Knackered old Porsche with loads of natural light - Boxster!
Discussion
Nice car and interesting thread. My time with the Boxster S I had was cut short prematurely thanks to a no fault incident but there are definitely things I miss about it sometimes. I actually had a thread on here about whether to go for the 2.5 or 3.2 but now I've had the latter I think I'd definitely go for the 2.5, shorter gears (the tall ratios of the 3.2 genuinely made it feel gutless until you were traveling at silly speeds), less bork factor, cheaper to buy to the point where they're barely even that much of a risk anymore. Hmm...
TameRacingDriver said:
I actually had a thread on here about whether to go for the 2.5 or 3.2 but now I've had the latter I think I'd definitely go for the 2.5, shorter gears (the tall ratios of the 3.2 genuinely made it feel gutless until you were traveling at silly speeds), less bork factor, cheaper to buy to the point where they're barely even that much of a risk anymore. Hmm...
Cheaper consumables too as the brakes etc. are dirt cheap compared to those on the S etc. Much is made of the gear ratios on the 2.5 but they really are perfect for it and make it feel genuinely nippy point to point at normal road speeds! It would be rude not to buy one really....
poppopbangbang said:
TameRacingDriver said:
I actually had a thread on here about whether to go for the 2.5 or 3.2 but now I've had the latter I think I'd definitely go for the 2.5, shorter gears (the tall ratios of the 3.2 genuinely made it feel gutless until you were traveling at silly speeds), less bork factor, cheaper to buy to the point where they're barely even that much of a risk anymore. Hmm...
Cheaper consumables too as the brakes etc. are dirt cheap compared to those on the S etc. Much is made of the gear ratios on the 2.5 but they really are perfect for it and make it feel genuinely nippy point to point at normal road speeds! It would be rude not to buy one really....
I have been looking on the classifieds tonight, I must admit. I also read mrpenks' thread on his 2.5 where he enthuses over it for the most part.Also unlike some of the cars I've been looking at, these would not require much additional outlay once I sell the MX5. Honestly very tempted, a Porsche that you don't really worry about too much as it was cheap to buy and has relatively few weaknesses, and probably doesn't rust like an MX5.
Here's my original thread on the topic, if you're interested: 986 conundrum; 2.5 v 3.2
poppopbangbang said:
If it goes pop I'm putting an LS3 in it on general principle otherwise its staying as the daily - it is my least modified Porsche..... which considering one of the others is a Cayenne is saying something 
Sorry, not sorry, this makes me want it to go pop otherwise its staying as the daily - it is my least modified Porsche..... which considering one of the others is a Cayenne is saying something Got behind a wheel of C6 few times on autumn and LSx are quite nice torque engines.. Bit flat and dull, but that can be spiced with cam.
poppopbangbang said:
If you're considering one then get it done before they're all ten grand +
Ah those UK prices 
Those never dipped under 15k€ here.Remember when I was importing £1k NA Miatas that I could've had cheap Boxsters. Thanks to our dragonian tax laws it never made sence to buy £2-3k 986 and pay +10k€ tax for it.
Edited by SamuliS on Wednesday 1st March 19:17
Edited by SamuliS on Wednesday 1st March 19:19
ronmac7 said:
Hi, I believe you mentioned earlier in the thread that the Boxster had wheel spacers fitted, can I enquire as to what size they are front and back please.
7MM front and 15mm rear.... basically the "standard" spacers for a Boxster You don't need hubcentrics on the front but the rear is a must at anything above 7MM.
TameRacingDriver said:
Here's my original thread on the topic, if you're interested: 986 conundrum; 2.5 v 3.2
Enjoyed that! Good read poppopbangbang said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Here's my original thread on the topic, if you're interested: 986 conundrum; 2.5 v 3.2
Enjoyed that! Good read 
It might not be over yet....
As the sun has finally come out it seemed rude not to give it a quick and dirty detail:
The old thing scrubs up really well and I am still in awe of what a difference some spacers make to the visuals of the rear of the car.
It's due its MOT in a few weeks so I've given it a once over in advance of that. No significant jobs to do, it wants some rear tuning fork arms so they are on the way but they're a super easy change and don't impact the geo so a lazy afternoons job at worst. I might also put some fresh rear pads in as I've got to sort out a dodgy brake wear sensor that keeps spooking the light on the dash so whilst it's apart....
Aside from that I'm still running this on a mostly send it and see approach but it continues to be a hugely entertaining, balanced and nippy if you're working at it car.
The old thing scrubs up really well and I am still in awe of what a difference some spacers make to the visuals of the rear of the car.
It's due its MOT in a few weeks so I've given it a once over in advance of that. No significant jobs to do, it wants some rear tuning fork arms so they are on the way but they're a super easy change and don't impact the geo so a lazy afternoons job at worst. I might also put some fresh rear pads in as I've got to sort out a dodgy brake wear sensor that keeps spooking the light on the dash so whilst it's apart....
Aside from that I'm still running this on a mostly send it and see approach
but it continues to be a hugely entertaining, balanced and nippy if you're working at it car. 
poppopbangbang said:
As the sun has finally come out it seemed rude not to give it a quick and dirty detail:
The old thing scrubs up really well and I am still in awe of what a difference some spacers make to the visuals of the rear of the car.
Stunning pic, the spacers nicely fix the under-wheeled look they can have on 17's. The 986 really was an elegant design.The old thing scrubs up really well and I am still in awe of what a difference some spacers make to the visuals of the rear of the car.
TameRacingDriver said:
Very nice. I've joined the club again myself, and in a fairly similar looking colour
Here it is alongside the car it's replacing.
Lovely car Here it is alongside the car it's replacing.
But I would say that right? I am biased but having spent a fair whack of time in later MX5's the Boxster is so much better (and that's taking into account the personality the MX5 has)..... and they rust a lot less!
squareflops said:
I found changing the rear tf arms on mine made a huge difference. I could wiggle the old bushings with 2 fingers
when they came out, awesome to feel the improvement of the new ones!
I might get some spacers for mine
I can only recommend them, both aesthetically and because it takes the edge off the rear spring rates a little. when they came out, awesome to feel the improvement of the new ones!
I might get some spacers for mine
MrBen986 said:
Stunning pic, the spacers nicely fix the under-wheeled look they can have on 17's. The 986 really was an elegant design.
They've aged superbly well really, very different design language to modern Porsche but the still look fresh. I am one of about three people that think the fried egg headlights have aged well..... but only if they're litronics that had no "yolk" to begin with Heaveho said:
Other than appearance what benefit do spacers offer? I've always understood them to place more stress on wheel bearings etc? I removed the 15mm rear and 7mm fronts on mine when I bought it because of this.
They allow you to tune the roll centre of the vehicle, fine tune effective spring rate and tune the under/oversteer characteristics of the chassis as well as all the obvious aesthetic reasons. Realistically in race car world you'd do this work then get your race wheels produced incorporating the relative offsets you'd ended up at etc. With regards wheel bearing loads, how often do you buy tyres based on them being the same weight as what the car did sign off on? That's pretty much the difference with the size of spacer we are discussing here when it comes to wheel bearing load. Porsche will happily sell you a set of spacers from the Tequipment catalogue for example. Note we're talking about small spacers here, not the Carlos Fandango 50mm jobbies
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff