I posted the beginning of this saga on Rennlist awhile back and then forgot about it as I don't go on there as often as this forum so I thought I'd put it here too and try and keep it updated as I struggle through getting this car back on the road. Apologies for those who have already seen it but more new updates to come soon and here are the posts to get others caught up:
OK, so I bought a 00 Boxster S in Oct of 2021 and loved it immediately but then things went south. Literally. I live in Los Angeles but about 2 weeks after buying the car, I set out to visit Mom in Nashville (2000 miles away) in the new car. The car had 2nd gear issues and I planned to fix that as well as replace the IMS bearing in Mom's garage and hopefully live happily ever after. I purchased a 2nd gear detent from GBox after I described the issue to the not-much-of-a-sense-of-humor-or-patience guy over the phone and he enthusiastically proclaimed that I was a good candidate for a cheapo 6 Speed tranny fix detent at $175. All things relative considering if that doesn't fix it, it's $3000-4000 rebuild! Ouch! Uh, yeah, not so fast....A lot has happened since....
Some of this is old news as I posted many threads complaining about the shortcomings of the 986 but I'm back to say that I've come to terms with these issues. Well, some of them but thankfully, Porsche loaded the 986 with enough issues to keep us all busy for decades! (~30 catastrophic engine failure issues if I can paraphrase J.R. without paying him!) Don't get me wrong, I love the car and miss driving it everyday and if you have a trouble free example, I am truly jealous and envious of you. I hear they exist and I hope to turn my car into one soon, but being the anxiety driven pessimist that I am, I am in constant fear of bore scoring, cracked heads, AOS mega-failures and IMS explosions! Not to mention the Getrag 6 speed tranny problems too!
So, for nearly a year and a half I've been ordering parts, doing research, asking questions and making plans to get back to TN and put everything together and race around. Hopefully, I'll be back in a month or so and begin the Boxster beguine! I'll try to document all of this to help others and to ask questions.
(**UPDATE: Still not back in TN yet. My soul is fighting it tooth and nail but I think I'm ready...Stay tuned!)
Ok, time for some pics because presently the only Boxster I have with me is this one
and I love looking at pics of the car from that short love affair I had about a year ago.... It's funny because I never really liked Boxsters before the purchase. I have always loved Porsches (I've had a 944 Turbo for 20 years and a 944 before that) but I've never been a convertible person and I never liked the looks of the Boxster that much. But after buying one and driving it for a short month, albeit cross country, I absolutely love the styling, in fact preferring the early cars over the 987 and later cars. It definitely reminds me of a 356 or Speedster, increased by mine being silver. I also love having the top down. Ok, now some year ago pics when the car was in one piece:
The above pics were taken on Piuma Rd in Malibu which is one of my favorite canyon roads out here. The Boxster was fantastic on these roads. I especially loved the micro steering corrections that I could make in mid corner to add or subtract the turning radius to the tiniest degree! It's really quite amazing how sensitive and accurate the steering is. Granted, all my cars are 80's cars so it's good to see that steering has progressed for the intervening years because I'm not sure build quality has. Oh, please forgive the dirty car; this was right after purchasing the car and it came with the dirt for no extra charge. By the way, this was probably the cheapest 986S in the country at the time. More to come on that....
Here is the Boxster at rest behind my beloved Alfa Romeo Milano which is my daily driver. Don't mind the paint; that's called patina and it costs extra! And that's Tates the cat. She's sweet and great. Until she's not! And then she's absolutely feral and horrible. Pretty much the 986 of cats, I suppose. Just ask the rather large dogs and people she's attacked.
Oh, and the Milano now has Porsche phone dial wheels on it which look great and are very period correct.
Stay tuned for the 2000 mile journey, coming next....