Boxster S as Track/Daily
 

Looking to pick up a Boxster S that will be a daily/Track Car
(If any one has one for sale Near the North East lmk!)

Are there any issues mechanically that may come up when I start pushing it?
Also are there any upgrades that are 100% necessary?

Lots of info on the boxster racing section. Also check out the AOS and smoke bomb threads in search. Consider installing an under-drive pulley to relieve stress on your peripherals. Otherwise, they are pretty good at track day fun!

A Boxster is a great daily/track day car and generally they can take quite a bit of pushing but remember that the early S models are now 15 yrs old and that means that you'll either want to buy a car that has been very well maintained or you'll have to catch up on any maintenance or repairs that were deferred by the previous owner. Parts and labor can be expensive so its worth it to DIY as much as you can to keep the costs down. Beyond that, tires and brakes will be your biggest replacement costs if you track the car much.

Required upgrades depend primarily on experience. If you're a track novice, you can easily get by with a completely stock car for quite awhile. A stock Boxster has an amazing amount of capability. If you're an intermediate or advanced driver, then you may want to think about larger brake cooling ducts from the 996 GT-3, the aforementioned under drive pulley, high temp brake fluid, street/track brake pads, and sticky street tires like the Hankook RS-3 or similar model tires.

One track constraint is that the stock suspension is limited in the amount of negative camber that can be set. Again, depending on how experienced you are, there may not be enough adjustability to avoid rapid wear of the outer portion of the tires on the track. If this is the case, the are several ways to increase the adjustability but suspension changes can get expensive.

Last, the word "expensive" is all relative. If you're a billionaire, then tracking a Boxster will seem incredibly cheap. If you can barely afford ramen noodles, then you might find it horribly expensive. In relative terms, tracking a Boxster will definitely be much more expensive than a Miata, but quite a bit less than a classic air-cooled 911.

If you run R-compound tires, you'll need to upgrade the oil baffle, or install an Accusump. Long left-handers starve the oil pickup, causing the engine to blow. It's a known issue that is mystifying - wouldn't you think a Porsche sports car could handle track duty?

I have a 04 S and it's my daily driver. I also track and AX the car
Currently mine is bone stock, just better tires.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but other than oil, tires and brakes, the only service the car has needed is a water pump (~$320 for parts and antifreeze and DIY), motormount (~40 and DIY), and a clutch (Parts and labor $1000).


I have put approx 30k miles on the car since I bought it in Mar 2014
While some of the modes mentioned are a good/great idea, if you are starting out or don't have a lot of track time, you really don't need to do anything to the car for the track other than brake pads and fluid and even that may not be necessary depending on how hard you drive.

Before doing any mods, if you plan on competing, you should read the rules of whatever organisation you will run with as well as what class then car would be in

Yaa, I found out how important class is in auto-X.

I managed to get myself in a class that only has about 3 cars in it and I find myself in one of the top 3 spots every race, so I'm quite impressed with my abilities and have bragging rights and 3rd place medals up the wazoo. :p

I ran with the lower classed cars previously and consistently finished over 25 out of 30 cars. Its amazing how stickier tires and the class bump got rid of all my competition and improved my rank. :D

My advice, check check and check it again.

I bought what looked like a good 2000 S and it's ended up costing me nearly as much as the car to put what was wrong right and that's pretty much back to stock.