Top 10 cars at the New York auto show;;;;;7

Porsche Boxster Spyder

Everyone can love a Porsche when the car in question upholds the company's minimalist roots. That precious Porsche in New York was the new Boxster Spyder. Packing the same 375hp flat-six engine seen already in the Cayman GT4 – not to mention the more expensive 911 – the Spyder wears refreshed rear bodywork that is intended to evoke the slippery look of the original 550 Spyder of the 1950s.
Track-oriented models such as the Boxster Spyder are as much about what they are not as what they are. Here's what the Spyder buyer foregoes: an automatic or paddle-shifted transmission; a power-operated convertible roof; stereo sound system; air conditioning. The latter two items can be optionally fitted by customers who expect to spend more time on roads than tracks. The rest, who presumably roll through life on racing slicks, can cheerily avoid the weight penalty of those frivolous parts.
That said, more than 90% of cars sold will include radio and A/C, predicts Porsche Cars North America spokesman Calvin Kim. “’No air conditioning’ is overrated,” he says, and with Porsche opening its all-new business campus in steamy suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Kim’s dismissiveness would seem to come from an informed place. (Credit: Jeff Jablansky)