High Horsepower Boxsters

[gRed04]

Originally Posted by Bladecutter

The Porsche engine's are not exactly the same as your typical internal combustion engine that you see in every car on the road. They are designed entirely differently internally, and have been built to a certain spec, and to a certain budget.

The engines require a very specialized set of tools, and require a highly skilled technician in order to assemble them properly. You can rebuild the motor in your Mustang simply by buying a box of tools at your local Sears. You can't get any of the specialized tools that you need for the Porsche engine's at Sears.

Bladecutter I love the boxster too but there is no magic in these engines. Just because the factory refuses to sell parts and give out specs really doesnt make them special.

As for requiring specialized tools that is true in some cases ( to make a job easier ) but all makers have some differences in the engine and design. Keep in mind there is no "Engines R Us" where everyone else goes to buy except Porsche that thereby keeps them simple to work on with just an adjustable wrench.

Just a opportunity for the factory to make more money on the customer base.

[Jake Raby]

I still build engines for the Boxster's predocessor, the 914.. When I build those engines I am adding at least 75HP to the stock engine's output, sometimes well over 100HP more.

When I apply this much power to these vehicles the results are generally upsetting to the car's balance. Many times it takes someone a full season of autocross with the big engine to get their times as good as they were with the stock 2 liter, because the car is smoking the tires and is less than controllable while on the hammer.

To finally counteract the upset of the car an LSD has to be used along with thousands more dollars of suspension and transaxle mods, but even after all that the car really isn't much faster than it used to be with 100 less HP. The car is a real hoot to drive as its sliding sideways, so people love it, even though their time slips don't illustrate that very well.

The Boxster has proven to be the same animal, when adding power one must take extreme precautions not to overpower the car and upset it's balance. I focus on three things with a Boxster engine:

1- More usable RPM range, make the power come on earlier and stay on longer- get rid of the peaky power band that starts to pull at 4K RPM.

2- Add torque, because torque is king with a car that weighs 1-1/2 tons. Torque is what makes people LOVE to drive the car, much more than HP. Torque is what wins races, HP is what sells engines.

3- Throttle response. Add a ton of it and make the engine as responsive to throttle position changes as possible.

Its not how much power you make, its where that power is made and the compromises that surround it as a trade off.

I try to create engines without compromise, we get more MPG, run cooler and make more power at every RPM over stock with every street combo I have created.

The "Bigger is better" crowd is always the easiest to beat. They beat themselves.

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by gRed04

Bladecutter I love the boxster too but there is no magic in these engines. Just because the factory refuses to sell parts and give out specs really doesnt make them special.

As for requiring specialized tools that is true in some cases ( to make a job easier ) but all makers have some differences in the engine and design. Keep in mind there is no "Engines R Us" where everyone else goes to buy except Porsche that thereby keeps them simple to work on with just an adjustable wrench.

Just a opportunity for the factory to make more money on the customer base.

+1 The engines aren't especially exotic compared to most. Porsche simply built them to hold together (most of the time) at the power levels that they make from the factory, there's no overdesign in margin to either save cost or weight or both.

[Paul]

My 98 3.6 Boxster is a beast, looking for a 3.8 to put in my 2001.

As Jake has stated the car's balance changes, it took a couple of spins until I learned when not to floor it.

[SStiebers]

" Hmmmm...Mustang,,,,,,,real tough car"(Outsiders 1981?). If you want horsepower and an uncontrollable rear axel buy another Mustang. I have a mint, 2000 speed yellow box "S", 6 speed manual, no tip. I have owned and worked on, all kinds of cars, fast and slow. No, it is not lightning in a bottle, but this car is plenty fast, perfectly balanced and very funnnnnn! You have no idea what this car is. Drive it, then come back and talk about it. IMO you'll get sucked in just like all the rest of us.