I agree with Brucelee. The boxster is very neutral. You have to provoke it pretty good to get it to spin. When off the throttle the boxster almost always goes into a push condition at the very limit for me. The car will spin though if I stab at the throttle though.

Hey, Wombat, that sounds like a good plan but I may be in STL the the weekend of the 10th. I'll PM you and we'll set something up. You really should come to the Porsche Fun Fest in Effingham Il this June. Mike Yager always puts on an impressive show. There is also 2 auto-x's this June at the Coles County Airport this Aug. You should try to make it. Bring the 944 along.

Adam... just let me know when you are free. Where exactly are the autocrosses at? I would love to find a good place to autocross that's closer than 2 hours away. That's how far we have to go to find a good place to race around here.

The S2K definately has a very raw feel to it. I actually kinda like that. I like having a car that communicates to you as you push it, but on the other hand I noticed today that the ride of the S2K is VERY harsh. i rode in it for about 20 minutes and felt like I was being punished for something. How is the ride in the Boxster??

Sorry for all the questions guys. I'm just trying to get as much info before I start looking for my car.

Thanks.
They are 9.5" rears and 8" fronts.

My S2K tended to oversteer as well, but, it would not snap around as quickly as my Boxster. That is probably to be expected as it would be more common for a mid or rear engine car to have oversteering issues. I also agree about the ride quality of the S2K. The Boxster is much better and, when cruising for long distances on interstates with the top up, the Boxster is much quieter.

That being said, approaching that snap oversteer point is at a pretty high threshold. The good thing about some oversteer for autocrossing and track events is that turn-in is better and it is easier to rotate the car. As you acquire more seat time to gather confidence in either a Boxster or a 911, it becomes easier to use these characteristics to your advantage. Another advantage of mid or rear engine designs is better braking, as you have more weight over the rear wheels to make them work harder.

As for one of the remarks about getting a E36 M3, they are great cars as well. I have had both a E36 and a E46 M3. While the E46 is more refined and has more horsepower, the E36 was also great fun. Either one would be more like driving your 944 as the weight distribution in near 50-50 like the 944.

Another option would be a 968, although I am not wild about this car in the convertible configuration. If you are thinking of really concentrating on autocrossing, the rigidity of a coupe would be advantageous.

If you have the opportunity before you move to Florida, you should try a track event. You may not go back to autocrossing. You have a wonderful track less than an hour away in Putnam Park. It is very challenging yet has a long enough straightaway to gather up some serious speed. I ran my 83' 944 there many times and it was perfectly suited for this track. What you lose on the straights, you can make up in the corners against a lot of cars.

I'm actually seriously concidering doing a DE event at Putnam Park before I move, but we'll see what happens. I would like to become a better autocrosser before I take a car to the track. I've heard that being good at autocross will help you adjust well to the road course. I don't know how comfortable I would feel out there right now.

About the E36, I was actually thinking about them too. The only thing is that I would love to have drop top. If I can find a mint E36 for a good price then I would probably jump on it before an S2K. We'll see what happens.

Thank you guys so much for all the information. The friendliness and willingness to help people that is found on Porsche forums is incredible. I will keep you guys updated on the car search.

"About the E36, I was actually thinking about them too. The only thing is that I would love to have drop top. If I can find a mint E36 for a good price then I would probably jump on it before an S2K. We'll see what happens."

Check the sticky in the classifieds section under Belloff Motor Works. I have a 2002 E36 ragtop with 5 speed manual trans.

Pretty car.

Wombat, Hey, is that 944 a stick or auto? What's in those things? 2.5L 4 banger? The Coles Cnty Airport is in between Charleston and Mattoon IL off route 16. It's about 45 min west of you. I'll send you more details later as I can't rememeber the exact dates.

depending on the Autocross course, it may be harder than a road course.

Some clubs around here have very open AutoX courses, not the ususal sea of cones. I had a hard time adjusting to some of these events because the gates were so far from each other and some of the turns were so wide. Everything so spread out like that makes it difficult to see two pins ahead (The cardinal rule). Some of these stadium lots here in NY/NJ are really huge. I drove on road course before I ever Autocrossed and I see your point, your confidence and skills are much sharper after AutoX'ing a good deal. Some even think that its harder to be fast in AutoX because the time diferences are often down to .1's (a blink).

