Old Man Waits Too Long to Drive the Legend

Ever since I first began taking an interest in cars, perhaps around the mid to late 1970's, the Porsche 911 was the one car that stood out above all others.  Okay, maybe it was actually the incredible 930 Turbo, but any 911 was more awesome to me than any Corvette or Ferrari.  

Being a man of modest tastes and modest means, I bought and drove modest vehicles.  Houses to pay for, kids to send to college, no money in the budget for an impractical toy that cost as much as a house.

The years go by, interests and passions come and go.

The other day, who but my lovely wife should roll up in a borrowed 2013 911 Carrera S.  With the PDK.  Mint condition.  Very low miles.  How could someone buy a car like this and then not drive it?  We take it out of town for the weekend--a drive of about an hour down a beautiful piece of well-maintained two-lane.  This is Virginia, after all.  The cabin is surprisingly comfortable.  The controls all quite intuitive.  Even a cranky old man such as myself has trouble finding something to not like.

Firing the engine yields no surprises.  Ditto shifting into gear.  This is an "automated manual?"  Feels very much like any other slushbox, perhaps a bit less slushy.

Under way, the car is unexpectedly pleasant.  There is a switch via which you can choose from two exhausts--one mellow, the other a little less so.  I prefer the noisy one for a while.  The car pulls smoothly, adequately, without feeling either under- or over-powered.  Balanced.  Brakes are excellent and seem to slow the car with just the mere thought of braking.  As much as I want to take this car into a corner very fast and feel like I'm making the suspension work a little, there is no sane speed that makes the car feel as though it is being taxed in any way whatsoever.

All in all, the car made a very special weekend a little more special.  It served the needs of a couple with light luggage very adequately.  It was a lot of fun to drive.  Is such a car worth the cost?  Maybe.  Probably.  But....

1988RedT2 said:

As much as I want to take this car into a corner very fast and feel like I'm making the suspension work a little, there is no sane speed that makes the car feel as though it is being taxed in any way whatsoever.

Great review, and I agree.  This sentence here summarizes how I ended up selling my 981 Cayman S and getting back into an ND Miata.  The Cayman was just too much car to do naughty things with on the street, and I felt guilty/worried about tracking it the way it really deserved to be driven.  I still miss the car though...

Naturally, I regret not taking more pictures.  These were shot after we got back, pretty much an afterthought.  Did I mention it was a cabriolet?  Very pretty with the top up or down, but the weather made it a top-up excursion.

Everyone should own a Porsche at some point in their life.

When I was a kid in the '80s all my friends had a Ferrari F40 poster on their wall. I had a 959.

The sound of a flat 6 is amazing. Better in an air cooled car but still beautiful in water cooled form.

My 987.1 Cayman S was the best money I have ever spent on a vehicle bar none. It makes my heart flutter just looking at it forget about when it roars to life cold with it's aftermarket exhaust.

I hope I have done justice to it with all of the driving I have done in it. It is as good of a GT car as it is a sports car.

Funny, being a Porsche guy, I prefer the Cayman/Boxter chassis over the "run of the mill" WC 911s and I'd rather have the ACed 6 in my 914 than a 911. 

911s are so very iconic for a reason. You have now felt it.

I have a 2013 911. The base car. I was 71 when I finally bit the bullet. Sold my s2k to buy it. Here in NC there are plenty of roads to enjoy it's performance without feeling unsatisfied. My son had a 981 Cayman S that I have driven and I've driven plenty of Miatas and there is no way I give up a Cayman for a Miata. I do love Miatas though. 

p.s. The PCA has so many social and driving events it makes owning the car much more enjoyable. 

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Everyone should own three Porsches at some point in their life.

Fixed that 

In all seriousness though, you see why I have an obsession with them? They are such rewarding cars to drive!

I instruct at PCA events and have driven most every Porsche from the 356 & 70s 911 Turbo to the GT3RS. 

I've still not gotten my mind to justify the Porsche tax, it's really not that high but I can have 90% of the fun with much cheaper cars

With that said Porsches drive phenomenally well; there is a reason why they are so popular. 

Javelin said:

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Everyone should own three Porsches at some point in their life.

Fixed that 

In all seriousness though, you see why I have an obsession with them? They are such rewarding cars to drive!

At once or cumulative? I'm on three total but never more than one at a time. A friend of mine currently has three but two of them aren't running...not quite sure that's doing it right either.

