Quote:
Originally Posted by RichRobby
To update,
Just had the MOT yesterday and it passed with no advisories.
The partially covered sidelights didn't cause an issue (I was pleasantly surprised as I anticipated a fail).
As mentioned in this thread I had replaced the bulbs with the brightest LED bulbs that physically fit. There are brighter ones available but they won't fit, some are too long and hit the projector shroud and some are too fat to go in the hole.
All in all, a good result.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
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Nice one buddy!
Okay! This is a long post.
I had a bit of a weird week last week - I wasn't happy with the car anymore.
I'll explain. Being a petrolhead like the rest of us, I'm far more excited by B-roads than I am by any motorway. Straight line speed does absolutely nothing for me, as I've always gone by the quote "Straights are for fast cars, corners are for fast drivers". I'm a stickler for how a car feels in terms of my connection with the car, and in turn the car's connection with the road. My last car was a Celica T-Sport, which I completely kitted out in terms of performance and re-trimmed its cabin in leather and alcantara to an OEM standard. What I loved about the car was the rawness of it when you pushed it; cable throttle, rev-happy (8,250rpm) 4-cylinder engine, and a brilliant chassis, allowing you to really throw it around and instigate a lift-off oversteer state that was completely controllable and intuitive. The car wasn't as plush as a Porsche at all, with its interior panels all plastic, but it was the absence of luxury that made the connection with the road all that more special.
Now i'm not saying I'd rather have the Celica over this, not at all... but I started to get worried over something. Someone once told me that the Boxster was a cross between an Elise and a Jaguar (performance with luxury). I was worried that after driving this for almost two years, the Porsche was more towards the luxury side of things than it was performance, which isn't what I'm about. Yes I love the luxury in a sense that the car can do everything and still drive to Germany and back without a flaw, but I was concerned that it was more focused towards comfort than performance, especially with its target audience originally being men with money with no interest in driving passion, but just because they wanted a 'Porsche'.
The one thing I hate is wearing a suite while driving the Boxster. I can' stand it. I loath the idea of people with a lot of money buying sports cars that they know nothing about, just because they can. I bought the car because it was rear wheel drive, had a N/A 6-cylinder engine, great balance and was a two seater roadster. If it had a Nissan badge, I would have still bought it. I even looked at an S2000 before this, and an MX-5 too. But when I have to drive the car wearing a suit, I always think I'm going to get mistaken for one of those aforementioned stereotypes. This tied in with my worries of what the Boxster was built for. Now of course it's a very capable car, but it has leather on the doors and carpet everywhere - even inside the sun visor mirror flaps. Is it more for 'that' type of person?
Then I went back to what I thought earlier. The car is a mix of an Elise and a Jaguar.
An Elise...
So that's what I started to shop for. On paper, the Elise S2 111S is exactly what I'm after. Low centre of gravity, mid-engined, rev-happy uncomplicated engine, simplistic build, no electronics between the driver and the car, sublime handling and, with a designer head on my shoulders, drop dead gorgeous looks. I was sold. In September, I start a new job with a pay rise, and was willing to sell the Porsche and find an Elise in a few months.
But then I started reading every single internet page that referenced "Boxster S vs Elise S". Everyone said "The Boxster S is a grown up version of the Elise". There were a few concerning things, the complete lack of an interior (I'm up for simplicity, but this was a bit far), the lack of pull after 70mph due to its 1.8 engine, and the fact that it's made of fibreglass wasn't winning me over (good luck repairing that). I still liked the ethos of the car though, and I was still drawn in.
Then I bumped into someone who owned one, and had a little nose around his cabin. I knew an Elise cabin was bare, but wow. The carpets are an optional extra, so are the sun visors, and so is the central locking. When I got home, I started to look at what modifications you could do to an Elise interior to plush it up a little (leather trim, better radio, sound deadening), and that's when I realised something. I was inadvertently planning on turning the Elise into a Boxster.
So that was when I knew the Elise was unfortunately not for me. Not yet, anyway. My drive home that day hit home with me that this is actually an incredible car. But even though I couldn't ignore the fact that the Porsche may still be a little too towards caring about comfort than performance, I've got a plan to fix it.
I'm going to keep the car. I was willing to spend a bit of cash on a new car in September, but now that I'm not going to do that, I'm going to throw £2,500 at the Porsche instead
in one go, to turn it more into a car that focuses much more on performance whilst retaining its quality, so no ripping out interior parts. I've got a big document full of things I'd like to do to the Porsche which I've had since I bought the car, and this £2,500 covers most of them in one fell swoop, from performance upgrades to visual enhancements.
Here's what's going to happen in one go in September:
- Lower, stiffer suspension (M030 springs)
- Spacers (10mm front, 15mm rear)
- GT3 brake ducts
- GT3 style front rubber splitter
- GT3 side skirts
- GT3 style steering wheel, black alcantara rim, red 12 o'clock ring, red stitching
- GT3 style black 997 gear knob with alcantara gaiter
- Short shifter upgrade
- Red mohair roof
- Gloss piano black painted centre console and speedo surround
- Subtle carbon fibre dipped radio surround and side air vents
- Red seat belts
- DOT-Matrix dials with cruise control
So you can see where I'm going with this. A car more focused on driving, more performance focused elements, such as the alcantara wheel and better suspension. A red and black 'performance' look and feel, while retaining all of the original Porsche road car feel. A Boxster GTS, I suppose. I'll be keeping an eye out for better seats in the future, too.
It took me all of this to realise that of course I've got an incredible car to start with, I just need to tweak it in September to turn it into a car that I feel more connected with. These tweaks above, even though they're expensive, are really going to change the feel of the car and the way I connect with it, as it'll focus more on driving enjoyment. The exact same ethos of the Boxster GTS.
But...
My engine water pump is on it's way out, it needs a service (including coolant when I change the pump), and I need to replace the front control arms (I changed the rears, going to do the fronts too) as well as give it another alignment setup. So I need to do these things first before I think about transforming the car.
So there we go! Apologies for the enormous post, and if you've read all of this then I really, really appreciate it and can't thank you enough for listening to my ramblings.
Cheers guys
