Help Me Assess How Serious I Am (please)

I've got a 1997 Boxster that I'm absolutely in love with. I drive it +/- 2000 miles a year on the street and autocross it as often as I can. At this point, my skill level is still very much beginner. That is to say, the car is not what's keeping me from being faster. That said, the old girl's suspension is all worn out, so, since I'm rebuilding anyway, I bought a factory Euro M030 spring and damper package (directly from Porsche) and new inner & outer tie rods, along with four new control arms. I'm considering spherical monoball control arm bushings while I'm in there. How harsh are they in the real world? In my head, I think they're the only way to go, but I wonder how honest I'm being with myself and if I may be better off sticking with new, stock bushings and holding off on expensive race car stuff until the car is the limiting factor in lowering my lap times. OTOH, if I'm in there anyway and it's going to significantly improve the driving experience, then why the hell not? What say you GRM Community?

How important is autocross, and thus, how important are autocross rules, and the class your changes will put you into?

Id suffer ridding of cinder blocks if they helped and i only drive the car 2000miles a year. Then again i had 750/225lb springs on a miata that i daily drove for 3 years so who am i to say? Lol

Do you care about classing? You need to check and see if sphericals move you to some stupid fast class that would require ruining the car to be competitive.
Even when you're not there to win, it sucks realizing that one small mod is what is moving you from the top of one class to the bottom of another.
Check the rule book.

I suspect there are other things to work on before those (billies, gt3 sway bar, upgraded drop and tie links, drivers school). By far the biggest gain is the driver upgrades. also keep in mind that oftentimes heading down the path makes the car less good as a daily. So I would lean to maintain your car well and don't sweat all the performance bits until you know you're good enough to wring the benefits out of them.

Mike wrote: How important is autocross, and thus, how important are autocross rules, and the class your changes will put you into?

In reply to Mike:

I love autocross, but I don't get to do it often enough. Class changes are not a concern, because I play at Lime Rock in their Axxis series which has only one rule: it's got to have a VIN. That said, your response to my post really helped me to self-reflect and figure out what I want, so thank you! Although I have big racing dreams, at this point, I'm trying to find a balance between building whoop-ass track toy and keeping it just livable enough to take wifey out to dinner in it once in a while. When my on-track skill level improves, I'll lose that last requirement and go all crazy gutted track car with it. So, stock bushings it is...for now. Thank you for your help!

Spherical control arm joints won't have any real appreciable change on ride quality... it may transmit a bit more noise in my experience but won't be what adds notable harshness or anything. Similar to the difference between all season tires and 200TW competitive auto-x rubber.

That said, I'd just use normal bushings unless you're really planning on going full-retard and make the rest of the suspension unliveable.