[thstone]

The best advice I can offer is to invest in track time and coaching until you can out drive your stock car. Then start making upgrades to the car. A stock Boxster has an incredible amount of capability that you need to learn to untap. With a more capable car, the hill is just that much higher and can impede progress.

And everything that you learn to drive a stock Boxster well will pay off in whatever car you might drive in the future. I see SO many drivers in much higher HP cars on the race track that really should go back and learn the basics of performance driving. They use the high HP as a crutch to make up for poor fundamental track skills. Don't be that guy. Instead, be the guy who can post a faster lap time than a guy in a Cayman with 50 more HP. That will make you feel REALLY good!

The only exception that I would mention is if you wanted to get a racing seat and harnesses. This will improve your learning curve since you can concentrate on driving and not expend so much energy just trying to stay in the seat. Realize that you'll also need a HANS device if you go this route (with your body fully strapped in, your head/neck is now the weakest link).

How do you know when you're better than the car? Your lap times will be near or at the top of your class. Maybe you have a track record in your stock class. It will start to be obvious if you're really at that point.

This is why after two seasons of racing, I am still in a Spec Boxster as I am still not better than the car. My lap times are still 1.0-1.5 sec's behind the fastest drivers and I don't have any BSR wins and no track records (I have two in Stock and BSX). At some point, I hope to reach those goals and then I'll consider moving to a faster race car.