Supagoat

OK, just took a trip up to New Hampshire and tried the Spyder at Stratham Porsche out. It was everything I'd hoped it'd be. It gave me a really great feeling of connectedness driving it, and of course it sounds amazing.

One thing I did notice is that it was extremely difficult to find reverse. It often took several tries. Is that normal?

The stick on a whole felt mushy compared to my Miata, but the throw on the Spyder is much longer than I've got so I suppose that's part of it... Right?

8000 miles on the clock and the front left had a bulge in the sidewall.

It doesn't have the carbon fiber seats, but it does have heated seats which I know from my Miata experience drastically increases the top-down driving season - I'll go top down at 34 degrees. :-)

I'd love to get some advice on this... I kinda promised my wife I'd wait till next year (and our home renovation) to buy one. I already have a roadster and a DD, so it's a hard case to make that I just neeeed it. I haven't watched the classifieds for long enough to get a good sense of availability. There are like 5 for sale in the country right now and a couple, like this one, are very low mileage. I suppose that'll probably still be true in the spring, but the cars aren't getting any younger unless someone's cracking them and dialing back the miles!

Hey folks who have sold your Spyder with low mileage: What made you part ways with it?

Jay9722

I sold mine with 9000 on the clock. It was under powered and did not have the options I really wanted. Mine is the one for sale in VA at Tysons Porsche. It was bought by a Rennlister and sold after a few months. It's a clean car. I am looking to get another Spyder but optioned right. I miss it. My 05 996Turbo S is not living up to my expectations.

n2cars

I have 8K miles on my Spyder ... manual trans and buckets seats. There must be something wrong with the transmission in the Spyder you drove. Reverse is easy to find and the transmission is not mushy.

terbiumactivated

Yeah It's totally under powered, how dare Porsche make a car that isn't speeding before up shifting to fourth, the underpower must be why you are seekig another Spyder after contrasting it to a turbo, we all know they are notoriously under-powered.

Supagoat

Yah I mean it took me several minutes of trying the first time to get it into reverse... I didn't know what I was doing, of course. I moved it around the parking lot, got the plate, then got it into reverse the first time. When I returned to the dealer after the drive I got out, saw the sidewall bulge at the bottom of the tire, and tried to reverse to see if the bulge was still there when the tire was rotated a little but I tried several times and just kept getting into 1st and finally just decided to roll forward a little.

Is there a trick to getting it into reverse? When it worked, the stick just kept going left with ease and I had no trouble at all. When it didn't I kept pushing it left and it kept bumping into a wall.

RobSpyder

Reverse is not hard to find. Just jam it down and left. I highly recommend the OEM Porsche Short Shift Kit. Fantastic upgrade for the relatively long stock throws.

The Goodyear F1 tires blow, so don't worry if one is damaged...I am swapping them out for some Yokohama AD08Rs.

If I were you, I would wait and find a car with Sport Buckets. They are just too good to miss. The alcantara acts like a seat heater anyway.

Lastly, you should look for the Sport Exhaust. Just the right amount of noise. Without it the Spyder sounds like a sewing machine.

Regardless, you should convince yourself that you need this car. It is epic IMO. I'm holding on to mine forever (and I've never said that about a car before). Good luck!

Marine Blue

Personally I would wait until you find one with sport buckets, if you like the feeling of being connected these will bring you another step closer. Use the Miata with heated seats on the colder days.

As far as the shifter, I agree that it's not as tight or as direct as a Miata. I regret not getting the short shifer when I ordered mine. Fortunately it's not a big deal to add after the fact so it's on my list of mods.

Supagoat

Sounds like a plan to me. I'm in the planning phase for a home renovation that will add 2 garage spaces so I'll have a place to put it... I suspect I'll be driving a Spyder in the spring.

You're telling me it can sound even better than that? Ok, yeah I'll wait to find that. Nice.

Thanks everyone! It's something to look forward to.

rohitgarewal

I just got mine last week with under 600 miles on the clock. I dont have trouble finding reverse, but I also have the sports shifter.

My last three cars were a Nissan 350, Audi s4, merc e63, and after 80 miles I can tell you this easily beats all of them in the enjoyment factor.

Btw if you can get one with sports exhaust, soy da amazing.

Jay9722

Sarcasm aside it is underpowered for me. I always found myself wanting the pedal to go a little bit more before it hit the floor. Sorry if that hurts your feelings. I also said I was not happy with a 440hp rocket that is the 996 Turbo S. After putting 4000 miles on the 996 I am missing my Spyder and trying to locate the perfect one. When I buy the one with the options I want it'll still be underpowered but it will be the car in which I really want to spend my time. The 996 is a great car but it doesn't give me the smile factor that the Spyder does. The Spyder does everything right but would be absolute driving perfection if it had a little more power. I had to date a lot of really wonderful women before I married the woman whom I couldn't live without.

RobSpyder

Completely agree. Another 80-100hp would be perfection.

terbiumactivated

It doesn't hurt my feelings at all, I'm just pointing out that you already have a car in which you can't use all the available power, unless of course you're on a track or on the job.

extanker

+2 over priced and way underpowered. imo

Supagoat

I can understand how you'd want a little more power. The HP number is there but the torque could definitely be cranked up a little. I didn't feel like it was slow by any means but it's true that it didn't completely kick me in the butt with raw power the way other cars have. The problem with big power is that unless you just keep braking/accelerating it's only thrilling for a short time every now and then while a connected car that loves to corner can be fun for long stretches in the countryside. :-)

Calling it a Miata with superpowers was a good description. I hopped back into my Miata later on yesterday and compared the experience and the Miata is definitely good for delivering a lot of the thrills the Spyder can but amplified.

Overpriced? Not compared to the NSX, but yeah sure I'd prefer that it be priced like any other 2011 Boxster S but I guess that's what happens when you get an actual special limited edition car.

I need to check out the local PCA. One key think I love about the Miata is the community here. We've got some great clubs in the area that are very active and it's a lot more fun to drive with a group.

Joe@Fabspeed

The Boxster Spyder is so balanced and interesting and was designed with passion. Yes a lot more power would be great but power is not everything. I've driven 800hp Porsche twin turbos and the cars can be sterile and boring in comparison to a Boxster Spyder , gt3 or Ferrari spider. He'll you can have a corvette with 600hp and it may leave the driver bored

All porsche 987 cars have 6 catalytic converters factory installed and the rear mufler is a 3 chamber reverse flow restrictive heavy muffler all designed to be quiet and protect the 997 from 987 power .

you can easily wake these cars up withsimple bolt on modifications. I added over 35hp to my Boxster Spyder by replacing the stock porsche headers 2 quantity 700 cell cats on each exhaust bank with my fabspeed Motorsport headers with 200 cell HJS race cats and my Maxflo rear sports exhaust that is a true dual exhaust with balance tube.

If anyone wants to drive my PDK Boxster Spyder just let me know.