Post by alf on Oct 12, 2023 12:57:31 GMT
Remember how we laughed when the Boxster's first biennial service in my hands was £944?
Well the second one was as well.
I cried wolf (jokingly) and the guy seemed genuinely worried I meant it for a while, until he realised I was taking the p*** when I complained that clearly the least they could charge for anything would be £911...
I was similarly slightly suprised too. The last one was a "major" service including spark plugs, but saw all the HT leads/coil packs changed as well as they were visibly rotting, hence the cost. This time was a "minor" (not very different since things like brake fluid get done each time) but it needed some new coolant hoses - explaining an occasional slight water loss - and some exhaust retaining bolts/brackets which were rusting. And I mentioned the Xenon lights always seemed weedy and set too low on dip beam, they mentioned they had some 200% brightness ones on the shelf, obviously I "needed" them as well (not yet tested)
The labour and oil costs and so on from this local (well, it's a 10 mile run along the canal, which smarts a bit for pickup when its the second in 2 or 3 days) specialist seem very reasonable and have also not gone up in 2 years. In that time the Jag servicing had gone up by 50%.
The place - Northway Porsche - is dripping with exotica, with heaps of 911's around, of the older and well loved variety (like 993 turbos) that are worth a fortune now. There was some sort of 944 Turbo special edition outside the door, and perhaps 24+ amazing cars parked about the place, all looking immaculate, the value of it all when I visited must be off the scale. A handful of mint-looking 987 Boxsters were looking slightly nervous off to one side. They have a 2-3 month lead time for booking in, and are only just down the A4 from Porsche UK HQ (and also their parts HQ I think) where many of them used to work.
They disregarded my concerns the suspension thumps noisily at the front on really bad roads, apparently mine is a great example, and - on 18's with PASM - as comfortable as they come. They asked what else I drove and apparantly sir has been spoiled by driving what they dismissed as "grandfather cars", which is pretty much how everyone reacted through my entire XFR ownership period. A relief anyway.
I took it up to the NEC and back one day last week to give it a good run before the service and remind myself how it was on longer trips. I still absolutely love it to drive, that love took 6-12 months to develop (where it just felt old-school with heavy everything). When I started to get a real feel for it, I adored it to drive, and its suprisingly good on a long run. The suspension evens out at speed and its very comfortable, not even that noisy if you don't have a hedge/wall/barrier near you to reflect your own road noise back. I will at some point do a road trip in it, perhaps Scotland, perhaps Europe. Even with the hood down its not too loud at motorway speeds (how fast, seems to make little difference above about 60). You can even make out the stero, which in the Bose setup has an amazingly well-judged different sound profile for "roof down" with oodles of bass. Up to about 50mph or so, its really quiet with the hood down, you can talk easily, or genuinely enjoy the music.
What isn't especially loud with the roof down, is the engine. When its reflected back to you, it is loud (I'm assuming its the standard exhaust, though it's louder than I expected after reading "too quiet" reviews). Its now the largest engine on our drive, and by far the loudest. It actually sounds quite gruff at low speeds and of indeterminate cylinder count, but as the revs rise it becomes silky smooth with a hard metallic edge that reminds me of the Alfa Busso V6, and the 4.0 M3 V8. Hood-up, it's very loud on a full throttle at high revs, with the nicest engine sound of anything I've owned, it's an addictive howl that just sounds like aural cocaine to me.
It had better response than the Jag, and with the QF being turbocharged that gap has widened. The combination of manual gearbox, heavy but precise controls, and instant repsonse make it like a grown up Caterham. Similarly you have to lean on the brakes really hard to stop hard, but when you do, you have total adjustability at the limit of grip. The steering talks a million times more than anything much newer, again telegraphing the grip levels precisely. No modern car I've driven does anything like this, and I can't heel and toe in anything much newer, in this its easy. The only part that bites is the rear end (yes, Boxsters can oversteer) on the old and 3-4mm RE050 tyres, which are a 20 year old design now. Especially from cold, if I get remotely greedy with the throttle while I still have steering lock applied, it spits suddenly wide. Warmed up, on corner entry and mid corner it still grips like the proverbial sh** to a blanket, I have never been able to corner harder in any car on the road including Caterhams on trackday tyres. It's supple enough to really grip on road (stiff cars skip across bumps) and even passengers can tell how within its limits it is, despite high lateral G.
