Redesigned, featuring new engines, transmissions.

The Porsche Boxster is a delightful sports car that is equally at ease being pushed to its limits or sauntering through traffic jams. The engine note is invigorating, the handling crisp, the ride elastic, the brakes sublime and the interior ideal for driving, but it is how all this works in harmony that makes the Boxster such an entertaining car.

Porsche does not make major changes very often, preferring to get the basics right from the start and continue fine tuning from there on. So the 2009 Boxster that is heavily revised is still instantly recognizable as a Boxster. Length and track have changed by fractions of an inch and the basic shape and size remain.

The major upgrade for 2009 is completely revised powertrains, with new engines giving the Boxster and Boxster S their biggest power increases yet and improved efficiency. A six-speed manual replaces a five-speed as standard on the Boxster, and both plain and S versions may be offered with a new seven-speed double-clutch gearbox (PDK) that is Porsche’s most advanced transmission.

Boxster is perhaps the most practical mid-engine convertible sports car available. The cabin has plenty of room and can accommodate tall individuals, and insulation, refinement and equipment match many sedans. There are two compact trunks to carry a week’s worth of groceries or luggage in soft-sided bags, and they won’t get singed on a sporting road.

The Boxster is so well-rounded it could come up on many shopping lists. Convertible luxury with a driver bias might pit it against a BMW Z4, Audi TTS, or Mercedes-Benz SLK, while the performance shopper may also have a Lotus Elise or Exige, Honda S2000, or maybe even a Mazda RX8 on the list.

Virtually no one buys a Boxster for base price, and the many options can drive the price up, but we’d certainly recommend the PASM active suspension.

Perhaps stung by criticisms of “diluting the brand” (i.e., Porsche sport/utes and the new Panamera four-door), the iconic German speed factory has countered with a sporting piece nearly as pure and purposeful as James Dean’s 1955 550 Spyder. As such, this newest, fastest Boxster also qualifies as the most toy-like model in the range, a pricey plaything for perfect days and writhing roads — and almost exclusively so. How long would the Spyder’s charms last, I wonder, without refrigerated air and the diversion of a radio during a long stop-and-go commute on a blistering summer day? (Not to worry: If you’re feeling “unpure,” you can pile on A/C, radio, nav, and whatever other options you like.)

So, no, in basic “stripped” form the Boxster Spyder isn’t an ideal daily driver; you’ll want to be rich enough to own one as your second or third car. Ah, but for those days that call for a leather jacket and driving gloves…

In addition to the jettisoned A/C and radio, the Spyder features aluminum doors (saving 33 pounds), lightweight sport bucket seats (saving 26 pounds), an aluminum rear deck (saving 6.5 pounds), and the lightest 19-inch alloy wheels in the Porsche catalog. Also changed over conventional Boxsters are the side windows — they’re lighter and lower — and the soft top, which for Spyder duty is a manually erected affair that’s little more than a handkerchief for blocking the sun (the lid, which stows away above the engine, isn’t even waterproof; indeed, Porsche admits it won’t stand up to a car wash).