Doing mods on just received Porsche

[JayG]

*** This is not an attack on anyone ***

There seems to be a new trend to do all kinds of mods on a car that was just purchased, especially with younger buyers. A Porsche is not a rice burner

Why do you have to do all kinds of mods to a car you just got?

Why not drive it a bit and get used to it before Frankensteining it?

You don't give yourself a chance to enjoy the car before making changes.

I'm not saying that you can't or shouldn't do as you like with your car.

Not saying don't do any mods

[SJEFFB986]

That's a direct attack on all modders!! Hee hee...to each his own..I prefer tasteful mods...Not much really needs to be done on the cars anyway...I would say most buyers prefer bone stock too. Only internal mods are appreciated. IMS/RMS, stuff that needs attention/maintenance and increases the value of the car.

[rick3000]

In my opinion, these cars are like adult Lego's, you can't help upgrading/changing it. That said, I agree with the idea of taking time to get to know the car before you start blindly 'upgrading' it.

I think my first year of ownership I did the OBC hack and added an iPod connection. Second year, I painted my calipers, added a lower rear support bar, and a dash spoiler switch. It's taken me 8 years to get around to adding a center radiator.

[JayG]

IMS/RMS is not a mod, that is maintenance.

[EJ-Fresno]

I think new owners get all excited by the mods they read about on the forum before purchasing the car and thus realize the mods shortly after they get the car.
In a way it's understandable as you know in advance what added value (mechanics or cosmetics) the mods will bring to the car.

[BIGJake111]

I think the trend of modding old Porsche's is moving into new ones.

I've seen a few rice burner boxsters, but few would I categorize like that. Very few boxsters are original but most upgrades are usually fairly reasonable such as a stripe one might fight on a factory spyder or a spoiler from a cayman.

Porsche's have always been plug and play, not as much today as the past, but the tradition continues today of wanting to personalize a Porsche.

Young guys think that singer 911s and outlaw 356s and Magnus walker are all the coolest thing in the world. I would argue there is still a place for all original Porsche's and seek to keep mine that way. However lots of people love to change around stuff on their cars.

[epapp]

Easy...I bought it as a toy to play with. No sense in taking the old man approach and keeping it bone stock!

[The Radium King]

Originally Posted by JayG

IMS/RMS is not a mod, that is maintenance.

you are probably going to have to define 'mod' then. most see it as adding something aftermarket. most ims upgrades are aftermarket so would be defined as a mod. there are reliability mods, cosmetic mods, performance mods, safety mods ...

[hancock1701]

I'm a young Porsche owner here. I used to like to mod my old Honda Prelude. Nothing major, just change the gauge cluster lighting to blue LED, foot well lighting, adding foglights, and such.

But since I got my Boxster, I don't want to do that anymore. Simply because these cars are pretty good bone stock already, and parts are expensive. So it would cost a lot to reverse a mod or when I break something while modding.

The only "mods" I would need to do to any old car like this and my old Honda are HID projector retrofit and aftermarket headunit with Bluetooth.

When I first got the Boxster two years ago, I concentrated on making the car extremely mechanically sound. That means replacing AOS, all kinds of preventative maintenance, new tires, and recently, sway bar links, water pump, coolant change, rear trailing arms. The car feels much better now!

[epapp]

I may, or may not, have cracked my windshield installing some sensors up by the rearview mirror (careful, apparently if you push outwards with the strength of an old granny, the windshield hairline cracks).

No risk no reward!

[ReallyDirtyThirty]

I've only done a few mods, but what I've done I really really like.

Since getting the car I've only done the painted bumperettes and the GT3 console in the car. Both have increased my enjoyment of the car a ton.

[Dlirium]

Not sure I understand the problem...

[Carlisabadman986]

I owned my car for three years and paid it off completely before I did anything to change it from stock. Now I really regret not being brave enough to do them earlier. The exhaust I was pretty sure I was going to like but I was really nervous about the short shifter. Now they are both done I cant believe I cheated myself out of the added pleasure both of these mods have given me. I guess you could argue that the time I spent driving the car and reading this forum really helped me make an informed choice on what mods specifically I would enjoy.

