Mini Cooper S or Boxster - the debate in my head rages!

[986_c6]

For the track...no brainer, boxster all the way!

Wife currently owns a 12 clubman base and it is a fun car.

[Jittsl]

If you budget is limited to 8-9K for the base car, how much have you budgeted for the "monster" track car build? Since a building a Spec Boxster probably covers most (if not all) of the likely costs associated I can tell you from experience that the total build will run close to $30K. If I had a choice between a tired Boxster (which is what you get for <$10K) or a low mileage Mini I would take the Mini. Not that I'm a great fan of the Mini. My wife has owned two Ss (an 05 and an 08) and neither were terribly well built, both were however fun to drive but not even in the same ballpark as the Porsche. My reasoning is simply that as it sounds like your budget is limited I imagine you would get a lot of satisfaction from the inevitable much better condition of the Mini.