Sprint star

CENTRAL STATION IS no place for the new Porsche Boxster S. The morning's grey, the traffic's heavy and nobody's noticing me.

The whole point of picking up this mid-engined, 3.2-litre, 280-brake-horsepowered hottie at the Airport Express was to stir some rush-hour jealousy among the broker set. I see nothing wrong with floating the latest, shiniest sportscar in town under the noses of these prime-rent corporate cogs. In Hong Kong you flaunt it, if you've got it - even if just for a little while.

But the suits just walk on by. Maybe our financiers are short on attention today, because this Boxster turns fewer heads outside IFC than my ninth-hand 1991 Mazda MX-5 did last week. And I can't help wishing that Porsche could have sexed-up its roadsters more overtly, as it did with its fabulous 997 Carreras.

This initial apathy might deflate you a lot more if you'd paid $848,000 for the vehicle. We've not cruised for 50 metres and already the smaller-engined 240bhp, 2.7-litre Boxster ($698,000) seems a better looks-per-dollar investment in Central. But then maybe Porsche builds roadsters for people - unlike me - who don't need the enhancement of an open top.

The IFC mob have every right to seem indifferent. The new Boxster's facelift is so subtle for a car made of 80 per cent new parts that you might mistake the latest model for its predecessor, unless you know where to look. When you do, the marque's changes seem obvious.

Porsche has given the new Boxster more muscular wings and added bigger side intakes to its bulked midsection. The new nose seems more like a 911, with larger front air-intakes (black on the Boxster; titanium on the Boxster S) housing the fog lights and sidelights. The Boxster's wheels have been upgraded to 17-inchers; this S has 18-inchers, upgraded to 19s. But it's not enough to eclipse the design of the gladiator-butch BMW Z4 or pimp-daddy Mercedes-Benz SLK.