Boxster S Performance Enhancement

[johnp68]

My Boxster S is now just outside of the 2 year manufacturer's warranty and I'm thinking of spending a little to improve the car's performance.

I had my old Chimaera chipped by Mark Adams in the past and I was pleased with the subtle but pleasant improvement that made in terms of overall across the rev range performance and driveability. I probably don't want to spend more than about 2K. I'm aware that other tuning options include sports exhausts or changing the air filter type.

Question is, are these sort of improvements likely to make any noticeable improvement on a Boxster S or would I be wasting my money? I like the car so much that I wouldn't want to change it for something with more power, eg a 911, and I'm not prepared to buy a 987 next year to get a 20bhp hike. Anyone got any views or experiences that they can share to help in my deliberations please?

[johnp68]

On second thoughts, after reading this month's Evo I think I'll be buying a new Boxster S next year

[GreigM]

I spoke extensively to a porfessionnal Porsche Motorsport tuner and he said that altering the ECU on a boxster or 996 was a waste of time on it's own. To really get any difference you need to substantially alter the breathing of the car (i.e. headers + exhaust) coupled with a custom-tuned ECU for your car. The ECU tuning would take 2 days on a rolling road alone, so the costs mount up very quickly.

[johnny senna]

I would just buy the new model. Any money you spend on tuning you won't get back at resale time, you may even damage the value of the car.