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2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder. Porsche’s latest Boxster adds lightness and hotness in equal measure. We’ve long had big-time love for Porsche’s delicious Boxster, a car that—like its vaunted older brother, the mighty 911—seems only to get better every year. And so we celebrate Porsche’s addition of a third, range-topping model to the Boxster family: the 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder.

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

Perhaps the sexiest Boxster ever, the Spyder’s chief alterations include a new rear spoiler and a single-piece tonneau cover with fairings that extend rearward from the seats. The Spyder also does away with the standard Boxster’s rounded softtop in favor of a lighter, bikini-style fabric top that stretches back like a tent part way over the rear fenders. Porsche attributes further weight loss for the Spyder model to its aluminum door skins and pullstrap-outfitted interior door panels from the 911 GT3 RS. There are also lightweight racing seats and a hoodless instrument cluster like the one found in the Boxster RS60 Spyder limited edition from 2008. According to Porsche, the overall weight savings compared with the Boxster S stands at 176 pounds; the last Boxster S convertible we weighed, an example with the PDK dual-clutch gearbox, came in at 3220 pounds. We don’t know, though, exactly which Boxster S and Spyder configurations Porsche is using to form the basis of its weight comparison.

Mechanically, the Spyder gets the Cayman S’s direct-injected, 3.4-liter flat-six engine with 320 hp, 10 more than a normal Boxster S. The power is made all the more usable with a standard limited-slip differential. The Spyder also gets its own 10-spoke wheel design and rides on a suspension that is lowered by a 0.8 inch. Porsche claims that when equipped with the PDK transmission and Sports Chrono package, the car hits 60 mph in 4.6 seconds on its way to a top-down top speed of 166 mph.

This hottest Boxster—which will be a regular series-production model, and not limited—goes on sale in February of 2010 as a 2011 model at a price of $61,200.