Boxster S vs. Track M3 + Street Miata, solved.

I inquired of the hive mind a couple weeks ago about the idea of getting rid of a streetable track e36 M3 and a street/autocross early NA Miata and buying a late first generation - 986.2 - Boxster S.

I didn't describe my situation or motivation clearly enough initially, so I let the thread die. In short:

• I don't do track days or instruct much anymore, and the M3 is essentially a NASA GTS2 car with a street interior and no wing. It's pretty loud and stiff; fun for a quick blast but not easy to live with.

• The Miata is a little loud, a little stiff and quite harsh on the craptacular DC pavement. A manual top with a zipper window and crank side windows get old after a while. My wife and might like to take some longer trips and it's just not hospitable for grownups.

• I'd been looking for something that would do good handling, great sounding, quick German sports car and convertible that is more plush than a Miata.

• Ideally it would do all this with no modifications from stock.

I started with Z3 M Roadsters, but to get the S54B32 engine you need a later car and they're $$. The Z4 M Roadster has that motor, but I think they're kind of ugly, and I'm not a huge fan of BMWs interior design and user interface from that era. This got me to Boxster S. The later first generation cars seemed to be close but for the legendary IMS bearing issues. A car that had been retrofitted would work. Post 2009 there was no more IMS, but the cars are (to vehicular bottom feeder me) expensive, ie. north of $30k.

As I was searching and researching, a friend tipped me off to what was touted as "the worlds nicest 986 Boxster", casually being offered for sale in the local SCCA solo community. I met the owner by chance at an autocross-related function, saw the car, and rode around w/ the owner. I was very favorably impressed, so I secured a loan from Penfed to cover most of the potential purchase until I can sell the M3 and Miata, and my wife and I went to drive the car yesterday. To say that we found the car perfect in every regard would no be an overstatement.

It's a 2004 Boxster S 550 Spyder Edition. These got about +6hp, lowered suspension, 18" GT3 wheels, a delicious very dark brown full leather interior the color of 70% cocoa dark chocolate with the balance of the smooth interior surfaces painted the GT Silver color of the exterior. There's a neat exhaust exit, painted side grilles and a few other minor styling cues. The owner obtained the car from the estate of a friend who passed away and lovingly maintained it. It has every service record and has had regular oil analysis done.

In 2010 the IMS bearing failed suddenly, and despite being out of warranty the dealership negotiated replacement of the engine, so the car currently has 49k miles with 13k on the $23k engine.

It was priced fairly for it's condition, history, and that it has a new engine.

The sale of the M3 with it's track car stuff included (seats, mounts, harnesses, roll bar, etc) and the Miata will more than cover the purchase of the Boxster.

There comes a time when one's vehicular needs or interests can grow or change. That my wife wholeheartedly endorsed the purchase of a 12 year old Porsche speaks volumes about this.

Here it is:

Very, very nice find. What are your driving impressions? Is there any legal way to relocate that terrible front plate?

No good place for a front plate in those. That car is awesome; I wish you many miles of happiness!

OK, good choice. At first I thought you were looking for something for track use.

In reply to nderwater:

I only use a front plate on my tow vehicle, and reluctantly, on my e39 525iT daily. On the wagon I got a tow hook mount which doesn't look as ricer as I'd feared.

For the boxster I'll get color matched bumper plugs, and eventually probably find a good used bumper cover and paint it and store the original.

In reply to nderwater:

It's just amazing to drive. The pedal positions and efforts, the steering on-center feel and how it turns in are perfect. Shifter is very good, pedal efforts are firm but no overly so. It has Hawk HPS pads, which I've never particularly liked, and the pedal effort seemed high relative to how hard it was braking. I'll probably try stock pads or something from Carbotech. The cockpit is perfect sized, the seats are supportive and sporty enough, and at 75 mph 2 people can have a normal volume conversation. It's infinitely more civilized than the M3 or Miata. The M3 has more urgency and brakes, possibly more grip, but all at the expense of being tolerable off a race track. The Miata is a really good Miata, but while it's a great city/suburbs car I wouldn't want to sit in it for an 800 mile road trip.

I thinks this thing will be the perfect fun car.

Congratulations. That sounds/looks like a great find. If Mazda or Fiat doesn't make a coupe version of the Fiata in the next few years, I may need to look for a nice used Cayman. Oh, the humanity.

Congrats! Gorgeous color combo!! I'd love to know more about the M3 you're going to sell too.

Awesome find and buy. I'm afraid to drive one for fear of badly needing one in my life.

Sounds like you found the perfect car based on your requirements - Congrats!

In reply to dyintorace:

I'm going to list it here in the open classifieds first. It's a '98 Arctic silber coupe w. a black interior, under 95k miles. Manual seats, manual locking, not heavily optioned but it odes have a sunroof. It's been built for drama-free track days at ridiculous expense and time, so it's not going to cheap, but I'll say it'll be much less expensive that buying a cheap one and trying to duplicate this car.

Earlier when I was doing NASA time trials:

Good looking car! When time permits, please share the build specs.

Very nice. I've always liked that particular special edition of the Boxster.

Your story sounds very similar to what I went through about six years ago. I had a beautiful, low mileage Miata set up exactly the way that I wanted, with a cage, hard top, suspension, wheels and tires. I had owned it for ten years and it had 53k miles on it. It was perfect for the track, but spent most of its time pushed into the corner of the garage because the race seat and five point harness were just too uncomfortable for the street. I also had a WRX that I had loved, but the mileage was getting up there and I found myself driving the truck to work most of the time. I sold the WRX and the Miata and picked up a barely used Cayman S and never looked back.

People don't understand just how good these cars are.

I've got one like that...

How is the Boxster S 50th Anniversay love affair going? I am trying to decide between a $13k 50th anniversary car or a regular $9K S. Is it worth the extra $4k? I do like the idea of a special, limited edition car which should make it easier to sell someday. However, the extra $4 grand could be spent on a Jeep Wrangler or a ratty race car.

Have you spent any time in a regular S to be able to compare? The 030 sport suspension, exhaust and extra power, not to mention cool brown interior are very nice features.

Uh, dude.. this seems like just about the best possible stock 986 Boxster you could have found. It really seems like a home run from here.

Can we get some pics of that interior??