Also the Top Speed muffler, cat delete pipes and Short shifter from Ben006 cost me around $500 total. I feel the cost for pleasure ratio is extremely in my favor.

[WillH]

First mod I did made a world of difference to driving comfort, center console delete. I couldn't do it fast enough.
Almost all others were deemed by the stock parts failing, headers, suspension, and brakes... One year into this and looking forward to Ben's short shifter, clutch spring mod, lowering, and then a custom exhaust.
Years following, maybe some metalflake paint, and different rollbar

[JAAY]

I left mine stock. View signature.

[Perfectlap]

well to be a contrarian, the car is getting long in the tooth. Young people buy an old car and want it to be more like the latest version that costs 7x's as much. Especially with so many Boxsters rolling around with 16" and 17" wheels when that's something you just hardly ever see on the latest sports cars anymore. There are some elements of the 986 that really date the car in 2015.
And to be fair, putting the coffee can exhaust in the back doesn't seem to be the norm for Porsches as it is for Japanese cars.

But the knee jerk thing among young people in general must be playing all those video games like GT6/Forza or whatever. Buy car, put in stage 14 exhaust, "rims", coil overs, etc. They've been programmed that way!!

[particlewave]

For the same reason anyone does anything to be different or individual. Some people (especially the younger ones) aren't into the "cookie cutter", "go with the crowd" blending in mentality, and that's a good thing. That mentality is what leads to new innovations in every field of thought.

If Elon Musk had stuck with the crowd, we wouldn't have the Tesla Roadster or Space-X program. If Nikola Tesla hadn't swam against the current, our entire modern world wouldn't exist as it does. Internet? Gone. Power grid? Gone. Radio? Television? All of the AC innovations like indoor climate control, wifi, refrigerators in every home, lighting up the night, that bone stock Boxster, advances in math, science, medicine...all innovations by those that chose to do something different with their individuality and creativity. Going with the current is not human nature.

With all that said, I kept mine stock for the first 1.5 years, aside from the rear emblem which was broken. I'm also no spring chicken (37 next Monday).

[Mr.JonathanLanda]

I grew up taking things apart and putting them back together to make them do what I want them to do.

Now that I am older, I cannot stop doing the same thing. Hey if you have the money you can mess it up and fix it right up.

My father has his 997.2 c4s bone stock and he loves what I have done to the car in less than 24hrs owned. He says that I'll eventually grow out of it and when I'm older I won't mess with it.

He encourages creativity by helping me individualize my vehicle, therefore getting to know me better while helping me with "my bs".

Put it this way, father and son Porsche time.

I swear, give me a year or 50k more miles and we will put a Chevy 6.2 V8 in it.



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[RandallNeighbour]

I've modded the stink out of my 1997 to make it look like a newer model and give it more power.

However, I didn't do a thing to it the first two years to make it cosmetically nicer or perform better because I knew it was an old high mileage Porsche that would require a lot of repairs to make it dependable. And I was not wrong.

IMNSHO, the first thing a new 986 owner should do is open a new savings account and put $150 a month into it so he has repair money when he needs it, because he's going to need repair money that he would probably piss away on mods and wish he'd saved.

[Mr.JonathanLanda]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

I've modded the stink out of my 1997 to make it look like a newer model and give it more power.



However, I didn't do a thing to it the first two years to make it cosmetically nicer or perform better because I knew it was an old high mileage Porsche that would require a lot of repairs to make it dependable. And I was not wrong.



IMNSHO, the first thing a new 986 owner should do is open a new savings account and put $150 a month into it so he has repair money when he needs it, because he's going to need repair money that he would probably piss away on mods and wish he'd saved.

So true, the original owner of my car spent 11k in maintenance in 51k miles and he's a senior driver.

And yet again, not everyone is poor..



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