18 Months w/ my 2013 Boxster S - upgrade report card
05-16-2019, 11:45 PM
#1
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18 Months w/ my 2013 Boxster S - upgrade report card
I thought I’d list out the incremental improvements I’ve made to my 2013 Boxster S since I purchased it almost 18 mos ago. I hope the group finds this interesting and not just boring drivel. I previously owned a 99 996 convertible that was our (really my wife’s) fun car and an 02 996 C2 coupe that my DD and DE car. We lost them both in the Hurrican Harvey flooding in Sept 2017 so I was without a Porsche/track car for a few months while we dealt with insurance, FEMA, etc.
Dec 2017 - Purchased a used 2013 Boxster S w/ ~28k miles. The idea was this would be a combination of my wife’s fun convertible and my new AutoX/DE car all in one. It’s a PDK with Sports Chrono, otherwise no other performance options or upgrades. It had brand new P-Zero’s as well.
April 2018 - I ran an autocross and a DE at MSR Houston with the car bone stock to start learning it. Here I learned the car’s center of gravity was totally different than my 996’s. It feels like there’s a pole shoved down through the car underneath my right elbow and that’s where this car turns. The 996 felt like that pole ran through the Porsche emblem on the frunk as a point of reference. Much easier to get a good lap time out of this car vs the 996 at this point...with very similar power.
June 2018 - 3 days at COTA with the only change being fresh oil, Castrol SRF brake fluid, and I max’d negative camber w/ stock components at just under -1 degree. It got really hot on Sunday and I shut the car down mid-day when the oil temps got uncomfortably warm for my comfort. Stock brakes w/ P-Zero’s were well matched. It became pretty evident that the limitations to better times were the tires so I decided to purchase a dedicated set of track wheels/tires after this weekend. I joined the APEX group buy around this time and bought their 18” mild-track offsets for ~$1300. Great deal!
Sept 2018 - Autocross and DE at MSR Houston. Car in same condition as above as the APEX wheels shipped much later than originally indicated. Again, stock brakes w/ SRF fluid were excellent. And again the limitation for better track times was the P-Zero tires so I was ready for the APEX wheels and the RE71’s I was planning to buy.
Dec 2018 - APEX wheels finally arrived in October. Ordered RE71’s from Tire Rack when I received the APEX shipping notice but my rear sizes were on backorder. After the backorder dates kept getting pushed further and further out, I ended up with limited options via Tire Rack. Without many other options, I decided to try the new Nexen SUR4G 200tw rated tires out at $700 for the set. The APEX wheels plus Nexen tires were the single most-impactful change I’ve made to the car at a total cost of ~$2,000. I dropped 10 seconds off my previous PB at MSR Houston with just the wheel/tire change. I LOVE the Nexen tires for the money...
Jan 2019 - For Christmas and our 1 year anniversary together, I decided to upgrade to an X73 suspension prior to a Jan DE at MSR Houston. X73 parts plus installation was ~$2,800 if I remember correctly. I was disappointed to not be able to get a direct quantitative comparison to the Dec DE because we ran in the opposite direction. My gut/butt timer didn’t feel like the X73 made a huge difference on the track, but it definitely degraded the ride on the street. I know that’s not a popular statement on this board but that’s my opinion after 6 mos of track and street use. Lesson learned is that I’ll be looking for PASM on my next car. The car was also ready for pads and rotors so after carefully considering Girodisc, I decided to go with Sebro slotted rotors and stick with stock pads and SRF fluid. This car is so easy on brakes that I just couldn’t get the math to come close w/ the Girodics. Sebro slotted vs. OEM rotors...I actually liked the feel of the OEM rotors better but it’s close enough to call a wash imho. I’ll be watching the longevity of the Sebro’s closely and if they don’t wear long enough to pencil out I might consider switching back to stock rotors.
March 2019 - 3 day DE at COTA...I decided to take my M4 instead of the Boxster. Big mistake...should’ve taken the Boxster.
April 2019 - DE at MSR Houston. After contemplating the M4’s power and top speed advantage at COTA on the straights vs. the Boxster’s definite advantage everywhere else, I decided that a little more power on the Boxster should be the next big upgrade. So I bought a set of used Soul Competition Headers (straight), their Softronic ECU tune, and their X-pipe tips (just for looks as my stock tips were pretty yellow’d and dirty). I think I paid ~$2,700 for the parts and decided to do the install myself as it looked easy enough. I bolted all that to the stock non-PSE exhaust and left everything else the same. Bottom line...disappointing results. No noticeable power increase according to the butt dyno and no discernable change in lap times, trap speeds, etc. vs. my January pre-header/pre-tune lap times in very similar weather conditions.
May 2019 - DE at MSR Houston this coming weekend. We are running clockwise which is the same direction we ran in December so I’ll be able to compare lap times and trap speeds to pre-X73, pre-header/tune days so I’m excited about that...although my gut tells me I’m not going to see much difference. In fact, December conditions were perfect with sun on the track generating a little heat plus cold-dense air to help make lots of power. I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see higher lap times this weekend with the early summer track and air temps but we’ll see.
So in summary, the absolute biggest bang for my buck was sticky tires. Past that, I’ve dropped upwards of $6-7k for indeterminate results at best. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have and hear where your results might have been different.
