Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian c
Contrary to popular belief, Porsche were successfull in racing decades before the idea of a revamped 356 (the 911) had even entered anyone's mind.
I read this as you saying porsche had decades of racing history prior to the 911 being even designed .....
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You're correct that could have been written better on my part. Point is however that the Carrera was very late to the Porsche racing history party when it finally worked out all of its commercial compromises and became a top winner. Yet despite being so late to the show, relative to its much longer history, this one model seems to have been associated with all of its success by the average guy. I think this largely a consequence of guys who began driving in the 70's and 80's and grew up idolizing the 911.
Before I started shopping for the Boxster S I became very used to seeing 993 and 996 every weekend at my local autocross venue and had already driven virtually every 996 except the GTs. So in a way I thought of buying one as the next logical step but the only car I ever got weak kneed over was the F355 and I was already well into adulthood then. At any rate I was resolved to buy a coupe and my first Porsche wasn't going to be a Cabriolet. That made no sense. The next convertible would be that 355
. Then I watched Tiff Needell declare the Boxster the best pure sports car on 5th gear. Watching a former F1 driver have that much fun prompted me to do a search of eBay and my current 986s was sitting less than 15 mins away with barely any mileage in the exact trim an options I was wanting. After the test drive it was no contest. There was a yellow 996 close by for only $10K more. I didn't even give it a second thought.
The "entry level" Porsche title has always been amusing to me. I suppose it applies to new Porsches but most Porsche enthusiasts I have known didn't buy new. When I was shopping for the first Porsche and before the air-cooled Carreras had begun their recent surge, the want ads were littered with old Carreras, 944's,968, 928 that you could buy for less than $30k if you couldnt afford a new Bosxter. plenty of cheap Porsches to be had. And those who would think that buying a Boxster in hopes of having inexpensive maintenance and repairs would be in for the same rude awakening as someone thinking any $10k water-cooled Porsche isn't going to require a very handy DIY'er or some pretty large invoices from the dealer or Indy.