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I don't think Boxsters will become classics in the same vein as the air-cooled 911's or the first-generation Mustangs, but I think they're well on their way to being classics now. They were many people's first Porsche, whether purchased brand-new by upwardly-mobile professionals during the dot-com boom or used by mechanically-adventurous teenagers when they were valueless.
Speaking of that, they were once worth very little, and that made them disposable. Lots of Boxsters that could've been fixed for less than they're worth now were parted out or scrapped during that time, and their numbers have dwindled somewhat. They're still relatively cheap and being bought by people like me, who drive they year-round and flog them at the track. As much as I love my car, I acknowledge that my lifestyle isn't the best way of preserving it. That's fine for me, as I don't intend to sell it. Attrition rate definitely helps to create classics, look at what happened to the 180SX and what's happening to Miatas, for example.
But what makes the most sense to me is that every time a new Porsche is reviewed, they lament the absence of a naturally aspirated flat-6, the increased size, the numbness of electric power steering and the unusable gear ratios in the manual transmissions. The only way to get an N/A engine in a new Porsche anymore is to get a GT3/4.
Of course, the preferred way of doing that is an air-cooled model, but those are exorbitantly expensive to the point where many would rather get a Lotus, and air-cooled engines are no longer acceptable by many buyers' standards. The lightest, shortest-geared Porsche with the best steering to feature a water-cooled flat-6 is the 986, and by quite a margin. I think that sets it apart in pretty important metrics as far as the driving experience is concerned.
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