[Perfectlap]

This was actually the first car I ever financed. I always paid cash for everything and still do but the rates were attractive. I got a good loan. But I still had a hard time justifying a great deal of money in a sports car when so many excellent cars could be had second hand in the $20-40K range.

Back then no one had any real interest in bidding up the prices of air-cooled Porsches so they were plenty of excellent examples to be had. By this point I'd seen and driven a ton of Porsches either through friends or with the local autocross clubs. the Boxster was not my first choice of Porsche simply because it ended up being the very last Porsche model I'd ever driven. Visually I thought the 996 was fantastic but it struck me a bit 'loose', the C4 seemed too heavy/pushy, the Cab looked weird to me, the Turbo was down the road proposition when depreciation set in some more and the bullet proof engine was still tight, GT3 Mk1 was still too steep for the budget. I was most impressed with the E46 M3, then the Honda S2000, STi, EVO, a Mazdaspeed Miata, Lotus Elise (a bit of hike on the budget but worth it I figured), third gen RX7, BMW M Coupe and on the vintage front I considered (for a second) a BMW 2002 and a 964 (would probably have bought an RS if I had made the mistake of actually driving one), Z4 and I don't remember if I'd drive a JCW Mini then yet but it's still high on my list.

Then I watched an episode of 5th Gear where they crowned the Boxster the best sports car. Something about former F1 driver Tiff N. sliding it all over while laughing all the way that won me over. I started looking for one that day. A few days later my car shows up on Ebay from an Acura dealer 10 minutes away, still sitting in the showroom with barely 9K miles. There was a super clean yellow 996 up the road for sale by a private owner for only $10K more, but I'd already driven a C2. I never made it to see the 996, the Boxster S was perfect. No need to spend anymore money this car does everything.