Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Boxter Experience

Look forward to seeing it!

Enjoy the Boxster - like others, we have one - albeit a 6 cylinder 2.7 N/A which we like because it takes a bit of driving to get the best from it but it is plenty quick enough for today's roads....the 2.5 turbo S like yours is easy to drive seriously quickly so watch out for speed cameras!

Peter you will be happy to hear that Tarka is clean and safe in the Williams car park.

Interestingly that was exactly my conclusion on the Boxter. I have test driven them several times because they would make a much more rational choice than the Ferrari, but every time I found the same thing. They were bland, fault and character free, and somehom not a sports car in the way that the 911 is. And I drove both 911 and Boxter back to back.

The interior wasnt inspiring either. It could easily have been a Merc or BMW or VW - well finished, functional but no flair.

In the end, both boxter and MX5 are toy cars so what matters is not the rational decision but the emotional one. If I werent wedded to open cars, my choice would be neither of them but a Lotus.

This is what makes being an automotive enthusiast such a fantastic and varied thing, in that what is a fantastic car to one isn't to another. Many would say a `Morgan is far from a sports car yet to someone else, it's the essence of one.

I've owned two 718's and have been very fortunate to have driven cars from all spectrums. For me, the 718 was a fantastic B road car, runs circles around a 911 on the track and at the same time fill the roll of a GT car. If it were not for the emotional attachment to the Morgan, I would have chopped that in for another 718 in a heartbeat.

@Howard, what gen 911 and Boxster did you test? Curious as the 991 gen 911 has the same interior as the 981 and current 982 Boxster, bar the placement of the dash vents. Doors, console, tech, seats etc are identical

[quote=Perry_P_M3WCurious as the 991 gen 911 has the same interior as the 981 and current 982 Boxster, bar the placement of the dash vents. Doors, console, tech, seats etc are identical [/quote]

There is huge visual difference from the drivers seat, nearly half the dashboard is missing. Just the 2 dials + a digital screen on the boxster versus 5 on a 911. For me as a serial 911 owner the dashboard evolving through the generations is one of the attractions, its the bit I sit there looking at when invariably caught up in traffic. I always felt short changed when I had a Boxster. Give me a Boxster with a 911 dash & I would be happy.

I get that Andy in regards to the 5 dials vs. 3., This has always been the case. But aside from that, the parts are 100/% plug and play. Doors, console, centre stack (bar the vent treatment) and more importantly, the fit and finished, when looking at those gens.

Porsche does a good job of keeping certain things for the 911 and only when a new version comes out does the Boxster get something from the previous gen.

My 981 Spyder arrives next week. It is my first foray into the world of Porsche. It seems that there is even more opinion on different models/ specs in the Porsche world!

I just really liked the drive in the car- the manual was very good and the howl from the 3.8 six was great fun.

It seems that there is some “ disagreement “ between 911 and Boxster/Cayman drivers!!

I need to learn some Porsche-Speak after twenty years of Morgan-Speak.

JB62, as with Peter, I hope you both enjoy your experience as Porsche owners. It suspect it may be rather different from that with Morgan.

I had over a decade of hands-on air cooled Porsche experience, owning, restoring and repairing my old Porsches. I even took a few years out as a born again biker to enjoy countryside B roads, before finally thinking a Morgan might be the ideal machine to return to four wheeled B road automotive involvement. Now some 20 years or so into ownership of my +8, a mix of circumstances caused me to contemplate the practicalities of tin top with, auto box, even air-con as ideals to extend sports car enjoyment in all weathers, thinking cold mostly as an issue these days.

My past experience of Porsche drew me back to that marque though I considered a Cayman as being closer to the dimensions of my earlier 911`s, but as my likely last Porsche, I decided on another 911 and ended up the proud owner of a 991.1 C4S with PDK, it is kitted out with more gizmology than I have ability to understand, and which no doubt continues to flatter my ability to pilot the thing down the same twisting turning B roads I have enjoyed for many a decade, both on m/cycle and in my old +8 ...

For sure my +8 is much more of a sports car to me, with it`s manual box, alongside it`s somewhat vintage appearance and pseudo vintage feel of the way it "handles" the less than ideal road surfaces, the handling being very much alive making the pilot feel very much alive and a very necessary part of all the processes involved..

Of course the PDK equipped Porsche is a world away from my old Mog`s sports car feel. The 991 providing more of an insular GT driving experience on ordinary roads than that felt in my previously owned air cooled 911`s, though applying a degree of relativity, air-cooled 911`s were capable as GT`s in their time too. On the other hand the 991.1 can be a real sports car, but one generally has to be travelling at a much higher rate of knots to begin to sample it`s sports car capabilities, unless on a real testing bit of Tarmac such as the Dukes Pass, where high speed is likely to be considered as 60mph or less given the wonderful rising and falling tight twists and turns of those all too few miles of Tarmac, and where side-on G force experienced can take over in terms of providing a real sports car sensation..:)

Yeah there are so very many variables to be enjoyed across the range of sports cars spanning many decades. Evolution at Porsche has played it`s part, in the application of digital decision making in the search for fuel and other efficiency, equating to PDK programming which seems designed in such a way as to partly discourage the use of the super fast down shift via flappy paddles, to drop a gear or two in order to retard forward progress by using engine over-run, and perhaps enjoying the aural experience of doing so... Hmm..? Nope it is not going to happen... Modern drivers use brakes to SLOW and engine to GO... end of...Drop a gear in the PDK and the programming seems to instantly be in accelerative mode...Perhaps I`m just doing it wrong...???

So no more over-run popping und banging perhaps even the occasional flame as one dances heel and toe, even double de-clutching on dropping down into second when the box is cold to overcome a reluctant syncro in the old +8.... Yeah a modern PDK equipped Porsche is so very different even from it`s manual 911 forebears, and a whole world away from enjoyment of my old Morgan.

Boy do I feel fortunate to have two rather special machines available, each of which provide a personal sense enough of connection to emotional and historic significance at this time, to justify their current residence in my garage.... As ever, each to their own.

They were the main dealer demo cars in Cardiff and it was when I last changed cars so spring time 2019. Dont know what gen that makes them - I have enough trouble with Ferrari model numbers let alone Proker ones that go up and down the numerical scale.

For me they had the same feel as Honda motorcycles . Outside the specials, refined to the point of somehow characterless. But as you say it would be a terrible world if we all thought the same way.