New 986S owner here :)
 

Hi all,

So after a while of debating, I decided I wanted a convertible. So I sold my 01 Audi TT225 quattro and 83 944 N/A and eventually found my new Porsche.. A 2004 Boxster S 550, #0296. It was for sale in the Miami area, not sure if any members here saw it, or if the previous owner follows this site.

I flew down from connecticut, and spent a few days in sunny Florida with the top down, enjoying life! What a great car this is. She isn't perfect, but with my plans for occasional track days and road trips, I'm more than happy with the purchase.

At around 90k miles, it's on the higher end, but I felt the new clutch, rear main oil seal, LN IMS bearing and new tires all around make up for it.

I don't have many pics, but here's one the day I picked it up! Hopefully this forum will turn out to be a good place to come to.

http://img.tapatalk.com/636acba0-3dc0-6010.jpg

Very nice and welcome. I truly like the techno wheels and it seems you dodged a few bullets by having a boxster with the new ims, clutch, and oil seals. This forum is definitely a good resource and I am sure you will get good use from it.

Welcome and great looking car!

Good Call Mr Clark, nice color and updates that have tangible meaning to a well researched buyer. Let us know how you think the car handles against the 944, we were typing about that the other day. Enjoy the new ride, summer is coming.

This car simply can't compare to the 944. Mostly because I was scared to drive it without something breaking :)

The 944 actually was nice to drive, even without power steering. Not the fastest, but well balanced, and had a characteristic porsche sound. Surprisingly roomy too. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or finances to get the car back to life. Would I recommend one? Absolutely, if you can give the attention they need. And I'll still take a second to admire a passing 944.. Great looking car.

But I love my boxster, it has all the modern touches in a car for me to enjoy on a regular basis, and nothing beats turning the key and hearing that 3.2 start behind me

I'm surprised to hear you say it had a Porsche sound, mine never did, but the NA version had a hellofa third gear. We were comparing handling more than anything.

Beautiful car! Surprised to see the wheels changed out, since the 550 has unique (and light) wheels. Any chance they included the OEM wheels with the car? Just curious.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...Garage0003.jpg

The original wheels were not included, and I am quite upset by it. There is a similar set on eBay, but I have been looking at a set of Enkei NT03 wheels

Well, if you wanted the OEM wheels for "authenticity's" sake, I'm sure you could buy a set of 2002 Carrera Lightweights and have a wheel refinisher spray the spokes in Porsche Seal Gray, and Voila! you have 550 wheels. I have a few scrapes on mine since that picture was taken and need to get the silver outers resprayed, but the seal gray part is perfect.

Do you still have the OEM trapezoidal double-stacked exhaust tip? While unique, I've never liked that and finally changed out the whole exhaust system last year for a Dansk Sport with double round tips, which I vastly prefer. (Kept the original exhaust system, of course.)

What was their reasoning for keeping the wheels? Anyhow, if you do want to make it OEM, check out www.wheelenhancement.com Maybe somone who tracks will want the wheels it came with or someone who likes the look.

So many plans for this car, I don't know where to start. I don't know why the wheels were changed. The exhaust is stock, but lately I've been watching the same two clips of the fabspeed race cat back exhaust, sounds really good

Many swear by the FabSpeed, some complain of the resonant throb that seems to plague so many aftermarket Boxster exhausts. I settled on the FabSpeed 2ndary cat bypass pipes, plus the Dansk Sport and it has absolutely no resonance and sounds just right to me. Nobody mistakes me for a 19 year-old when I drive by, but it definitely growls.

That said, it was barely louder than OEM with just the exhaust. It wasn't till I bypassed the cats that the car sounded great.

Have you seen the clips for their race exhaust? I can deal with a drone if there is one, my bike is pretty rough so I'm used to it.

welcome!!!

I would do a lot of reading on that subject first. There are a lot of "hardcore" Boxster owners who said similar things, bought a Billy Boat or Borla or GHL or other type exhaust and after a week took it off, saying things like "After 10 minutes in the car I had a splitting headache and couldn't take it anymore." It's not just volume, it's a certain resonant frequency that creates a terrible head-splitting buzz at cruising speeds.

