Re: Friend just picked up an '06' base Boxster and asked me about which perf. mods to make.

Low mileage and got it at a great price.

Regarding perf. mods, we never did any to our 06, save Pedro's rear brace, so I have no experience to share with him.

Has anyone modded their 987 2.7L --software, exhaust or other mods-- that added enough of a bump in performance to make it worthwhile?

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I agree with Grant.

I'd think that first it's a great idea to learn just what this car can do. Drive it for a while and with experience, you might find some changes / upgrades that you might want to make.

The only performance related mod I made to my '06 was adding the short shifter, which just added to the enjoyment of driving experience, along with slightly quicker shifts.

Unless you're prepared to spend some serious coin, you might be able to get some very modest power increases. Most of them, though, are more in the iHP category.

If it's all about 0 - 60 times, he could always go that "crossing a Croc and a Horse" route.

The closest one is in Warren, OH about 2 hours way--which makes it tough sell for roughly 10 minutes of seat time/event.

Not sure how much of that he wants to do anyway-- it seemed he was more interested in bumping the power a bit just for street use.

The Softronic tune runs $900 combined with UDP, air filter and cat back might give him 25HP or so but my rough math puts that at about $3.5k (P+L) or $140/HP which is pretty dear.

Lots of money for small improvements. And, to be honest, no one needs that power on the street. My base 2004 (224 hp?) is not entirely usable on the street within anything vaguely resembling social bounds.

On the other hand, there are great things one can do with suspension and handling, but, again, they only pay real dividends on the track, over 0.5 G (whcih, on the street, is almost never approached).

I'll tell a story about a tuner car i drove. At Pocono this year, Audi Club, i had a student with an M135 (I think), quite tuned - suspension, chip, blah. It was almost un drivable on the track - twitchy everything - throttle, steering, brakes. Smooth? Impossible. It was tuned to "feel fast and agile" and in doing so gave up drivability and linearity. Over sprung, under damped, stuff front end that resulted in ultimate push. Throttle (turbo remember) that was scary.

Leave the darn thing alone.

I get the "feel good" mods like a more precise shifter, a cool sounding (note the word) exhaust, etc.

Maybe Pedro has a techno power kit that might work - in general power requires a synergy of several parts and he;s worked out a few.

Best actual improvements:

1. sticky tires
2. setup (alignment mostly)
3. I'm running out of ideas

G

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Best performance mod you can make to a 2.7l car is replace it with a 3.2l (or 3.4l) engine car.

To get any measureable HP gain from the 2.7l would require a big expenditure and I dare say the result would be less than the sum of the parts.

Have to add I've driven my 2.7l Boxster now 304K miles and never felt like it needed more HP. Sure, there are faster cars, there always is, the 2.7l car is imho the best balanced car Porsche offers. Balance as in power, torque, weight, braking, etc.

The advice by Grant is spot on. While I've never felt the need to autocross or participate in DE's with my Porsches -- I'm comfortable with my driving expertise albeit I make no claims to being a driving god on (or off) the track -- the car is quicker than one thinks and first learning how to get the most out of the car is a good first step.

Agree with all the points above... making horsepower in Porsche non-turbo engines is not cheap. Learn to drive the car properly and you'll be 'faster' than mostly anybody out there. If he really wanted HP he shoulda gotten the 'S', which is far cheaper than 'upgrading' a base car to 'S' numbers....

It's hard to improve on perfection. Agree, any aftermarket "simple" things to increase HP are marginal, at best. No replacement for displacement. Not much as been discussed about supercharging, lately, but that was a fairly popular topic back in the early days of the board and the car. I'm not a fan, but there used to be a few that were. Not sure the miles on his car, but it is 10 years old, going on 11. New suspension parts maybe in order, which could help improve the ride. Either factory parts, or if he likes a harsher ride, lowering and stiffening might do wonders. All others are simply cosmetic, and I prefer the way the cars come out of the factory. New exhaust is "cosmetic" but more for the ears than anything else, but some of them can actually decrease hp.

