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Lifelong dream achieved, my first Porsche, 987 Spyder!
Hi all, very excited to finally be more than a lurker on Rennlist! With the state of the market these days I had given up on this dream, but with the help of a good friend (who also has a Spyder) I found an excellent car that was priced very fairly and with many hours of man math later, I decided to pull the trigger. Cars, and specifically driving, has always been my passion; nothing else makes me happier than being behind the wheel of a driver focused car flogging it around the back roads or a track. I've had an S2000 now for almost a decade and that is one machine I will never let go, but I've always wanted a Porsche, and after riding in and driving the mid engine examples I just couldn't let go of the dream. Then my good friend got a Spyder last year, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Lightweight, bucket seats, a manual box with a beefy, flat 6 howler of an engine, and that open top experience...I was obsessed. I'm now proud to own two of the best drivers cars ever made with the S2000 and 987 Spyder. Happy to be part of the Porsche family
Enough of the rant, here are some pictures! The car is black, LWB's, Manual, No AC, and PSE. Got it with ~55k miles and ready to enjoy many more with it
Congrats! Fellow S2000 owner here. Recently spent a lot of time reflecting on whether I would sell the S to get into a more expensive Porsche or keep the S and add a relatively cheaper Porsche. Came to the decision I would only add if at all possible. You have a very special 2 car stable. Enjoy in good health. Would love to hear your thoughts on the Spyder vs S. I've been fortunate to drive a lot of GT3s, never a GT4 or Spyder.
Congrats! Fellow S2000 owner here. Recently spent a lot of time reflecting on whether I would sell the S to get into a more expensive Porsche or keep the S and add a relatively cheaper Porsche. Came to the decision I would only add if at all possible. You have a very special 2 car stable. Enjoy in good health. Would love to hear your thoughts on the Spyder vs S. I've been fortunate to drive a lot of GT3s, never a GT4 or Spyder.
Thanks Yeah selling my S would have made this purchase a lot easier but I just can't bear the thought of letting go of that car. It has a special place in my heart, and also there's just never going to be another car like that ever again. It's truly special and makes me smile every time I drive it, no way I can let it go. It's also gutted with a roll bar and slowly becoming fully track duty and I don't want to bother putting the interior back in.
As for the comparison between the two, they are quite similar in a way and yet very different. The Porsche has way better damping from the factory, and my S2000 has been on some mediocre coilovers so the performance over rough, bumpy roads has been lacking. I'll have a nice set of MCS 2 way's for next track season to resolve that. Driving the cars at pace is actually pretty similar; the S2000 is technically a mid engine car and behaves as such. You can really use trail braking to get the car to rotate, the same as with the Boxster / Cayman platform, however in the Porsche's you get a bit more rotation from that engine being in the back instead of the front. The Porsche has incredible corner exit grip, stays flatter while cornering, and I'd say has slightly better turn in (My s2000 has 255 front tires though so quite beefy). The steering in the Spyder is one of the best I've ever used, it makes the S2000's feel like ****, which it kind of is considering it's an early electric steering system. The transmission in the S2000 is sensational. The Porsche is good, but S2K still has the best manual trans I've used, you can't beat that tiny throw from a lever going straight into the gearbox. Also, my shifter cables JUST snapped on the Spyder so that should be a fun replacement.
Oh and the R / Spyder having a locking diff is a game changer, huge step up from the S variants. I've driven a Cayman S extensively and always hated coming out of corners smoking one wheel and having that unpredictable sliding - the locking diff makes it so much better on corner exit.
Overall they both are excellent, excellent cars. I lean toward the Sypder more because that chassis is telepathic, and very composed even when you are making the car do frankly insane things. And end of the day, it's nice having POWER. The Spyder should be within ~100 pounds of my S2000 in weight, but has almost 100 more horsepower. The difference is night and day, especially having torque compared to ringing the S2000 out to get that power.
Congratulations and welcome to the club! May I suggest a leather flying helmet, goggles and silk scarf to help with winter top down adventures?
Finally got mine this time last year 10 years after driving one at the Porsche Intro Event in Santa Ynez, CA. Never was able to forget the giddy feeling during the drive. A decade later, happy to report it's still there.
It snapped at the shifter end. The numeric cables I put in are supposed to be the best solution, I did not know there is an updated transmission linkage from Porsche. Do you have a link to that? I will say that I have a friend with a 987.1 Cayman S with Numeric shifter and cables, and on a drive we snapped a linkage not a cable.
11-10-2021, 12:28 PM
Lifelong dream achieved, my first Porsche, 987 Spyder!
Yeah selling my S would have made this purchase a lot easier but I just can't bear the thought of letting go of that car. It has a special place in my heart, and also there's just never going to be another car like that ever again. It's truly special and makes me smile every time I drive it, no way I can let it go. It's also gutted with a roll bar and slowly becoming fully track duty and I don't want to bother putting the interior back in.
