How often do you redline it & a story of newfound joy

[JoeFromPA]

Hi all,

Well, celebrating about 3 weeks of boxster ownership now. 99 model, 5-speed, 56k miles and now 700 more than when I took on ownership.

First off, I wanted to ask how often people redline their boxsters (once fully warmed up of course). I find myself winding it out on the highway and alot on backroads....2nd and 3rd gears mostly. I'm primarily taking it to 6000 before shifting, but have gone up to 6500. Most of the magic appears to occur between 5000-6000 though. I'm guessing I'll be hitting redline once for every 5 miles I put on the car

Second thing I wanted to share: I've been a bit hard on the boxster. It may have an alignment issue, as it tramlines & vibrates at different speeds. It creaks a bit, and rides a bit rough for my taste (partly due to the barely broken in Bilstein HD dampers + thin sidewalled michelin pilot sports (not PS2s)).

As I was turning onto 6 miles of backroads tonight, I slapped myself in the face. I've got a mid-engined Porsche here, with a racing heritage, sitting on really fat summer tires hung off of excellent stiff dampers, and here I am complaining about ride quality and characteristics and some interior noises.

I sucked it up and started winding it out more, but also perfectly rev-matching downshifts, taking turns fairly hard (with a clear view of the other side), putting some heat in the brakes, and generally driving it.

Made me realize that sometimes a race car will make you happiest as a race car, instead of trying to make it into a pleasant sunday driver.
What is/was wrong with me?

Happy motoring.

[JoeFromPA]

By the way....I'm guessing my front engine mount is wearing out along with the shifter bushings, as my shifting is stiff and notchy, and my clutch and flywheel seem to not play friendly sometimes.

But when I was driving it hard and ripping off shifts, she was perfectly fluid....

[Lordblood]

Generally I drive my Boxster around 10 miles every day. Once warmed up, I try to red line at least twice before getting to my destination. It's good fun, and even though it's not lightning quick it still does feel good to be able to hit the red before getting into 2nd.

So honestly I probably redline 3 to 5 times a day every 10 miles.

EDIT: Also, as I found out, the tires make an enormous difference in ride quality, I swapped my tires for some cheap Kumho Ecsta ASX's and they ride amazing, work's really well as a daily driver now with reasonable grip.

[blue2000s]

If you're not using the top 1/3 of a flat-6's rev range, you're not getting what you paid for. These engines are made to rev both in performance and logevity. Run it to redline or buy an SUV.

[Pat]

I may not redline it ever time I drive it, but it's not uncommon. I drive it nearly every day and most of them have it over 6K at least once.

[eightsandaces]

My car sees the redline pretty often, with the care attention and maintenance we all put in, I feel confident in doing so.

[landrovered]

No offense but why would you bother to redline your Boxster in first gear? To me this is just revving for its own sake. The extra revs don't give you much in the way of torque after the midway point. Torque peaks and is actually on the way down as you reach the redline.

I shift out of first from 4500-5000 rpms max, I shift out of second around the same and then wind third all the way to the redline and fourth and fifth, I have never redlined sixth as of this writing.

I redline my Boxster at least once ever time I drive it and try not to let the rpms go below 3000 rpms while cruising, the rpms do drop below that during starts and stops and in traffic but I live in the country so that is not as often as it would be if I lived in the city.

So why are you redlining first gear?

[blue2000s]

Maximum acceleration is dependent on torque at the wheels. It's a combination of engine torque and gear ratios. There is more torque at the wheels in first gear at redline than in second at any point. So max acceleration comes when you redline in first ( and every other gear for that matter). It's not the case with every car, but usually is with sports cars and absolutely is with the Boxster.

Let us know when you redline in 6th. It's over 170mph!

[landrovered]

Perhaps I should qualify my statement....in the 3.6 there seems to be no benefit percieved from redlining first or second. The long gears are where it is at.

[Frodo]

I tend to agree with landrovered here. I don't know the science like some folks out there, but, to me, it seems like the Boxster has such a good torque curve that it feels totally unnecessary to wind out to redline in first.

As he said, when "in a hurry" I'll typically run up to 4500-5000 rpm in first, then shift. She just pulls so strong in second when I do that it just seems silly to delay that shift. I too save the redline (or near-redline) shifts for the middle to higher gears.

Like I said, I really don't know the science here...this is kind of a 'butt dyno' kind of thing for me.

