Headlights

An important one this, for driving in the UK. It's normally dark and the roads are narrow and twisty. The 911 let itself down here, where the 968 scored well with old fashioned, but well honed technology. The Boxster is a cross between the two. It has the same 911 method of keeping the dip on and adding the main, but the result is as bright as the 968. The spread isn't quite as good as the 968, it casts a very defined circle of light (half a circle on dip) and some of the peripheral illumination is lost. I hate to think how much new lights are and how resilient the plastic is, though.

A neat design is the fog light switch (built into the headlights switch). When you turn off the headlights, the fog light on position is returned to off. So you never accidentally go out the next day with them on (annoying other road users). The nice thing is that this feature is mechanical, and I know that the Japanese would have approached the problem with a relay, a PCB and probably a laser powered fog detector.

The indicators are really cool. The forward facing ones have a pronounced lens effect that directs the light forwards, right into the attention of the driver in front. I love seeing the interiors of cars in front light up!

Er, identical. Not a surprise really.