It doesn't feel quick to me when really "on it" - its an odd combination of amazing initial response then a bit of a "is that it" feeling when you floor it on open roads below 4krevs. In normal driving, it does feel faster than it really is when you have room, the opposite of the Alfa really. I once only pegged a Golf GTe on a motorway, floored and at nearly optimum revs, repeatedly from about 70. It keeps on going and feels fairly quick well over a ton, but again that's not really ideal UK behaviour. Revving it high and snicking through the manual box on a country lane is wonderfully entertaining however.
I probably will not track it unless my income really goes up, it's too mint and the pre-facelift 986/987 "S" engines are too prone to oil starvation under high-G cornering, generally only an issue for experienced track drivers but that, for my sins, I am. I would like to be able to afford to keep it, possibly for a long time - the prices of even post facelift 987's are way higher, let alone 981 prices. I like the age this car was from, pre-DI, pre big screen, pre-electric steering, pre over-assistance. I can see why 997 911's are so raved about even if the 987 is so much better value - they really are a near perfect drivers tool, yet usable every day and for long trips. I'd need to spend a lot of money on anything that made a real difference, for example I don't prefer 987.1 models to look at and even though their engines can handle tracks better, its then too expensive to risk, for me. This has been my least-hysterical car ever, in that nothing has ever gone wrong or even just given me a little scare, it feels lightweight yet hugely over engineered and I will continue to use it as I have just to give myself a boost when bored of WFH, and for the odd longer trip to balance the mileage (its only on 43k miles) with my daily. A good buy, even if Tina and my parents think it was a waste of time! Lucy gets it...
Well the second one was as well.
I cried wolf (jokingly) and the guy seemed genuinely worried I meant it for a while, until he realised I was taking the p*** when I complained that clearly the least they could charge for anything would be £911...
I was similarly slightly suprised too. The last one was a "major" service including spark plugs, but saw all the HT leads/coil packs changed as well as they were visibly rotting, hence the cost. This time was a "minor" (not very different since things like brake fluid get done each time) but it needed some new coolant hoses - explaining an occasional slight water loss - and some exhaust retaining bolts/brackets which were rusting. And I mentioned the Xenon lights always seemed weedy and set too low on dip beam, they mentioned they had some 200% brightness ones on the shelf, obviously I "needed" them as well (not yet tested)
The labour and oil costs and so on from this local (well, it's a 10 mile run along the canal, which smarts a bit for pickup when its the second in 2 or 3 days) specialist seem very reasonable and have also not gone up in 2 years. In that time the Jag servicing had gone up by 50%.The place - Northway Porsche - is dripping with exotica, with heaps of 911's around, of the older and well loved variety (like 993 turbos) that are worth a fortune now. There was some sort of 944 Turbo special edition outside the door, and perhaps 24+ amazing cars parked about the place, all looking immaculate, the value of it all when I visited must be off the scale. A handful of mint-looking 987 Boxsters were looking slightly nervous off to one side. They have a 2-3 month lead time for booking in, and are only just down the A4 from Porsche UK HQ (and also their parts HQ I think) where many of them used to work.
They disregarded my concerns the suspension thumps noisily at the front on really bad roads, apparently mine is a great example, and - on 18's with PASM - as comfortable as they come. They asked what else I drove and apparantly sir has been spoiled by driving what they dismissed as "grandfather cars", which is pretty much how everyone reacted through my entire XFR ownership period. A relief anyway.