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by landrovered

Perhaps I should qualify my statement....in the 3.6 there seems to be no benefit percieved from redlining first or second. The long gears are where it is at.

Unless the 3.6 torque curve is less flat than the 3.2, which I doubt, you're still faster winding to redline. Whether you fell the need to do so is of course another matter.

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by Frodo

I tend to agree with landrovered here. I don't know the science like some folks out there, but, to me, it seems like the Boxster has such a good torque curve that it feels totally unnecessary to wind out to redline in first.

As he said, when "in a hurry" I'll typically run up to 4500-5000 rpm in first, then shift. She just pulls so strong in second when I do that it just seems silly to delay that shift. I too save the redline (or near-redline) shifts for the middle to higher gears.

Like I said, I really don't know the science here...this is kind of a 'butt dyno' kind of thing for me.

Your butt dyno needs recalibration.

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by blue2000s

Your butt dyno needs recalibration.

Oh Great! What's THAT gonna cost me??

[eightsandaces]

Originally Posted by landrovered

Perhaps I should qualify my statement....in the 3.6 there seems to be no benefit percieved from redlining first or second. The long gears are where it is at.

I have never driven a sports car where redlining first gear made sense. IMO, the Boxster third gear and fourth is where the power is killer approaching redline. I also think remaining in fourth on the highway is way fun, sucks more gas but the available passing power is again, killer.

[blue2000s]

I put the gear ratios of the 986 6-speed together with the torque curve of the 3.6 non x-51 engine. Attached is the resulting torque vs road speed curve. You always have more torque in the lower gear at redline than the next gear up for any given road speed.

If the curves crossed each other, that would be the shift point you'd want to make. If they don't cross, as with the 3.6, redline is always going to be faster.

6th gear at a redline of 7200 RPM should be about 176mph.

[JoeFromPA]

I think 1st gear is worth at least a 6000rpm run (when is fuel cut on the 2.5 liter?)....maybe it's just me, and my huge-ass 265/35/18 wide pilot sports, but between the power output, the medium-ish gearing of the 5-speeds, and those tires....well, I definitely feel that first gear redline is not an OVER-RUN of power output.

Anyway, I don't like to redline in first unless I'm racing someone (which is extremely infrequent). I don't like the forces it puts on the juicy bits, and I don't like it's feel as much as I enjoy a good 2-4th gear redline run.

Good to hear others opinions. I come from driving a 2006 Civic SI, which I redlined at 8000 rpms everyday and have never been concerned about. Conversely, my 2008 Legacy GT is not a car that enjoys redlining.

I find the boxster to be not as encouraging of redline as the Civic SI, but also far smoother power delivery. Since the car has a long history of being tracked for many miles without any sort of rotating assembly failures, I assumed it was a great car to keep in the upper rpms (in terms of mechanical happiness).

I like being re-assured

Joe

P.s. First full tank of gas in the boxster, driven 70% highway with the top-down, lots of aggressive driving.....23 mpg. Sound about right? Also is 11 years old without a 60k mile service yet, which may help.

[Lordblood]

There's only 2 highways in my city, and I don't ever use them in my Boxster, thus the only time I can redline legally is first gear, thus I do it :dance:

But yea, I do agree that 2nd gear does pull better than 1st gear beyond 5000 RPM.

Maximum acceleration torque depends on the wheel, It is a combination of engine torque and gear. There are more torque to the wheels in first gear in the second Redline at any time. The maximum acceleration occurs when you Redline in the first, This is not the case with all cars, but they usually do with sport and certainly contributes Boxster.

[al83s]

I red-line my 2.7 several times a day and no problems so far.
Letting the rpm drop below 3k is dissapointing since the power just isnt there if you need it.
i have been getting 19-20 mpg lately though

[BoxsterDuke]

I've only recently taken ownership of my Boxster and reading the post on "Tiptronic in Manual Mode", I have just discovered a whole new car when driving in lower gears in manual between 5,000 and 6,500 revs (I think my 2.7 red-lines at 7,000?). Enormous fun, but still couldn't quite bring myself to take it right up to the Red-Line yet. Guess I'm still worried the engine will come out of the car over my left shoulder (UK).

Gentle driving in Auto is giving me around 26MPG, driving like last night probably around 21MPG.....but hell, its only fuel!!