The porsche tax issue is where the caymans come in...95% of the fun, 50% of the price. And also the 986. Not much more than a NA/NB miata at this point...but a million times better at everything other than repair cost...and maybe aesthetics.

dps214 said:

Javelin said:

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Everyone should own three Porsches at some point in their life.

Fixed that 

In all seriousness though, you see why I have an obsession with them? They are such rewarding cars to drive!

At once or cumulative? I'm on three total but never more than one at a time. A friend of mine currently has three but two of them aren't running...not quite sure that's doing it right either.

The porsche tax issue is where the caymans come in...95% of the fun, 50% of the price.

At the same time! 

My current fleet is an 89 944 S2, a 00 Boxster S, and an 06 Cayenne S. I have an inline 4, a flat 6, and a V8. I love them all and they all drive very differently yet are equally rewarding. 

Round headlight 911s and some Caymans may have Porsche tax, but the ones I pick up certainly don't. Parts have been downright affordable, too.

I had similar feelings after driving a couple 991 911s recently.  I drove both a non-S and an S (both PDK) and could hardly tell them apart on a test drive. Cruising around at normal speeds I "felt" nothing, maybe I built them up in my head over the years and was expecting something mind blowing.   I guess I thought that a legendary sports car in the $100k+ (when new) range would move my soul or speak to me in some way and while they were very nice, I was left feeling flat. 

I was dead-set on getting a 911 after finding myself in a position to purchase one but now I don't know what I want. Maybe a Z06 or ZL1?  Jag F-Type?  I think a nice V8 would speak to me more.

FWIW, I didn't pick up my first guitar until I was 40. 

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

1988RedT2 said:

As much as I want to take this car into a corner very fast and feel like I'm making the suspension work a little, there is no sane speed that makes the car feel as though it is being taxed in any way whatsoever.

Great review, and I agree.  This sentence here summarizes how I ended up selling my 981 Cayman S and getting back into an ND Miata.  The Cayman was just too much car to do naughty things with on the street, and I felt guilty/worried about tracking it the way it really deserved to be driven.  I still miss the car though...

Oddly enough, that sentence also sums up why my -ex sold her '97 M3 after buying her 2003 MCS.  The MINI was simply more fun to drive at semi-legal speeds.  It also sums up why my '06 MCS JCW is the most powerful (hp:weight) vehicle I own.  Even then, my Spitfire is often more fun to drive since you can feel like you're flying while getting passed by a Yaris driven by a texting teen who isn't even trying to go fast... 

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

1988RedT2 said:

As much as I want to take this car into a corner very fast and feel like I'm making the suspension work a little, there is no sane speed that makes the car feel as though it is being taxed in any way whatsoever.

Great review, and I agree.  This sentence here summarizes how I ended up selling my 981 Cayman S and getting back into an ND Miata.  The Cayman was just too much car to do naughty things with on the street, and I felt guilty/worried about tracking it the way it really deserved to be driven.  I still miss the car though...

Oddly enough, that sentence also sums up why my -ex sold her '97 M3 after buying her 2003 MCS.  The MINI was simply more fun to drive at semi-legal speeds.  It also sums up why my '06 MCS JCW is the most powerful (hp:weight) vehicle I own.  Even then, my Spitfire is often more fun to drive since you can feel like you're flying while getting passed by a Yaris driven by a texting teen who isn't even trying to go fast... 

I don't know, I don't have much trouble having fun with my 981S while only lightly ignoring speed limits. That said I've driven a base cayman and if I wanted something purely as a street car I would have gone with that. Still enough power to have fun with on the street, but harder to do wildly illegal things and better fuel mileage.  The tracking part I understand though, especially now that values are up 20% since I bought mine.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

It probably took me about three days to really get used to the first PDK car that I drove (Panemera 4). Then I spent a long weekend driving PDK Boxster, and after that, I was in love. A few months later, I sold my six speed Cayman S and replaced it with a PDK. 
 

I think that transmission is amazing. I've always been a diehard manual guy, but I no longer see any reason to get your left foot involved in shifting. 

Legend?

dps214 said:

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

1988RedT2 said:

As much as I want to take this car into a corner very fast and feel like I'm making the suspension work a little, there is no sane speed that makes the car feel as though it is being taxed in any way whatsoever.

Great review, and I agree.  This sentence here summarizes how I ended up selling my 981 Cayman S and getting back into an ND Miata.  The Cayman was just too much car to do naughty things with on the street, and I felt guilty/worried about tracking it the way it really deserved to be driven.  I still miss the car though...