Dec 2017 - Purchased a used 2013 Boxster S w/ ~28k miles. The idea was this would be a combination of my wife’s fun convertible and my new AutoX/DE car all in one. It’s a PDK with Sports Chrono, otherwise no other performance options or upgrades. It had brand new P-Zero’s as well.
April 2018 - I ran an autocross and a DE at MSR Houston with the car bone stock to start learning it. Here I learned the car’s center of gravity was totally different than my 996’s. It feels like there’s a pole shoved down through the car underneath my right elbow and that’s where this car turns. The 996 felt like that pole ran through the Porsche emblem on the frunk as a point of reference. Much easier to get a good lap time out of this car vs the 996 at this point...with very similar power.
June 2018 - 3 days at COTA with the only change being fresh oil, Castrol SRF brake fluid, and I max’d negative camber w/ stock components at just under -1 degree. It got really hot on Sunday and I shut the car down mid-day when the oil temps got uncomfortably warm for my comfort. Stock brakes w/ P-Zero’s were well matched. It became pretty evident that the limitations to better times were the tires so I decided to purchase a dedicated set of track wheels/tires after this weekend. I joined the APEX group buy around this time and bought their 18” mild-track offsets for ~$1300. Great deal!
Sept 2018 - Autocross and DE at MSR Houston. Car in same condition as above as the APEX wheels shipped much later than originally indicated. Again, stock brakes w/ SRF fluid were excellent. And again the limitation for better track times was the P-Zero tires so I was ready for the APEX wheels and the RE71’s I was planning to buy.
Dec 2018 - APEX wheels finally arrived in October. Ordered RE71’s from Tire Rack when I received the APEX shipping notice but my rear sizes were on backorder. After the backorder dates kept getting pushed further and further out, I ended up with limited options via Tire Rack. Without many other options, I decided to try the new Nexen SUR4G 200tw rated tires out at $700 for the set. The APEX wheels plus Nexen tires were the single most-impactful change I’ve made to the car at a total cost of ~$2,000. I dropped 10 seconds off my previous PB at MSR Houston with just the wheel/tire change. I LOVE the Nexen tires for the money...
Jan 2019 - For Christmas and our 1 year anniversary together, I decided to upgrade to an X73 suspension prior to a Jan DE at MSR Houston. X73 parts plus installation was ~$2,800 if I remember correctly. I was disappointed to not be able to get a direct quantitative comparison to the Dec DE because we ran in the opposite direction. My gut/butt timer didn’t feel like the X73 made a huge difference on the track, but it definitely degraded the ride on the street. I know that’s not a popular statement on this board but that’s my opinion after 6 mos of track and street use. Lesson learned is that I’ll be looking for PASM on my next car. The car was also ready for pads and rotors so after carefully considering Girodisc, I decided to go with Sebro slotted rotors and stick with stock pads and SRF fluid. This car is so easy on brakes that I just couldn’t get the math to come close w/ the Girodics. Sebro slotted vs. OEM rotors...I actually liked the feel of the OEM rotors better but it’s close enough to call a wash imho. I’ll be watching the longevity of the Sebro’s closely and if they don’t wear long enough to pencil out I might consider switching back to stock rotors.
March 2019 - 3 day DE at COTA...I decided to take my M4 instead of the Boxster. Big mistake...should’ve taken the Boxster.
April 2019 - DE at MSR Houston. After contemplating the M4’s power and top speed advantage at COTA on the straights vs. the Boxster’s definite advantage everywhere else, I decided that a little more power on the Boxster should be the next big upgrade. So I bought a set of used Soul Competition Headers (straight), their Softronic ECU tune, and their X-pipe tips (just for looks as my stock tips were pretty yellow’d and dirty). I think I paid ~$2,700 for the parts and decided to do the install myself as it looked easy enough. I bolted all that to the stock non-PSE exhaust and left everything else the same. Bottom line...disappointing results. No noticeable power increase according to the butt dyno and no discernable change in lap times, trap speeds, etc. vs. my January pre-header/pre-tune lap times in very similar weather conditions.
May 2019 - DE at MSR Houston this coming weekend. We are running clockwise which is the same direction we ran in December so I’ll be able to compare lap times and trap speeds to pre-X73, pre-header/tune days so I’m excited about that...although my gut tells me I’m not going to see much difference. In fact, December conditions were perfect with sun on the track generating a little heat plus cold-dense air to help make lots of power. I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see higher lap times this weekend with the early summer track and air temps but we’ll see.
So in summary, the absolute biggest bang for my buck was sticky tires. Past that, I’ve dropped upwards of $6-7k for indeterminate results at best. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have and hear where your results might have been different.
05-17-2019, 10:24 AM
#3
Wow that's a great post and going through it - it's controversial hehe. Especially the bit about the hardware mods doing nothing to your actual performance. I have always wanted one of these deep pocket gents who use the best parts and mod their car and get massive gains on the dyno to do a track comparison - stock vs modded. But only this post is the closest I have seen to that. I have been tempted to tinker around in my Spyder with Dundon parts and forged wheels etc to see if that gains me performance but it's hard to justify the expense when you see posts like this!