Not saying Fabspeed definitely does this -- I could never find anybody nearby to let me hear it. But some have reported that it does, and I didn't want to take a chance. I don't believe there's any way to tell if it has that drone from a clip.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

IMO, the only time resonance is an issue is with the top up, it's as if the top creates a echo chamber. I had a Dansk SS and I thought it sounded awesome with almost no resonance.

looks like they redesigned them and gave the price a nice hike too, mine was like 1000
http://www.********************************************.com/Porsche-986-Dansk-Sport-Exhaust-srch.html

I'm having my wheels refinished in the BMW M3 shadow color somewhat similar to the 550. Should be a nice contrast to the arctic silver.

These are my winter beaters. Not bad for $800, the light reflection at night is awesome. To the OP, you should consider some side skirting, makes the car look lower without having to spend all that money on suspension changes. And like nearly every 996 Carrera the car looks more "finished" with skirting.
Some light gray PORSCHE door graphics would also look nice, pretty inexpensive mod for $80. And of course I'm very partial to the GT3 front bumper for this car.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1325572324.jpg

Those side decals look really nice. Another thing to consider!

Be advised that the Fabspeed "race" exhaust for the 986 boxster has undergone a couple of revisions since it's debut. Apparently, the initial version was a bit too loud for most people's liking. As far as drone is concerned, regardless of how loud and aggressive sounding an aftermarket catback might be, a well designed one shouldn't introduce any drone . Personally, I love drone . In fact, I wish that my exhaust had some . That way I could back up to the window of the nearest Starbucks and blow someone's crapacino, dunkarino, pilates - latte right out of their hand !

I suppose there's no way to get my hands on an original revision then. You have the same idea of an exhaust that I do, it's not a daily driver so I want it to sound mean!

If you going to start modding it anyway and you want it to sound mean headers are going to make it scream on the top end so sweet you will want to wind it again and again.

Last I knew, Tawheed had one on his boxster , and he was looking to sell it. I haven't seen any participation on the forum from him in quite awhile. You might want to send him a pm .


http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-parts-sale-wanted/29275-fs-fabspeed-race-exhaust-used-1k-miles.html

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/33900-looking-forum-member-tawheed.html

Another option would be, to contact Fabspeed and ask them if they would be willing to make you a race exhaust based on their original design . The only real difference is in the size of the mufflers, or resonators as some like to call them . The rest of the exhaust is the same .

I saw tawheeds post just a few minutes ago, but for $900 I think I'd rather just go new.. My personal opinion though. Unfortunately I don't have the cash flow yet to go all out with headers as well, so I think for the time being the slip on system would be just fine for now. Good thing I didn't order anything yet, I think I'll contact fabspeed

My (thank god never was) future ex father in law, (an idiot) only had one saying that seemed to be truth based. He always told me boat was an acronym for "bring over another thousand", as in maintenance cash. I don't have one for Porsche but you get the idea.

Well another boat saying is, the best days of owning one is the day you buy it, and the day you sell it. So hopefully this won't apply to my new car!

I have the original with the headers. It is indeed loud. I pulled into the parking lot of a sports bar over the summer and decided to park rear end first since my mountain bike was still on the rear-mounted willwood rack. A fat guy in Trans Am nearby took exception to the loudness of my exhaust as I was backing it in and started revving his engine and screaming at me "This is what a REAL car sounds like!!!". LOL. His car sounded pretty cool though.
You should hear this thing when I bolt out of toll booths. I light that place up. :p Reminds me of watching a Le Mans street race in Miami. I scared a guy at gas station Sunday when I fired it up.

Drone is pretty bad though when the top is up on the highway during winter or rain.
I've gone as far as plugging my Bose headphones into my Droid phone which I plug into the stereo for my Amazon MP3s. When the RPMs hit 3K it gets really annoying after 5 minutes. But top down it's pretty amazing.

Well, I just ordered their current race exhaust. The rep I talked to explained the differences between the versions, I think I'll be quite happy with it. Couple days, excited!