fuhrius

It's been about 11 years since I left my last Boxster at the exit of T4 at Laguna Seca. Fortunately for me, I had solid safety equipment and walked away from the sudden deceleration event with only a bruised ego.
I'd owned that car, an '01 S for about 9 years and the car was absolutely bullet proof and such fun to drive. I'd bought it used (2 years old) from a guy who'd dumped a bunch of money into it to get more power out of it. During my ownership, I focused on suspension / brakes / safety equipment. It was basically a Boxster spec suspension, significant improvements to the braking system, and then a lot of weight taken out (Cobra Suzuka carbon seats, Braille battery, mostly-gutted interior, removed stereo and AC, lightweight wheels (ran Kinesis K58's then various CCW wheels). It was a really fun car.

After that wreck, I shifted track-day activities to only fully-prepped track / race cars and took the opportunity over the next several years to rent and drive as many different types of race cars as I could...and started to feed my longtime desire to drive rally cars. For my daily / street car, I revisited some roots in the Mustang world and drove (and really enjoyed) and '12 Boss 302 for a few years and subsequently bought the car I've used as a daily driver since 2016...a GT350R with no electronics / AC / etc. I live in a mild climate (SF Bay Area) so the lack of AC wasn't a problem and with that motor, a stereo is absolutely superfluous. I'd also worked at Ford a ways back in life and have good friends in the dealer world, so it was easy for me to get the R and my other couple fun Fords (Raptor and Focus RS).

The Boxster bug never left me and I knew I'd have another Boxster at some point...and I very much wanted to share the magic with my two kids who are, now, early 20's...they used to 'right seat' in the old Boxster but were too young to drive at that point. They're both driving enthusiasts and we've autocrossed together a bunch and done some track stuff as well.

I'd always figured I'd just move to the next gen of the Boxster and find a 987.2 but the styling of the 981 has really been growing on me in recent years...and seeing where the 718 has gone, that further solidified my admiration for the looks of the 981. Like many of you, I scoured the land for the right car...I've been looking casually for years and more seriously for the better part of a year...a challenging year to find the right used car, for sure. I'd looked at everything from S's that I'd then mod a bit, up to Spyders. Given the way I was going to use the car and my preference for the styling of the non-Spyder, I narrowed the search to S's and GTS's. We got my wife a '17 Macan a few years back (bought a 6 month old car with 5k miles and loaded to the gills...so much crazy stuff on it, it's almost embarrassing, except that we got into it at a ridiculously good price) and I've really been impressed with that car and the magic that the Porsche engineers did in that GTS package.

I really wanted to find a white car as my 986 was white (Biarritz white)...I also really like Carmine red on the GTS but the Macan is Carmine so that felt like it might be a bit much. I don't think you can go wrong with tranny choice, but I had strong preference for the 6 spd. I wanted PSE and PTV and didn't care much about most other options...preferring to keep things lighter and simpler. I waded through so many PASM v X73 discussions and see the merit of each but, ultimately, suspension is swappable so I would have taken either. I do like the stance of the X73 cars but an intrigued by the ability to tune PASM with a DSC controller.

I watched Rennlist ads, Autotrader, BaT, PCAmarket, etc and chased a few cars pretty hard only to find stories / issues / flaky sellers. Then I looked on PCA website and saw a car that was a great match. My PCA membership had lapsed so I had to renew that before I could contact the seller...that was a bit stressful as I knew others would be chasing this car. I got in contact with the seller and we had a really good chat. He'd already had multiple offers on the car. We vibed on many levels (as PCA says...it's not about the cars...)...we struck a deal on that first phone call...contingent on a clean PPI and clean DME report. The PPI was clean, the DME showed zero over-rev's in any range, further pictures showed a super clean car...and it was only about 4 hours drive for me to Santa Barbara, where the car was. My daughter currently goes to school in Santa Barbara (and is the President of the car club on campus at UCSB), so my son drove me down and I grabbed the car and hung out with my daughter...then got to do it's inaugural (for me) drive home up the beautiful HWY 1 coastal route.

It's a '16 GTS with just a tad over 7k miles and one owner. The car's white (plain white, which I prefer...but I would have been happy with Carrara Metallic), 6spd, PTV, PASM, base seats, Bose, GTS interior and exterior packages, wheels in satin black, and parking sensors / camera...pretty much the perfect spec for me.

So far it's been an absolute treat and I'm really happy (and feeling very fortunate) to be back in a Boxster. It's a long way from that 986...in so many ways...but I'm really impressed with the overall package.

Here are a few pics of my old car:




entering the corkscrew at LS

and a few of the next chapter in my Boxster story:






I swapped the side markers for clears and removed the front license plate and other than that, just cleaned it and driven it a ton.

Kevin CS

Beautiful! Happy motoring!

air993

Beautiful new Boxster. I also have a Biarritz white 986 and love the color. Your 986 was nice, but the 981 is pretty good in the looks department as well. Enjoy!

fuhrius

One of my favorite views was peering out over the beautifully-round top of the front fenders while driving the 986. The 981 has a little crease line in that front fender that constantly reminds me that this is a more modern version of that car I loved. It's still an awesome view. I love the look of both of the cars. Do you have a pic to share of you Biarritz white 986?

dav9515

beautiful car and spec...i would've loved a GTS but prices and scarcity left me with no options when i purchased. Fortunately i found a 13' with essentially GTS spec and although Platinum Silver wasnt high on my list of choices for color i knew i couldnt let this car in this spec get away...havent looked back and absolutely LOVE the 981 platform. I came straight from a 97' 2.5l 986 that honestly was also an amazing car and used every bit of its 200 hp to offer a phenomenal driving experience...

i really wish i had the garage space to keep both because i owned that 986 for next to nothing and it was painful to let it go. the 981 is better in every way for sure but the 986 was my first p-car and had a unique driving character that allowed me to drive at 9/10's as often as i wanted without being a danger to society (at least i thought so lol).

Welcome Back!

Mark Dreyer

I recently moved from a gutted race car converted 986 Boxster S to my current 981 Cayman S dual street track car, so your thread totally resonates with me. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for “Boxzilla” my recently departed 986. It was so reliable and a hoot to drive at the limit. My 981 is much the same just higher limits. Congrats, your GTS is beautiful!

air993

Here you go. My oldest daughter and I flew to Los Angeles and drove it all the way back to Baton Rouge. The car has been great! If she’s good it will be her car.