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Old 06-13-2005, 08:26 AM   #4
Ronzi
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Denver CO
Posts: 748
Brucelee probably has as much comparative experience with late-model 911s and the Boxsters as anybody that posts regularly on this forum, so I would bow to whatever his opinion, thusfar unexpressed, was.
I did own an older ('81 911SC) 911 for a number of years, and in my opinion the "feel" of the two cars is totally different. The 911 had a carved-from-a-block-of-stone feel that is missing in the Box. My 911 also was a heavy-shifting, heavy steering, rough-riding, classic-feeling beast with haphazard ergonomics and neither adequate ventilation nor any air conditioning to speak of. When you drove it you knew you were in a 25-year old high performance SPORTS CAR that made relatively few compromises.
The Boxster on the other hand is a thoroughly modern car with pretty much all the normal bells and whistles. My personal opinion is that if you blindfolded a typical sports car enthusiast and took him for a ride in a Boxster, an S2000, a Mazda RX8, and say an M3 BMW, he wouldn't be able to tell one from the other. At least until you get to the outer edges of the performance envelope, by which time he would probably be screaming for mama anyway. This is not an indictment of the Porsche, it is simply an observation that all of those cars are pretty competent as sports cars.
I suppose the real question however is the difference between a new Boxster vs a relatively new 911, one of the 2000-up 996 models. As Brucelee suggested, drive both types and see which appeals to you. I don't know if the "block-of-stone" feel still exists in the new 996/997s, but that is what I would look for.
Amongst the Porsche crowd there is still a certain amount of sneering at the Boxster, although that is abating as 80's and 90's Carrera owners continue to get their butts hammered by Boxsters at DE events and autocrosses. There is also the realization that the Box, particularly the S, offers outstanding performance, and a functioning air conditioner, too.
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