Boxster

I purchased my 2000 Porsche Boxster in October of 1999. It was a complete impulse buy. I have been looking at the car on the internet and have seen them on the road, but never drove in one and only once got a close-up view inside. I called around to several dealers in my area and eventually found one in manual transmission Artic Silver (AS), the only color and transmission I wanted. I invited my father along to join me, mainly because when I’m in an irrational state (like when I’m about to drop $50,000+ on a car) he usually can talk me out of it.

I arrived at the dealer and they had one AS Boxster available. It arrived just days before and had not even been prepped. The sales guy approached and we told him we were looking for at the AS Boxster. He gave us the quick tour around the car and then I got into the drivers seat and him into the passenger. He asked me if I ever drove a stick before. I said “Yes, but only Honda Civic.” This was, quite frankly, an out-and-out lie. I had never driven a stick before. Not once. Never. The sales guy and I then switched seats, so that he could take it out and show me the basics. We drive about 1 mile and then pulled over. We then again switched seats.

He showed me the basic technique for shifting the car then mentioned, “It’ll come right back to you since you have driven a stick before.” Uhh, right. My heart was pounding because in my mind, I was going to do some type of wicked work on this cars transmission and probably drop is in the parking lot. I took it slow and got the car moving, but stalled quickly. Somehow on the second try, I was able to get the car moving and merge into traffic.

Wow. I had never driven a car like this. The car I was driving until then, a 1997 Toyota Celica was like a toy compared to this. This car. This car was a machine. It rocketed out of first gear, slid into second and I pressed the gas. Whosss, immediate response. My Celica didn’t feel anything like this. I threw it into third and was cruising along. We then decided to pull over into a parking lot so he could show me some more stuff. Oh boy, I was in trouble. I got into the lot and slowed down, but failed to remember to press the clutch. Stall again. I was so embarrassed. He showed me some other stuff and said, I’m not going to demonstrate the brakes. He took over, drove the to about 30 MPH in the parking lot and slammed on the brakes. WOW. It was pure control and stability. Nothing like my Celica.

We head back to the dealership with my dad waiting. I got out of the car and said only one word, “WOW!” He smiled and we walked into the dealer to get the bad news. The car, with its fairly minimum options, cost just over $50,000. My heart sank. That was nearly double the cost of my Celica. I still owed $12,000 on the Celica and they were going to give me about $13,000 for that car. So, that put me in the hole a whopping $49,000. Double ouch. My dad and I talked about it. I assumed he would tell me, as he had done plenty of times before, “Brian, you don’t need this car. Your Celica is fine. Save your money and maybe get this car later.” I looked at him to get the speech. Nothing. All I got was “Brian, if you want the car, get it.” WHAT!? This was so unlike him. We went back, did some idle negotiation (at this time, late 1999, the prices on the cars were sticker price only, so we got some other stuff thrown in, but the price of the car didn’t move) and closed the deal.

As we waited for the dealer to prep the car I started to get this sick feeling in my stomach. I just dropped a small fortune on a car that I can’t even drive correctly! Damn. I’m in trouble. In any case, everything ended well. We got home in one piece. It took a good two weeks of stalling, frustration, left leg pain and embarrassment to get shifting down, but I eventually got it Within a year, I began to attend various racing and drivers education events with my friend Mark Clancy.

I have been getting into some minor high performance track events with my Boxster. Nothing major, just some drivers education and high performance driving schools sponsored by both the Porsche Club of America and NASA. I’m not a big Auto Cross fan, although I have attended a few of them via my local PCA club. I feel Auto Cross puts an extreme stress and wear & tear on the car for what amounts to a spin around a parking lot. You really don’t get to go very fast and it just doesn’t do it for me. Now, DE and HPDS is really what I like to do.
6-Disk Changer
I began my first round of modifications about 6 months after ownership. I had a 12-disk CD player in my Toyota Celica which I used often and I wanted a multi-disk changer in my Boxster. The Porsche model cost something like $1200 and I was not willing to spend that. By chance, some members of the Porsche Pete’s Boxster Board were organizing a group buy of the 6 disk changer from Becker. Total cost was something like $700 (I can’t remember) so I jumped on it. This was my first real change to the stock car and I was a bit worried. But, with some great instructions and some free time I was able to install the 6-disk changer. Wow. Now, what was next on the mod list?

Fire Extinguisher
One of the rules for participation in the Silver State Classic was the installation of a metal-to-metal fire extinguisher. Luckily, Recaro seats like the one in my Boxster come with a bracket mounting holes pre-drilled. All I needed was the bracket and the fire extinguisher and I’d be on my way. I purchased a Brey-Krause Fire Extinguisher Mounting Bracket and a 2.5 lbs Halon fire extinguisher, both from OG Racing. I followed the instructions from Rainer Dronzek’s Web Site which worked wonderfully. The only problem I had was upon removing the seat, I was not able to figure out how to disconnect the power cable. Here is a picture that shows it pretty well. The top part pulls out and the power can be separated. Not overly difficult but it took me a few minutes. Also below are some pictures.

5 and 6 Point Restraints
After doing well in the Silver State Classic race in May of 2001, I decided I wanted to make another small modification to my car to add the 5 & 6 Point Restraints in order to increase my maximum allowed speed from 120 MPH to 140 MPH. This modification was pretty easy but we did hit a few snafus. The first was from my local performance shop, Dougherty Automotive. They recommended I have two steel bars manufactured that would move the front hooks from the mounting points in the seat to a center eye-loop. This was a great idea for two reasons. First, it allowed the front submarine strap to be removed easily and second it prevented the upward pressure from the belt from damaging the seat rails. The costs were minimal and DAS did a nice job.

The second snafu was a result of the first snafu. I had originally purchased 2 sets of 5-point belts. The 5-points, as compared to the 6-points, give you a single submarine (center) strap as compared to two. The passenger set could not support a single strap due to the location of the fire extinguisher. I returned the 5-point belts and purchased a set of 6-point for the passenger seat and everything is fine now. I’ll take some pictures later. I used Teamtech Motorsports harnesses, which are in my opinion, are a bit better quality and feel then the standard MOMO or Simpson belts. I added some pictures of the bars I had made for the 5 and 6-point belts. Notice the location of the 6-point eye hooks to avoid the fire extinguisher.

K & N Air Filter
Pretty straightforward modification. K & N Engineering make the best OEM replacement air filters. They last up to 50,000 miles, add some minor HP and are generally a better product. You pay a premium over standard air filters, about $30.00 for the Boxster filter but it’s worth it. A clean intake is a happy intake, IMHO…

B & M Short Shifter
B & M Short Shifter is one of my favorite modifications, mainly because it was pretty easy to do and the improvement on the shifting is quite noticeable. The stock Boxster shifter was quite disappointing. It had fairly long throws and was not crisp. The installation of the B & M shortened the throws by about half, made for crisper and cleaner shifts and was simply a better made piece of equipment. The stock shifter was pretty much metal and plastic. The B & M was entirely steel and aluminum and is smoother and clean. A great product. I think I purchased it via a group order from PPBB for about $200.00