I took it up to the NEC and back one day last week to give it a good run before the service and remind myself how it was on longer trips. I still absolutely love it to drive, that love took 6-12 months to develop (where it just felt old-school with heavy everything). When I started to get a real feel for it, I adored it to drive, and its suprisingly good on a long run. The suspension evens out at speed and its very comfortable, not even that noisy if you don't have a hedge/wall/barrier near you to reflect your own road noise back. I will at some point do a road trip in it, perhaps Scotland, perhaps Europe. Even with the hood down its not too loud at motorway speeds (how fast, seems to make little difference above about 60). You can even make out the stero, which in the Bose setup has an amazingly well-judged different sound profile for "roof down" with oodles of bass. Up to about 50mph or so, its really quiet with the hood down, you can talk easily, or genuinely enjoy the music.
What isn't especially loud with the roof down, is the engine. When its reflected back to you, it is loud (I'm assuming its the standard exhaust, though it's louder than I expected after reading "too quiet" reviews). Its now the largest engine on our drive, and by far the loudest. It actually sounds quite gruff at low speeds and of indeterminate cylinder count, but as the revs rise it becomes silky smooth with a hard metallic edge that reminds me of the Alfa Busso V6, and the 4.0 M3 V8. Hood-up, it's very loud on a full throttle at high revs, with the nicest engine sound of anything I've owned, it's an addictive howl that just sounds like aural cocaine to me.
It had better response than the Jag, and with the QF being turbocharged that gap has widened. The combination of manual gearbox, heavy but precise controls, and instant repsonse make it like a grown up Caterham. Similarly you have to lean on the brakes really hard to stop hard, but when you do, you have total adjustability at the limit of grip. The steering talks a million times more than anything much newer, again telegraphing the grip levels precisely. No modern car I've driven does anything like this, and I can't heel and toe in anything much newer, in this its easy. The only part that bites is the rear end (yes, Boxsters can oversteer) on the old and 3-4mm RE050 tyres, which are a 20 year old design now. Especially from cold, if I get remotely greedy with the throttle while I still have steering lock applied, it spits suddenly wide. Warmed up, on corner entry and mid corner it still grips like the proverbial sh** to a blanket, I have never been able to corner harder in any car on the road including Caterhams on trackday tyres. It's supple enough to really grip on road (stiff cars skip across bumps) and even passengers can tell how within its limits it is, despite high lateral G.
It doesn't feel quick to me when really "on it" - its an odd combination of amazing initial response then a bit of a "is that it" feeling when you floor it on open roads below 4krevs. In normal driving, it does feel faster than it really is when you have room, the opposite of the Alfa really. I once only pegged a Golf GTe on a motorway, floored and at nearly optimum revs, repeatedly from about 70. It keeps on going and feels fairly quick well over a ton, but again that's not really ideal UK behaviour. Revving it high and snicking through the manual box on a country lane is wonderfully entertaining however.
I probably will not track it unless my income really goes up, it's too mint and the pre-facelift 986/987 "S" engines are too prone to oil starvation under high-G cornering, generally only an issue for experienced track drivers but that, for my sins, I am. I would like to be able to afford to keep it, possibly for a long time - the prices of even post facelift 987's are way higher, let alone 981 prices. I like the age this car was from, pre-DI, pre big screen, pre-electric steering, pre over-assistance. I can see why 997 911's are so raved about even if the 987 is so much better value - they really are a near perfect drivers tool, yet usable every day and for long trips. I'd need to spend a lot of money on anything that made a real difference, for example I don't prefer 987.1 models to look at and even though their engines can handle tracks better, its then too expensive to risk, for me. This has been my least-hysterical car ever, in that nothing has ever gone wrong or even just given me a little scare, it feels lightweight yet hugely over engineered and I will continue to use it as I have just to give myself a boost when bored of WFH, and for the odd longer trip to balance the mileage (its only on 43k miles) with my daily. A good buy, even if Tina and my parents think it was a waste of time! Lucy gets it...
