As some of you might or not might know, I have a small business parting out Boxsters. This gives me access to view the differences between the base and S model Boxsters. I'm not sure if anyone has had a thread like this yet, but I thought it would be informative to anyone who had a curiosity about what really is different between the two. I don't claim to be an expert, so if you know something I don't. Don't be afraid to say something! Also let me know if there's something else between the two you would like me to take a picture of.
Let me start off by saying, I don't have any pictures of the outside differences. I'm assuming we're all up to speed and know the S has a opening in the middle of the front bumper that the base doesn't have. The S also has a few places on it where it says "Boxster S" where the base just has "Boxster". This thread is the mechanical differences.
As we all know, the S has a third radiator. It also has thicker coolant tubes that run from the back to the front. Base are painted black and the S is left bare aluminum
The upper metal tubes are thicker on the S too. In the picture below you can also see that the S has a "T" hose between the upper metal hose and the radiator that the base doesn't have. The small hose coming out of that "T" connects to the middle radiator.
The brakes are the next big difference between the two. The biggest difference is between the front brakes. As you can see the S has much larger rotors.
The calipers are wider too
The back rotors are larger too
But when it comes to the rear calipers, they look almost similar. They even had the same part number on mine. The only difference I could tell was when I put the ends of them together. The S is slightly bigger.