Boxster & ‘S’ Porsche Boxster 2.5 986 Review
It doesn’t have quite the same cachet as any 911, but
even the very earliest of these mid-engined classics still has plenty to offer
To suggest that the 986-model Boxster saved Porsche from
extinction might today sound melodramatic, when its stock is riding so
extraordinarily high, but it is almost certainly true. Launched in 1996, when
the only other car the company was building - at what must have been huge cost
- was the air-cooled 993-model 911 (both the 968 and the 928 had been
discontinued in 1995), it was an instant hit with press and public alike.
Indeed, just two years later, in 1998, Porsche started assembling cars at an
additional factory in Finland.
Porsche Boxster
986 front view
That first Boxster’s much-deserved popularity came in large
part from its traditional and in this case very obvious Porsche mix of
performance, quality and contemporary style, but also from its remarkably low
price - here in the UK typically around $58,000 for a mid-engined, 2.5-litre,
two-seat convertible which could accelerate from standstill to 62mph in just
under seven seconds, and in the right circumstances reach very nearly 150mph.
Porsche Boxster
986 rear side view
And that affordable and thus highly appealing price, in
turn, derived partly from Porsche’s adoption of Japanese design and production
processes, but perhaps most crucially from the Boxster’s then all-new
water-cooled engine, which together with many other body and mechanical parts
it would soon (and at the time rather controversially) share with the 996-model
911 Carrera.
Porsche Boxster
986 interior
Like any Porsche, the 986 was continually improved during
its production life, and always came with a wide range of trim and equipment
options. For the 2000 model year the original 2.5-litre engine was dropped in
favour of a 2.7 developing 220bhp, and simultaneously the Boxster ‘S’ was
launched with a 3.2-litre engine and a decidedly punchier 252bhp - and a
six-speed manual gearbox instead of the previous five-speeder. (Tiptronic
automatic was available throughout, too.) By far the biggest changes occurred
in 2002, though, for the 2003 season. The standard Boxster 2.7 now had 228bhp,
the ‘S’ variant 260bhp, and there was an important cosmetic makeover, as well,
with a restyle for the front and rear bumpers, clear indicator lenses in place
of the previous orange items, and not least a new roof with a glass rear window
in place of the earlier plastic panel, famously prone to creasing. September
2003 saw the launch of a 266bhp anniversary ‘S’ model, celebrating 50 years of
the 550 Spyder which had supposedly provided the inspiration for the Boxster
concept, and then a year later the 987 models were unveiled. Restyled and
inevitably better equipped than their predecessors, of course, as well as
quicker and supposedly more sure-footed but, like so many such updates, also
more complex and thus heavier, and arguably lacking the 986s’ essential purity.
Porsche Boxster
986 engine
Today even the 987, superseded in 2012 by the current 981,
is slipping down the Porsche food chain, propelling the 986 - and certainly the
early 2.5s - into ‘banger’ territory, but it can still make a fantastic first
Porsche. Anecdotally, at least, the relevant engines (2.5, 2.7 and 3.2 litres)
seem more reliable than their now famously unpredictable 996 (and 997)
counterparts, just about every version offers still more than creditable
performance and handling, and perhaps most remarkably the cars still look so
extraordinarily good. Prices start as low as $5,000 for a viable 2.5, suggests
Surrey-based dealer Roly Baldwin, and even a good-to-excellent late- model ‘S’
ought to cost little more than $16,804. Proof of the pudding, as it were, is
the 1998 2.5 on Baldwin’s website right now. Zenith Blue metallic with black
leather, manual gearbox, 51,000 miles, full history (and recently serviced),
and yours for just $10,074. What’s not to like about that?
Porsche Boxster
986 overhead view
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Technical specification
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Model: Porsche Boxster 2.5 (1997)
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Engine: 2.5-litre water-cooled flat-six
·
Power: 204bhp @ 6o00rpm
·
Torque: 245nm @ 4500rpm
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Transmission: 5-speed manual or tiptronic automatic
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Brakes: Ventilated discs and four-piston calipers
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Wheels/tyres front: 6.0j x 16 with 205/55 tyres
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Rear: 7.0j x 16 with 22/50 tyres
·
Economy: 29–33mpg
·
Top speed: 149mph
·
0-62mph: 6.9 seconds
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