New Owner Question

[Houston C4S]

Randall,

And I apologize to the rest of you if this sort of hijacks this
thread a tad, but a couple of comments here.

One: None of the 2.5s had the dual chambered intake manifold
with the flappy thingies. And the way yours drives, it feels fine
without it. If you look in your manual, I think there is a graph
that shows the power/torque curves of your engine. Indeed,
at a point, the horespower actually lessens after a certain rpm.
That's simply a mathmatically calculated number based on torque
at a given rpm. As the torque falls off, so must the horsepower.

And that's a function of air inlets, filters, mainfolds, DME controls,
valves and cam timing/lift, headers, cats, etc. And flapper thingies,
too.

But to your question of if it is "useful" to redline the engine,
the answer is sort of a weasely one -- it depends.

On the street for everyday driving, no.

On the track, which is something I need to talk you into
doing for your own education and resultant safety (you can
quote that to your wife!), there are times where running it
to the rev limit will let you skip a shift. Ie, leaving it in third
rather than short shift to fourth and then right back down
to third again, which wears the synchros, clutch, upsets
the car, etc. At least as long as you don't bump up against
the rev limiter.

And again, it won't hurt anything to do that except
your chances of getting Porsche to help pay for your
new engine if it blows up someday.

I think that answers that.

Now on to Two:

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, I don't know how to change the name
thingy! Shoot, I don't even know how you get one of those
picture thingies next to your name.

I know I am a Mac guy and this stuff oughta be easy, but this
does not appear to be a Mac function, rather a forum thang.

So maybe you can show me? But don't let on to all these other
smart guys what a dummy I am.

Okay?

- Mark

PS: If all goes well (at least for the other guy) the 4S goes to
Dallas tomorrow. My last drive in it. Sniff, sniff!

Unless he doesn't like the color, or its condition, in which case
I bring it back. You may agree that's an unlikely scenario.

But the new Box is officially on order.

And hopefully no one will want this 2001 Boxster before around December
or maybe even January -- we have the best top down months of
the year coming up! A perfect ultra low mileage Box should sell
easily.

Otherwise I will be in a Porsche-free zone for a while.

[z12358]

"But the new Box is officially on order."

Congrats, Mark! Colors, options?

Z.

[Houston C4S]

This went in today -- the only S allocated for the entire
month for this very large Dallas dealership.

It seems they are not making many Boxes -- mostly
the Crocs.

Meteor Gray
Cocoa top
Full cocoa leather interior (ouch!)
Sport seats, leather and heated (manual)
Floor mats (how can they charge for these???)
Bose
Windstop
Climate control AC
Sport steering wheel
Storage box
Cayman wheels -- 18s
Colored crests (and how can they charge for these, too???)
Xenons
Sport Chrono (after much pondering)
Sport exhaust (Ouch!!!)
PCCBs (TRIPLE OUCH!!!)

Std suspension -- to leave more choices available later. If any.

It's a "tracky" version.

And not too poofy. The PASM limits choices down the road and
is another big ouch $$$.

There you go.

Delivery in January, they say.

[z12358]

That's one tricked-out Box S! Beautiful color combo.
I've read reviews raving about the SpChrono+PASM combo. Never understood the Sport Chrono. The PASM made sense, but you're right, perhaps a PSS9 susp down the road would make things even better.

Z.

[Perfectlap]

don't worry about the rev limit as much as getting the engine temp up before you start shifting about 3K. This means driving for 5-10 minutes before that neelde has come up to 185?

[Houston C4S]

Having run the "plain" Box at TWS for two DE's, the ABS
and the PSM can be a bit intrusive. I know I have more to
learn about smoothness and as I get better, it should lessen
that intrusion. The Sport Chrono, when engaged, dials back those
two functions. So I should be able to get better throttle
steer when I want it without totally turning off the PSM.

Which, for those of you who may not know, is an acronym
for "Please Save Me."

And I think it re-engages itself the next time the ABS
kicks in. Kind of a PIA (you all can figure that one out).

As well, it increases the sensitvity of the throttle pedal in
the early part of the travel. I am not sure I want that
to happen, but it seems some like it, some don't.
We will see, I guesss.

And in this case, which I am not sure I will like also,
I believe it is what will engage the sport exhaust as well.
I think I would prefer just a separate switch for that,
but I am not sure it comes that way.

[Houston C4S]

Perfectlap (and others),

To answer you, my considered (and some say considerable)
advice is to never, ever run an engine hard or at high
rpm from dead cold.

As you must know -- even if you went to government (public)
schools (not a slam, I did, too) -- metals expand and contract
as they heat and cool. And different metals do so at different
rates.

You engine has aluminum parts, steel parts, plastic parts in
all sorts of places. Steel piston rings on aluminum pistons,
aluminum block, steel rods and crank, etc. And none of these
are sized to run at their optimum performance until they are
at their designed, optimum temperature.

And that goes for your oil as well. It is the lifeblood of the
engine and needs to be at full operatiing temperature before
really getting after it.

it is heated and cooled by a water to oil heat exchanger and
will closely follow the water temp on your gauge. Personally,
I let the coolant get up to temp and give it a few more minutes
before any full throttle use. As it is heating up, I keep it below
2,000 for a while and slowly to 3,000 or so until it has reached
full operating temperature.

But that's just me.

- Mark

PS: I apologize for mis- typing "guesss" on that last post. Clearly
I meant "guess." Sorry.

[SD987]

Regarding the rev history stored in the car's "memory", that Houston C4S commented on, the 986 records two types of events. One being bouncing off the rev limiter and two being an over-rev caused by a downshift. The latter code may negatively affect your reception when submitting a warranty claim to Porsche.

The 987 records rev history in certain high-rev ranges (six levels), with a median range (level 3) being up to 7,900.

Regarding shift points: the Power/Torque chart for your model should be in the back of your owners manual, but if you haven't seen it, the attached one shows an 04 986 and an 05 987 which will be similar to your 1997-06. The chart pretty clearly shows what you're missing out on in the Box by shifting early (variocam for example, doesn't kick in until 4200 rpm - one reason they don't want you exceeding this point during break-in). The chart also illustrates Randall's comment that at a certain point in the cycle you'll experience diminishing returns.

[C5150]

Really appreciate the input. I had always heard that you can take it up to the redline - but not to exceed. First few "performance" drives I took her on I never went over 5K for fear of hurting my new pride and joy.

Needless to say - I have grown a little in RPMs since this post - and I can't thank you all enough for the knowledge. Now - if only I didn't run out of open road so fast - I could really enjoy her more often! Guess I'll have to join up on the PCA and get some track time in my near future...

- C5150