Porsche Boxster Spyder speedster; it's all that

NEW YORK -- The smaller, lighter the car the more names it seems to need, witness Porsche's Boxster Spyder speedster unveiled at the annual auto show here.

Boxster is the smaller, lighter Porsche and the automaker -- no doubt getting noses of its 911 sports car owners out of joint -- considers the new model the purest driver's car it sells, at least among those you can run on the streets legally.

Small, light, powerful -- translating to quick and agile -- is why the car company gives it such high praise.

The 3.8-liter flat-six is rated 375 horsepower. The car weighs 2,899 lbs. The convertible top is a manual assembly to avoid the weight of a power-operated top.

And the back area over the top and where rear seats would be if there were any is topped by what's know as a "speedster" cover. It's a bulgy thing that's like the pregnant-looking cover on some earlier models of the 911 -- the basic Porsche sports car. And it's the name of the model predating the 911 that was the company's lightest and quickest at the time.

Boxster is a play on "boxer," which is the common description of an engine with cylinders in a flat array, instead of a V configuration, or an upright stance, such as the common in-line, four-cylinder.

The image that inspired the nickname is a pair of boxers punching back and forth at each other, the way the pistons in a flat engine move.

Spyder is the common European name for a sporty convertible.

By any name, or all of them, it's on sale now, priced from $83,095 including $995 shipping.