How much could Porsche charge for a Tubo Boxster S???

[Adam]

I hope someone makes a conversion for the 3.8L engine into a boxster. 355 naturally aspirated horses in a boxster would be money. Of course it would also cost a ****************e load of it as well but that's just the way it is. I don't see why someone couldn't do it as long as long as their pockets were deep enough because it should fit I would think.

[Lux]

Nope. No supercharger for me either. Don't want to deal with heat soak and all that nasty stuff. Just give me a nice smooth, linear, normally aspirated car. Although if they did offer forced induction, that means that they would have to beef up the internals of the motor so it's not all bad. It'll be cheaper for Porsche to just use the friggin' 997 motor.


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[Brucelee]

"Although if they did offer forced induction, that means that they would have to beef up the internals of the motor so it's not all bad. It'll be cheaper for Porsche to just use the friggin' 997 moto"

Good points. According to my Porsche techs:

1-The current 996 Turbo motor is pretty bullet proof, more so than the NA motor. Apparently it is hard to kill these babies.

2-The current 996 3.4L motor is identical to the 986 motor "on the outside." The issue apparently is the electonics, which Porsche COULD solve in a heartbeat!

Hmmm, how about a nice 355 HP N/A engine for the Box? Lets have a real Boxster S.

Also, I think I would pay $80 large for that Turbo 997 engine in a Boxster!

[Perfectlap]

I went down to the Ray Catena dealer here in NJ to stop by the parts counter for a fuel cap. (Beautiful clear day) The parts department is in a seperate building down the road and as I was merging(FAST) onto the highway a guy test driving the 987S blitzed past me. This guy was not test driving this Red/Tan S he was test racing it, he seemed (I could be mistaken) like an eperienced driver who probably owned other Porsches (you should have seen how this guy was taking the jug handle turn, very late braking going on). The sales guy was sitting pretty low in his seat while the driver just laughed like when Tiff Needell was drifting that Boxster in the top gear show. At full on power the 987 is LOUD and MEAN.

well the idea of adding more power to this car seem ridiculus to me. There is more than enough power already unless you plan to drag race it, which really is not the intended purpose of this car.

[Brucelee]

You can always use MORE Power, can't you?

[Perfectlap]

yes but its a fantasy game, you are never satified. Its like an addiction to alcohol you need more and more to get the same rush. Its a sort of one dimensional obssession, you feel those G's in your gut and get a thrill and many don't realize there are bigger thrills available from the car. You just have to actually turn the steering wheel and the whites of your eyes will open up wider than you thought possible.
THe Boxster is just not a "power" car and I wonder if dumping another 100 HP would upset the handling without massive modfications to the suspension and all the other things to keep it from becoming an oversteering monster.

By the way there was guy at the autocross yesterday with a yellow Lotus Elise (surprisingly quiet stock) who says a tuner in California is building a turbo for the Elise. The power will be in the neighbohrhood of 270 RWHP on a 1900lb. car!
Get me a set of Falken Azenis on that car and I'll forget all about a 997/987S.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

You can always use MORE Power, can't you?

I'm in the same boat. Sure it's real nice to take turns at crazy speeds but I don't have reasonable access to a track at the moment. I do auto-cross a couple times a year when a car club 1 hr away comes to my town. There isn't a decent track near my house for hours. What we lack in tracks we make up in straight roads here. I can't push my car as hard as I want to in the turns for fear of losing it and hitting oncoming traffic or at the very least hitting a curb, a tree or something else. On the other hand I try to eploit the power of my car on a regular basis and even though it is more than adequate I would want another 50-100hp. Why not? I like the feeling of getting pushed back in my seat so hard I can't breath and the scenary starts to blur. I can't get that feeling with my current S but a Z06 ride gave me a taste of what alittle more power can feel like...and I don't think I would ever tire of that feeling.

[Pilot2519j]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

You can always use MORE Power, can't you?

Like Henry Ford's reply how much more money he needed being the richest man of the early twentieth century. " All I want is just a little more" Of course who can't say no to more h.p.

[Lux]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

well the idea of adding more power to this car seem ridiculus to me. There is more than enough power already unless you plan to drag race it, which really is not the intended purpose of this car.

What does drag racing have to do with more power? Please go drive a '97 Boxster with 201 hp and an '04 Boxster S with 258 hp and tell me you prefer the weaker motor. And then drive the 987 Boxster S with 280 hp and tell me you still prefer the weaker motor.

You can always drive a fast car slow. But you can't drive a slow car fast.

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[Perfectlap]

in a straight line I surely would appreciate the 2.5 over the 3.2

But I drove a 1.8 Miata with 150 hp and it had plenty of pep. I believe the 2.5 Boxster and my Miata had similar power to weight ratios, although the Boxster was one or two classes above my Miata for Autocross/time trials.

And let me tell you in the hands of an experienced driver the Miata (and surely a Boxster, a much better engineered car than the first or 2nd gen. Miata) was very fast indeed. As a matter of fact during certain events the Miatas were posting better lap times than higher horsepower cars. Similarly, other lowly powered four bangers were often times (with very moded suspensions) were no more than 1.5 seconds off the higher powered cars. One eastern european driver (who I know is left foot braker) is lightning fast in....An old Honda CIVIC! Ok its had some work but its still NA and nowhere near 200 hp. On a very open 60 second course he was a mere 1 second slower than some older coverttes and 911's!

Now on the road course track with its much longer straights and way less severe directional changes, its another story for 1.8 Miatas and 2.5-2.7 Boxsters. But in Autocross you really get to see the responsiveness of a car's handling and the quickness of its power delivery, as during national SCCA competitions the time gaps between the top times are down to .01 and .001's of seconds. Talk about not making even one mistake!


None of the Boxsters 2.5, 2.7, 3.2 will win any drag races but that's only a bother to someone who doesn't intend to test the handling limits of their Boxster. All of these cars have enough power to go over the "don't go into this turn too hot or you will be in trouble" line. If its possible to cross that line and still post a competitve time then I have to wonder about the need for more power in a sportscar.

I guess its a matter of what sort of driving you intend to do with your Boxster.
And I agree a Turbo Boxster with its lag would compromise its other handling advantages. A SC Boxster would be ok I guess but they sound funny.

[Lux]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

None of the Boxsters 2.5, 2.7, 3.2 will win any drag races but that's only a bother to someone who doesn't intend to test the handling limits of their Boxster.

With all due respect, you don't make any sense. What would going fast in a straight line have anything to do with handling? Taking a corner on a track is a steady-state affair. A 100 hp car taking a corner at 100 mph is the same as a 400 hp car taking the corner at 100 mph.

There's 3 things that make the quintessential sports car:
1. Handle great. Allows you to take the corner at a higher rate.
2. Brake great. Allows you to scrub speed quicker between straights.
3. Have gobs of power. Allows you to get out of corners, down the straight and into the next braking zone quicker.

The elite sports cars do all 3 of the above. Then the 2nd tier cars do 2 out of 3. Then the 3rd tier cars do 1 out of 3.

You seem to be relating a car's power with autocrossing where you rarely get out of second gear. Try running that Civic on a race track with some elevation changes and long straights and there'll be more than a 1 second diff between lap times of that Civic and a Boxster or Corvette or whatever.


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