My 2000 Boxster S is now sold (or at least waiting to be be personally delivered, with a deposit paid) and I am heading down south to swap it for my 2008 Boxster S in a couple of days.
While the 987 is in my experience just a better functioning overall car, there's something about the 986 visually, and in it's edgier feeling driving experience, that is special and causing me a premature tinge of regret even as I prepare to take her on a final 1100 mile drive through Appalachia.
While the 987 is certainly handsome, the softer lines of the original are more elegant and likely to be remembered 20 years from now, I think. When I've pushed the 987 before, it feels fast, planted, and completely under control all the time. Speed seems effortless and you don't feel quite as involved as when you're piloting a 986 at 9/10ths with no driver aids save ABS. When you are pushing a 986, you KNOW it! Newer Porsches I've driven feel like cyborg speed machines from the future, but they don't rattle your soul (or spine) in quite the same way
While my example has a non VIN matching engine, mods, and probably has too many miles (111k) to ever be a Barrett-Jackson contender, I already feel like I am losing something really unique by letting her go. I am also pretty sure that since you can only have 1 first Porsche, so that there's little chance that this car will make the same memories and emotional connection as "Black Bettie" did.
I got a killer deal on the new car, which is 99.9% perfect and still under warranty, so it was definitely a case of practical expediency trumping emotion in upgrading to the new model.
What do you guys think? Is the 986 a future classic, is it more "special" than its more capable successor cars?
Here's Bettie with a relative:
