2.7 with all bolt-on's vs. stock 3.2... who wins?

[Porschekid]

Parts that are upgrades of original parts are considered bolt-ons. Supplimental parts such as turbo, supercharger, nitrous, aren't.

[986Jim]

Originally Posted by Porschekid

Parts that are upgrades of original parts are considered bolt-ons. Supplimental parts such as turbo, supercharger, nitrous, aren't.

Bolt ons are anything bolted onto the motor on the outside. Non bolt ons are inside the motor, pistons, rods, headwork valves etc.. It's purely definitioin.

If you look at the manufacturers rows at SEMA bolt on has turbo and s/c'ing in it because they from an industry perspective are bolt ons. I also consider them that way because bolting on a turbo or s/c to something is quite common for me really. I also write independantly for a few Performance Import Magazines (hense the Talon with 425whp on pump gas) and work in the industry.

What your refering to is what we call I/H/E.. Those are starter parts where most people get their first kick from. (Intake Header Exhaust)

[insite]

another benefit is that the 5-speed gearbox has a higher final drive.

[mjw930]

The 3.2 wins, especially the '03 - '04 flavor.

I think it's been proven for the most part that most of the "bolt on's" provide little to no real world performance benefit on the Boxster motors. Porsche has done a REALLY good job of wringing as much power out of these motors as possible and that's proven out by the lack of effect most bolt on's have. Of course a full blown, none street legal header, exhaust, intake and chip version of the 2.7 might put down numbers at or above a stock 3.2 but when you look at the "area under the torque curve" you'll see the '03 - '04 3.2 simply provides more power in more places.

Now, take the 3.2 and do the same things to it and you're approaching the Carrera performance envelope

Of course this is all IMHO and YMMV