[Perfectlap]

2004 after 5 years of debating whether I should go for an air cooled 911, a 964 or splurge on a water-cooled 996. Back then old 911's were everywhere for cheap. Some you couldn't give way people were too afraid of spending more on fixing them up snd maintaining them than they were worth. Lotus Elise, M3 and S2000 were also on my mind.

Then I saw this crazy guy Rad at the autocross tossing this 986S around like a kart and realized I'd never driven the car. Every week he and a guy in an E46 M3 were neck and neck on lap times. Then on television I watched F1 driver Tiff Needle and 5th Gear declare the Boxster the best sports car for the money. He was having a ball sliding the Boxster around their test circuit before Chris Harris was even a thing. That got me off the couch to start looking.

That week I went on Ebay and found my car less than 15 minutes away with only 9k miles in the exact engine and color combination I wanted. There was also a low mileage 996 for only $10k more close by in "pulled over by the cops again" yellow. The Acura salesman was right out of college. I told him the test drive would have two parts, the tire warm up part and the look out for smokeys part. He started laughing. Afterwards my first thought was why do you even need a Carrera? This car does everythingeverything perfectly! And $10k stays in my pocket for Apple stock purchases? No brainer.
I didn't even bother checking out the 996 before I started working out a deal with salesman. Incredibly I nearly let the pristine Boxster S get away to some other bidder by only a few hundred bucks. The car was relisted in the salesman's office so I could do the buy it now and capture some state warranty guarentees and financing freebies. They kept the car in their showroom for me until I made room at home by selling my old car, a very perfectly modified Miata that was sold in 10 hours and continued getting calls for months, some asking for the phone number of the new owner. I should have kept both! What a mistake...having two cars might have lessened some of those Boxster bills that were enough to buy the Miata back.