Oddly enough, that sentence also sums up why my -ex sold her '97 M3 after buying her 2003 MCS.  The MINI was simply more fun to drive at semi-legal speeds.  It also sums up why my '06 MCS JCW is the most powerful (hp:weight) vehicle I own.  Even then, my Spitfire is often more fun to drive since you can feel like you're flying while getting passed by a Yaris driven by a texting teen who isn't even trying to go fast... 

I don't know, I don't have much trouble having fun with my 981S while only lightly ignoring speed limits. That said I've driven a base cayman and if I wanted something purely as a street car I would have gone with that. Still enough power to have fun with on the street, but harder to do wildly illegal things and better fuel mileage.  The tracking part I understand though, especially now that values are up 20% since I bought mine.

Yeah the value thing came into play for me too.  I realized I could get a purpose-built race car for half the price of my Cayman that was as fast as a GT3 on the track, way easier on consumables, and harder to break/cheaper to fix.  My Cayman was being used mainly for running around suburban Atlanta and occasional commuter duty, jobs where it really didn't matter what car I was in.  I ended up selling it for 20% more than I paid with an extra 20k miles and bald tires... I'll put that one in the win column.  I still do miss it though!  Magnificent car.

The half-hour or so that I got to drive a 2016 GT3 has been living in my brainstem rent free ever since. I don't know what to do about that. But I find myself looking at ebay listings I shouldn't be looking at... "I bet a Turbo S would be easier to live with as a dailydriver"

Yeah cuz that's so reasonably priced. Riiiiiight. "So let's check on Cayman gt4's" 

I need to facepalm myself, really hard...

Jay_W said:

The half-hour or so that I got to drive a 2016 GT3 has been living in my brainstem rent free ever since. I don't know what to do about that. But I find myself looking at ebay listings I shouldn't be looking at... "I bet a Turbo S would be easier to live with as a dailydriver"

Yeah cuz that's so reasonably priced. Riiiiiight. "So let's check on Cayman gt4's" 

I need to facepalm myself, really hard...

Step 1: Buy a higher mileage, slightly ratty 986 Boxster S 6-speed

Step 2: Modifications!

Step 3: Profit! (No wait, wrong thread) Track day the snot out of it all the time and enjoy all those good Porsche feelings for less than the price of a PCCB brake job. 

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Yeah the value thing came into play for me too.  I realized I could get a purpose-built race car for half the price of my Cayman that was as fast as a GT3 on the track, way easier on consumables, and harder to break/cheaper to fix.  . I'll put that one in the win column.  I still do miss it though!  Magnificent car.

This is the number one reason I haven't really bought one. For 30-35K I can by a Pro Formula Mazda and be turning the same laps times as a pro driver in a GT2RS. For 10-15K  I can by a newer F500 and that will keep up with an amateur driver in a GT3Rs. For me single seat purpose built race cars are hard to ignore.

These days my joy rides are down dirt roads to old ghost towns and the like so I'm not missing having a sports car.

With that said I would still like to have G body 911...............if I can have that and a single seat race car than great but I don't see that happening. 

Jay_W said:

The half-hour or so that I got to drive a 2016 GT3 has been living in my brainstem rent free ever since. I don't know what to do about that. But I find myself looking at ebay listings I shouldn't be looking at... "I bet a Turbo S would be easier to live with as a dailydriver"

Yeah cuz that's so reasonably priced. Riiiiiight. "So let's check on Cayman gt4's" 

I need to facepalm myself, really hard...

A couple weeks ago I got to drive a friend's 2011 GT3 on the track.  Yes it was a magnificent car.  But... I really didn't enjoy it any more than the 981 Cayman S I owned.  Yes the GT3 was faster, but no more enjoyable. And I think the Cayman makes a better street car.  Just saying, if you want the experience and don't have FU money then give the Caymans a try.  They punch way above their weight.

Compared to my SRF3 either one of them feels like a Panzer tank stuffed with marshmallows on the track, so admittedly my perceptions may be a little skewed.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Compared to my SRF3 either one of them feels like a Panzer tank stuffed with marshmallows on the track, so admittedly my perceptions may be a little skewed.

There is no maybe about it my friend..................there's no going back.

easier to ask here than to research:  is there an OE removable hardtop for Boxsters of any generation?

to the OP:  congratulations and thanks for the write-up!

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

easier to ask here than to research:  is there an OE removable hardtop for Boxsters of any generation?

to the OP:  congratulations and thanks for the write-up!

Yes for the 986 and 987. In fact, I'm picking one up this weekend that AAZCD found for me.