Stock 987 Boxster S vs Built 3.7L Cayman S Turbo
 

Thinking of selling my 2008 Box S before the CPO warranty runs out. Also thinking of buying an '07 Cayman S with a built 3.7L Turbo motor and a full H&R suspension. Dynos 460 RWHP. The motor has the full LN treatment and turbo-specific pistons. I haven't seen the car in person, but it looks to be very nice.

If I get the Cayman, it would be a sweet deal and part of trade + cash on the 2012 Carrera (my late father's car) I recently sold.

Money aside, I am not sure the crazy amount of performance on the Cayman will make up for the top-down feeling of driving a Boxster. Thoughts?

Personally, for me, I would miss the top down driving. I love having the option. The crazy performance would be great, but how often do you get to use it? vs how often do you get to enjoy driving with a panoramic view?

I would get the cayman. old stock 986/996/987/997's are a dime o' dozen.

You should have no problem selling the Cayman. although unless you downshift to a BGB 981 Boxster with a 3.8L, anything else could ruin you for good.
In my estimation the only thing that can beat a Cayman with a big motor is a Boxster with the same. Overbeek proved this on that karting track doing a head to head Boxster Spyder vs. Cayman R.
Boxster Spyder faster on every lap and easier to drive to boot.

p.s.
Getting out before the warranty is smart. Just spent $4K on a job that conceivable could have been done two years when I last did major work.
That bill was already $5K. Which means had I checked all the boxes we'd be talking nearly $10K. But hey my car is running like new right now :)
and no monthly bill.

I thought about doing the TPC turbo on my Box after the warranty is out, but having a fully finished turnkey car would be sweet. Plus the owner did not cheap out anywhere, after talking to the guys at TPC and the shop that did the suspension.

Also, I'd be a bit scared to blow up my stock 3.4, but this motor is fully set up for it with carrillo rods, LN nickies, and low comp pistons. Only thing about the car that worries me is blowing up the transaxle or oil starvation when running the R-comps that will inevitably go on the car.

Having both, I frequently get asked which one I like better. I reply it's like picking your favorite child (altho I don't have any that I know of). Each has its purpose and unique characteristics for being cut from the same cloth.

But here are a couple of questions that may help you decide...

Do you do DEs? That to me would be the only place the 50% more HP would be worth having. Your Boxster is plenty capable on the street. Racing from stop light to stop light will get old. And I've never gone around a corner and thought I needed 160 more HP.

Do you not take the Boxster places because you're concerned about someone cutting the top? I'm less concerned about the Cayman at places like a movie theater. I tend to only drive the Boxster to places where I trust the surroundings.

But if I had to pick one, there's nothing like driving to work on a summer morning with the top down. I do that a whole lot more than the 3-4 DEs per yr.

It would see a lot of autocross, and probably a few DE's / trackdays. I live in NYC, so I rarely park anywhere anyway with the Boxster.

I am actually thinking that it would be good to sell the Box before it takes a dive in value next year, while the cayman is already there.

Well, a turbo Cay would be a lot of fun at Limerock, VIR, or Watkins Glen but downright annoying in a SCCA AX. Getting the car to spool up exactly when you want it in 2nd gear requires voodoo. I'm sure TPC did a nice install but I would much rather have a N/A Cayman even at the same price.

Black Box what a dilemna. Good shoes to be in though. Seems like there are plenty of people selling there turbo models but I may be wrong. You would think that when someone puts that kind of time and money in a car like that, they would keep it forever. Regardless that would be a blast of a car. But like stated above, I get a great feeling dropping the top on a cool morning or evening where the weather is around 50-60 degrees with the heater going.

Husker we need more info on the two cars. Your living a a nice dream with both. Where I'm at, I rarely ever worry about someone cutting open my top. My Cdr24 is not that popular with me or radio thieves. :ah:

rp makes a good pt. It might be worth knowing how long all the mods have been in place. A few yrs ago, TPC turboing was all the range on Planet-9 (a mostly Cayman forum). Many ended up having issues. And not necessarily the kind of bottom end problems that arrise when you slap a turbo on. I don't recall all the stuff but several of the threads got nasty. But you would tend to be upset if you spent that much money and ended up with unreliable or undrivable car. These threads disappeared as TPC was a site sponsor. This particular Cayman could be fine, TPC may have worked out the issues, this one has had a lot of other items done internally. My advice would be to do your homework. Don't let the intoxication of 460HP cloud your decision making.

And since you asked rp, here's a bit of info on me. I bought my LE new 6 yrs ago this coming NY eve. A cpl mo later at a Porsche breakfast, one of the ladies in the club insisted I should do DEs with her. Punkin was too precious for that, being she's #5 of 250. So a cpl yrs later I bought an 07 CS with the intention of it being my DE and bad weather car. Did 2 DEs and had a blast. But Carmen was a bit shy on options so after driving Punkin and then driving Carmen, I would be wishing Carmen had bi-xenon headlights and sport exhaust. And I knew sport chrono would also be a good option for DEs (Punkin has SC). So my eye began to wonder. Found the 08 Cayman S Sport only 3 hrs away from me. Took me 3 mo to buy her but Sydney landed in my garage a yr ago this month. The PO had her 3 yrs but only put 7400 on. I've driven her that many miles in the 1 yr I've owned her. She has the 3 options I wanted plus PASM and 8 extra HP. She's a blast to drive at DEs. Plus she's won a cpl of trophies this summer in car shows. I plan to drive her to Monterey next June for the Porsche Parade.

When people ask me about the differences between the Boxster and Cayman, I tell them the Cayman feels more "athletic". The Cayman is also more practical - it can hold 2 sets of golf clubs. But who buys a convertible for practicallity? But that's really about it. When they're optioned the same, they're pretty close to being the same.

And yes, I live a very blessed and relatively easy life when my biggest decision in the morning is which Porsche do I drive to work?

I couldn't give up the convertible, certainly test drive it before deciding. I always wonder why the owner of a heavily modded car is unloading it for a "sweet deal"? Does the street racer lose it's luster over time? I would also worry about engine longevity. Depending on how much cash you're adding, you could just upgrade the Boxster's engine.

I'm fairly confident that this car is a good one, but would definitely get PPI done before purchase.