Most bang for your buck.
 

Okay, I know this has been done to death, but my search-fu is weak today apparently.

What I want to know is what performance upgrades give the most bang for the buck on a 2500 dollar budget. I've got a 97 box, 2.5L. Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks

if you can spend a little more money a turbocharger is the best, but if your stuck with only $2500 you can get abit, but not much power, remember the boxster isnt meant for straight line performance, i would do the following

Headers
Exhaust
suspension
De- snorkel FREE
chip

and you should stay within your budget

What kind of chip? Can I do the install myself? Just curious about the install, I like to do everything I can do myself, myself. What kind of gains am i likely to see with these mods? Already de-snorkled. Why a turbo instead of a supercharger?

you get much more power with a turbo charger. its more logical to get the exhasut headers and then do the chip, powerchip.com

lol didnt see the other part of your question

headers- 12hp
exhasut- 5hp
chip- 8 hp
de-snorkel maybe 1hp

turbo alot of hp

I recommend buying:

1) a great set of new tires for about $1,000
2) about 300 gallons of gas for $1,500


drive....drive....drive!

:)

yep thats probably a better idea :D

have no fear, I drive it all the time.

instead of performance

why not get some new suspension rims and lower it?

Nitrous, that's what most of us on this forum use.

Got mine....

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...6/CIMG4093.jpg

I recently installed purge points in the vents on the side of my box, PICS:
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/41...500x500Q85.jpg

yeah, i guess it does look more like its shooting flames, but hey, it was a 5 min photoshopping job

drop a 3.2 or perhaps 3.4 996 engine and you should be fine...

As already alluded to, a Driving Course can most often be the biggest bang for the buck.

These cars' abilities usually exceed those of their owners and you'd be surprised how much performance of a stock Boxster remains untapped because the driver hasn't learned how to extract it.

That's where I'd start anyway.

Just FYI....
 

Id remove that sticker on your bottle, Nitrous is not flammable, its making you look like a fool to anyone but ricerboyz who dont know any better.

I agree completely. Everybody wants to mod their car. How about modding the driver? I was ridiculed when I suggested this on the Corvette forum. They are a bunch of Neanderthals over there. All they care about is brute force off the line and when they hit the curves it's all over for them.

My brother is a HUGE camaro person (he to this today insists that his 2001 Camaro SS was the best car money could buy), and we had a running joke that a bigger engine in your car is good because it "anchors" your car around the apex of a turn. Haha, vette and camaro people love stomping on the gas and love saying they get good fuel economy on the highway thanks to that "supper cruise" 6th gear (stupid IMO)

I have not dyno'd my car but I don't think my Dansk exhaust added much power after the install. It sounds great though. I installed the cheap $100 headers the other day (excellent quality) and the whole system sounds much better now with less resonance (not that I had much to begin with). However, I certianly feel like I lost low end torque after the installation of the headers. I have't had a chance to let it rip yet but the sound is truly amazing at higher RPMs. Do you guys think a chip would help or would it just be more money down the drain? I don't smind pending money on my setup thus far as I like the look of the stainless exhaust and headers as well as the sound very much. I just don't want to spend money on a supposedly performance mod if I am not really going to gain any real performance from it. At least the other stuff has some cosmetic appeal.

The upgrade that I like the most so far are my Eibach lowering springs.

some exhasut can loose Horsepower!

For $2500 your best power adder is going to be nitrous. Of course, the best bet is dump your 2.5L and trade it in on a cheap 3.2L boxster S. It's like a 2.5L on nitrous except you never have to refill the bottle...plus you get better brakes/handling ect.

My theory on exhaust is to get the most proven/respected one for this reason. I would really like a Fabspeed exhaust (full pref. but the headers aint cheap). This is another reason I really didn't like moding my s2000. An AEM intake was about 300 bucks, but because of the vtec system, it wasn't very good at adding power. A good intake for an s2k ran from a grand up wards (some went up to 3k...for a cold air intake!). The best exhaust for it cost about 2500, even if it didn't add any power it weight 12 pounds versus the 45+ of the stock.

Adding an exhaust is a cheap way to get power...if you get power....for cheap :D

Hahaha... what makes you think that's nitrous? I never specifically said it's nitrous, I just alluded to that. This is actually a collector bottle connected to a sphincter vacuum system in the driver's seat. So, yes, it is most definitely flammable gas. I just don't want any released in my car, I HATE that. To be honest though, I only got the single seat system. I bowed out of the dual seat system as my girl rarely passes gas and better not do it in my Boxster!

Here's a link to their website explaining the system.

http://www.gascollector.com/single_sphincter/info.htm

Also you obviously never saw the movie Fast and Furious. Dude, that Eclipse SO blew up when the nawz bottles ruptured!!!

Kirk