The vast majority of people who are looking for performance upgrades for their car are not looking to improve their track (autocross or traditional) times. For those people, I totally agree that training and practice are the best solution.

For everyone else, the pleasures of more low-end torque, better exhaust sound, crisper shifting, better passing power, cornering G-force, more responsive handling, etc. are all valuable performance improvements that cannot be achieved through autocross.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2016 03:35PM by Boxsterra. (view changes)

Quote
Boxsterra
The vast majority of people who are looking for performance upgrades for their car are not looking to improve their track (autocross or traditional) times. For those people, I totally agree that training and practice are the best solution.

For everyone else, the pleasures of more low-end torque, better exhaust sound, crisper shifting, better passing power, cornering G-force, more responsive handling, etc. are all valuable performance improvements that cannot be achieved through autocross.

if this weren't true each new model wouldn't have more hp then the last

Personally I'm with Mark "If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower."

.. and many so called improvements, implemented on their own, actually reduce torque. So i don't think spending money on power is a smart investment - pretty much ever. A much better idea is to buy a faster car int he first place. As is noted below, the new turbo charged "S" is pretty quick.

Yea, some giddyap is fun, but it find it gets pretty old, pretty fast. And to spend $80k on a car, then more on mods, and then get absolutely toasted by a mid-priced mustang or Subaru WRX STI is a bit of a downer i would imagine.

G

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I think it's pretty clear that on Porsche NA 6 engines, the bumps in HP come at a very high premium--and you didn't get very much after you spent all that $.
It will be interesting to see what Porsche or aftermarket tuners do with the new turbo motors. It seems pretty clear that turbos can be tweeked to deliver significant HP/TQ increases.
Along those lines, Ford has just announced a their own tune for the 2.3L ecoboost Mustang which will raise HP by 40 and TQ by 60 ft lbs, yielding 350HP and 380 ft. lbs TQ.
The kit has to bought from one of their Ford Performance retailers and installed by an approved dealer. Cost--$599 which includes shipping and a modded airbox. Supposedly, the warranty is unaffected by the tune.
$15/HP is more in line with what I'd pay for a bump in power; I doubt that kind of low budget bump on turbo Porsches is on anybody's radarscope in Stuttgart.

Turbo cars are a different issue - especially if you;re willing to run true premium fuel ( 94, 95, 100 octane) you can get BIG HP gains. Of course, you are also stressing the thing much more both mechanically and thermally (don't ask me about yet another student's tuner car i had at the track, the one that melted itself).

Raise boost. Go faster. Repeat.

But NA cars are much tougher - and porsce isn't all that stupid. They have tuned the car to be reliable, derivable, etc. And, yes, to run on lower-grade fuel, but it has knock sensors after all so they can tune it close to optimally for premium. I really fail to see how anyone can get BIG gains without compromising something significant.

I have driven tuned cars that felt quicker. They had the throttle mapping changed: that simply saves you the effort of flexing that right foot - total BS IMNSHO.

I remain open to learn - but it will take some hard evidence to move my opinion. And i'm not spending the $$$, and taking the risk with my car, whcih might unfold (literally?) over 30-50k miles, to find out :-)

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

All of this comes down to preferences and priorities. I personally enjoy the responsiveness and raw power of my 3.4L 986 every time I drive the car.

It is true that a lot of mods are expensive with little measurable yield. Here are some that are arguably counter-examples:

- Short shifter (~$300)
- Exhaust mod -- not replacement -- (several to choose from ~$0) -- for sound, not HP
- Strut tower braces / Pedro's TechnoBrace (~$150-500)
- ROW M030 suspension -- expensive, but awesome -- (~$1000-2000)
- Cone air filter ($300-500) -- for sound, not HP
- Tires -- for drive quality, responsive handling, cornering

There are probably many others.

Is it 996 3.4 or a 987 3.4?

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I've had it in for about 8 years and 85k miles. Purrs like a kitten, bites like a lion.

Here. Gives you 10 options and you can choose multiples. A slippery slope and dangerous to your wallet.