most enjoyable to drive, the Boxster S is complete and rich in character while the 370Z is raw and in a world of its own.
To add a little bit of neutrality, we then headed off to the CBD to get the public’s opinion on which car they would love to have. Yes, it was lunchtime and there we were in the middle of Battery Road asking random passerbys — when you park three cars topless, how can you not escape attention — what they would choose. The response was diverse, there were those who were quite engaging, comparing the stats of the cars, a few proudly admitted that they were already driving these cars, some were simply too shy to see themselves in cars as 'showy' as these. Well here are the surprise results — 60% of those asked clearly picked the 370Z, while another 25% chose the Boxster S, and sadly, only 15% gave the TTS the thumbs up.
The roads have dried up, and it’s off to the car wash. It must have been a visual treat for others, whipping out their camera phones and snapping away photos of the Boxster S, TTS and 370Z in a line before, during and after wash. Even the lads cleaning our cars went the extra mile of wiping the doors, canvas roof and exhaust tip — something I reckon they won’t bother if it’s any of the Burnpavement.com staffer’s “ordinary” cars.
It was a quick lunch and an opportunity to share our thoughts on the cars with each other. After which, we proceeded to drive the cars more, swapping cars along the way, hoping to discover more about each of them. Yes — it’s still so b%#$@# hard to pick a definite choice.
Well after more driving, we stopped for a last sun-setting-in-the-background shoot. And it was also time for me to come up with a decision before returning the cars back to their respective homes. It was REALLY tough, I tell ya!
To put things back into perspective, the Porsche Boxster S is the most gentlemanly, doing things in a refined manner with the hidden talent realized only after once you’re acquainted. Impressing others (wow, you drive a Porsche now? Good job!) is the icing on the cake.
The 370Z? Brilliant exterior, laudable interior, good engine, BUT gear swapping can be tiresome and the overall build makes it a harder car to live with compared to the other two. Which is a shame, really. The TTS on the other hand is the strongest here — think of it as the athletic star back in school, always full of stamina, academically the teacher’s star student and everyone’s favourite friend… but not exactly a hit with the ladies.
To sum it all up, I would like to quote a gentleman we struck a conversation with. In his words, “I love the Porsche for the brand, the Audi for its interior and the 370Z for the beautiful exterior”. Which I have to agree, somewhat. In the perfect world, a roadster should have the exterior of the 370Z, interior, engine and transmission of the TTS, handling finesse of the Boxster S and a Porsche badge.
But today, it’s the TTS that takes it all.
