In just the last two years, our Car and Driver test team has vetted many flavors of Porsche, 34 to be exact. Of the stack from Stuttgart, 11 were GTS models, four of those 718s, but this Python Green ($2580) 718 is the first Boxster GTS we’ve tested with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The average launch to 60 mph for all those Porsches, from the base Taycan to 911 Turbo S Lightweight, is a frantic 3.1 seconds. This souped-up Boxster is just 0.3 second below that average and not all that far from the 911’s performance feats.

The 718 is available as a hardtop Cayman coupe or a convertible-top Boxster. In base form, they’re powered by a Subaru-sounding 300-hp turbocharged flat-four, but the GTS ushers in the glorious tenor of a 394-hp flat-six engine. This engine is a detuned version of the Cayman GT4’s 414-hp unit, and you don’t need to crank the 4.0-liter to its 7800-rpm redline to enjoy it. The GTS’s standard Sport Exhaust is a good set of pipes, and in our sound-level tests, the difference between the Boxster (with its top closed) and the hardtop Cayman at wide-open throttle and at a 70-mph cruising speed was negligible.

The Boxster is some five seconds quicker than the 670-hp Corvette Z06—that is, in terms of roof operation, performing its powered ceiling dance in roughly 10…