If you have some basic skills as an autocrosser, you should not have any problems on a track. Keep in mind that,as a first time driver, you will have an instructor. He will control your speed until he feels comfortable with your progress.

I agree with the remarks about track events being easier than autocrossing in some aspects. You make a run at an autocross and then you have to sit for an hour or so before you make the next run. On road courses, if you screw up a corner, a couple minutes later you will be at that same corner and get to try something different. Autocrossing demands that you memorize the course and learn it quickly. You have much more time to learn the course at a track event.

After I got into track events, I rarely autocrossed again. Too much down time and not enough seat time at an autocross. Some years ago I convinced one of my former bosses, who was into drag racing, to come with me to a track event where I would be his instructor and he could drive my car. After the first 30 minute session, he said he had just spent more seat time than in his entire drag racing career. And he had been drag racing for years!

My 944 is a 5 speed. It has a 2.5L 4 cylinder rated at 143 hp and 137 ft-lbs of torque. It is slightly underpowered, but handles like a dream. Probably the most neutral handling car I have ever driven. I love it, but there really isn't any potential for modification. You spend 2K on mods and only get 10 hp. It doesn't make much sense to me. I would much rather spend the money on a newer car that actually has some potential.

Who puts on the autocrosses there? 45 minutes is definately a better drive than 2 hrs. Keep me posted on the details!! Is it an SCCA event or a PCA event and if it is a PCA event are other brands of cars welcome??

The more I find out about Boxsters the more I want one!! If only I had the money now!!

It's an SCCA sanctioned event. Last year there were was all kinds of stuff there. Plenty WRX/STI/EVO, SVT stang, VR43000gt's, Z06, 996, S2K, gutted Hondas', and plenty of other stuff. I had no problem's beating everything except the Z06 and 996 Carrera. They were both driven by much more experienced drivers than me, so hopefully with a few more events under my belt I can close the gap.

Does the SCCA region who puts it on have a website? I would like to forward it to the other guys who I go to school with that also autocross. Look for us to be at the next race. Hopefully I can get a ride in your S...

This is the car club that hosts the Auto-x. Most of the events are in Rantoul Il, however, they are hosting events in Mid to late Aug at the Coles Cnty airport. There is a schedule on the website along with info on how to get there and what you need to do to participate.

http://www.ccsportscarclub.org/

wow that's a long wait. I've noticed some clubs do it all wrong. PCA and another CLub here have you do your laps within a couple of minutes of each other by Car Class. Once you finish the lap you immeidately grid up directly behind the start line. No driving off back to the paddock parking lot. That's really inefficient.

And then you work the course, get back in the car and do the 2nd half of the timed runs. 10 runs and then we 3-5 free runs that don't count but are timed.
I noticed SCCA take about twice as long to give you barely half that.
But SCCA around here is not really a learning event as much as its a very intense competition. During regional or Nationals you are limited to three laps to come up with your fastest time. Not really time effective for beginners

When I was in the event last year it was very similar to what you decribed. After each run you just got back in line and did it all over again.

I definately don't like having to wait in line to make my next run, but I'm the type of person who is very good at memorizing courses. After my first run I have the course pretty much memorized and my times usually get better from there.

I definately want to start road racing and I was going to keep my 944 and make it a race car, but again with an NA 944 there isn't much potential there. I would rather get a Boxster, use that to get my DE experience, then after that maybe make that into my race car.

Adam... do you ever race at the old Air Force base in Mattoon? There are a bunch of events there.

I think you mean Rantoul Wombat. Mattoon doesn't have an old airforce base. No, I haven't been to the Shanuit(sp?) base in Rantoul yet, but it's only about 1 hr north of me so I'll prolly do an event there this summer.

Yeah that's what I meant... sorry for the confusion. Thats about an hour and a half or so from here, so we are looking at possibly racing there too since it has a lot better surface than where we are racing now...

Where do you guys run at right now? Indy? The base is shutdown so the surface may not be as good as you think. You may have a nicer place than you think. The guys that came down here to Coles Cnty said the one here is much nicer.

We race in Indy and Columbus, IN. Any surface is probably better than the one in columbus. Its VERY rough and hard on tires. The place we race in indy is ok, nothing spectacular but allows for very long and fast courses to be setup which is a lot of fun. Some of us are probably going to try to make it over for the next race at Coles Cnty, just wish it was sooner than august.