[Perfectlap]

Making one Porsche look like another Porsche is a pretty common practice I've seen countless times with 911 clones, 911 backdating, 911 updating, 911 made to look like 911 GT3's, taking upgraded wheels from a Turbo and putting it on a standard 911, etc. and I've even received inquiries from 911 owners wanting my 17" lobster claws to give their oldster a more updated look.

And generally speaking it's hard to really say that you're trying to make a Boxster look like a Carrera when the car is solidly littered with 996 part numbers. If you count the engine as one part, the 986 is arguably "70% Carrera" by part number.

The factory produced the Boxster and first water-cooled generation Carrera simultaneously to be one design for two cars. Any other brand would have simply called the 986 the roadster 911 (or Carrera roadster since 911s are no longer made) and used an existing engine or even the new base 996 engine. They wouldn't have gone out of their way to come up with a deliberately smaller engine nor come up with a whole new model name when nearly all of the work was already done. The 986 is essentially a 99-01 Carrera with a diferent rear and of course with the engine in the best possible place for a sprint racer.
Or alternatively, the first gen water-cooled Carrera is essentially a Boxster with a different rear end. same thing since it was a "two birds with one stone" multi-use design.
For instance if BMW had decided to make a two seater M3 they wouldn't have put in a non-M series engine and called it the Bavaria or something. M3 roadster, period. The entire premise of Porsche calling it a Boxster was essentially to upsell and protect the Carrera image.