Porsche dealerships always seem to make for an interesting visit. I just drove to Florida to visit family and saw that there is a Porsche dealership in Melbourne. I stopped by to see if they would do a quick diagnostic on my car's P1275 CEL light I keep getting. They would be gald to do it for 100.00, so I passed on that, but the salespersons did not seem to have anything to do so they asked if I wanted to trade in my 2000 base Boxster.
I had some time, so I said what would they give me for it. They ran the numbers and said 15K tops, ouch that hurt. They suggested I try the new Boxster S to demonstrate how superior it was to my ride, so I got in a nice a silver/black that matched my car and gave it a spin......
Its always fun to drive a new car, but actually, I was underwhelmed. I have never driven the 3.4L before and I was expecting more gusto. I had built up in my imagination that the 3.4L was really going to be the bomb, it was fast, but the very low end torque was not what I expected, and it was not as responsive as I thought it would be.
The new Boxster S also seemed to offer a quite civilized or conservative ride compared to my modded base 2000. I perfer the more firm ride with a lower stance that I get with the Bilstein coilovers on my car. The sound of the new Boxster was also more muted than I expected. I am used to the song of the TTP cold air intake and headers I have installed, not only to they sound good to my ears, I am sure they make the car seem more responsive than it actually is.
Dont get me wronge, the new Boxster S is a fantastic car, and I would take one in a minute if they were giving them away, but it did not seem like it had all that much more performance over my little 2.7L car. I suspect thats because my car lighter, weighing in below 2700 lbs dry (light battery, flywheel, wheels, exhaust, no spare and such), significantly less than the new "S".
Also, with intake, chip and exhaust mods, I am putting down 240-250 hp to the crank, so there is only 50 or so hp difference in the two cars. Oh well, a few years down the road when the 3.4L "S" starts showing up on the used market..... who knows.... and think of the fun one could have modding one of those....
Ed
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