"Affordable" Boxster Mods

[Sputter]

You can toss coin at and make marginal at best gains in torgue. Noticeable gains can't be bought cheap. It's just not that kind of car.

Sheading wieght is likely the cheapest and easiest. Although you've already added about 100lbs of wieght with that top. (it's almost like driving around with a permanent passenger)

Swaping motors isn't cheap. (to a 3.2 or larger)
Having Flat6 do their magic and increasing the liters won't be cheap either but it's an interesting way to go.

Adding a turbo kit or supercharger sounds like fun but the added stress on the engine parts is questionable long term. Guys have done it, see some threads here, they can fill you in on costs etc.

I know it's not what you were looking for but others here can likely offer a different opinion and ways to get some extra.

[edevlin]

I agree that it is not easy or cheap to get more HP out of our cars. I would think that your strategy of changing the exhaust is as good as any. Even if you dont pick up any more HP, your car will probably sound like it did. Our cars sing such a wonderful song, when the exhaust is cranked up a notch or two, it really gives the impression of speed and power, great fun.

Ed

[Topless]

Yep. Difficult and expensive to squeeze meaningful extra hp out of our lil 2.5ers. edevlin has about the most you can get out of a 2.7 with bolt-ons and tuning. He did it right. It was a long process to get it right and required serious coin but it now goes like stink.

As with any project, examine your goals. What are you looking for? Simple butt dyno improvements, louder, street stoplight racing (wrong car), dyno chart bragging rights, faster times at the track? Answer this honestly and you will narrow your search a great deal.

I can't speak for others but to me "faster times at the track" is the only thing that matters when modding. Everything else is... er... foreplay. If this is your goal, look around at your local PCA events and see what the really fast Boxster guys are doing. You know, the ones who regularly outrun the GT3s, 997TTs, F430s, and Lambos every week. In SoCal those guys have all done the same thing: Fat sticky tires, tuned suspension, removed weight, honed their driving skills, and left the motor alone. Stock intake, Stock headers, no chip or software mods, no turbo. They just learned to drive these cars really fast. You can too.

[Lil bastard]

@Topless... BIG +1 !!

These cars usually far exceed the skills of the guy behind the wheel.

A driving course is almost always the best bang for the buck.

After that, suspension; remember the old addage: "Races are won in two places; the curves and the pits..."

The guy who can stay off the brakes longest and get on the gas soonest will usually have the best lap times.

[j.fro]

Headers have gotten pretty cheap, but installation can be tricky because the bolts to the heads like to break. You might pick up 6-8HP,as the power band goes a little higher in the revs. Unfortunately, you'll lose a bit on the bottom end.
The best autocross mod I did to my car was a set of R compound tires. When they're hot, you can really throw the car into a turn without it coming around on you.

[vath2001]

Weight kills speed and performance. Pull stuff out of the car. No spare, lighter battery, minium windshield fluid, minimum anti freeze, pull the stereo and amp and speakers. Pull the carpet over the engine and install something lighter. Pull the carpet out of the trunks. And finally, take out of the cigarette lighter.... too much weight.

I'll bet you'll lose over 100 pounds.