Boxster 981 Introduction and Shootout Was a Blast

I have been dying to share this with my Boxster Board friends, but Tim's threats and my military training helped me to remain silent until you had a "need to know." A couple weeks after the Mitty, I got a call from a local Birmingham "car guy" who told me that Tim Suddard from Grassroots Motorsports needed a first generation Boxster for a media comparison. Brad knew that I had just begun to slalom my 2001 Boxster S in local SCCA events after taking a 23 year layoff from autocrossing and was a "car guy" at heart. After brief introductions and agreements, two Birmingham Porsche owners of early Boxsters agreed to use our cars along with two factory cars for a shootout. Porsche dealers had the first week of introduction of the new Boxster (981) at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham (if you don't know about this place, get informed! Barber Motorsports Park and Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum). The second week was media week. So, Tim, Brad, Sean (with wife), and I met on Sunday afternoon to drive the three generations of cars on Alabama Hwy 25 west of the track, a mini Tail of the Dragon (nicknamed The Copperhead) and give our impressions. Monday morning, Andrew Davis (Brumos Racing) would drive the cars on the track before the rest of the media guys arrived and give his input, the largest of which would be lap times. On Sunday afternoon, we spent a couple of hours flogging those factory cars and having a great time. The first and second generation cars are basically the same. The new 981 is a truly a new car. The new car was heavier, longer, wider, and had 20” tires; why wouldn’t it drive and ride better? My original opinion of the Porsche PDK automatic transmission was “why would a car guy want one of those.” I am now a convert, why not, easy to use and actually fun to drive. The one upgrade from the first generation that I liked was having the speed displayed on the bottom of the tach. At times, I find it hard to read the speed when the top is open and the sun is at certain angles. All of us amateur drivers commented on the new car’s brakes, they felt soft or spongy. We finally decided to call the feel “non-linear.” It appeared that you really had to stand on the pedal to get the full braking you wanted on the new car. The new electronic steering is kind of like the drive by wire accelerator, you really can’t tell any difference. On Monday, we showed up early at Barber’s and decided that Sean’s car would do the track test because it had the sport suspension and Michelin Pilot Sports similar to the factory cars. Sean would ride with Andrew Davis in his own car, but someone needed to ride with Andrew in the two factory cars to equalize the weight, “here I am, choose me.” I actually got to ride with him and a couple other instructors at an April interview with the Porsche Sports Drivers School; so, I had a good idea what these rides would be like. You would be amazed what a professional race driver can wring out of a high performance street car on the race track. The cars were phenomenal and the shootout was fun. Read all about it on page 66 of the October issue of Grassroots Motorsports.
Sean has written a Porsche related book, The Lost Spyder, check it out. NFI

I thought you might want to see a few photos you might not see in the magazine articles.

Quick photo shoot off Hwy 25


Sean and his wife waiting for the next portion of the drive


A little local Alabama flavor


The pros from California line the cars up for their shoot


Finalizing the driving plan on Monday morning


My Chauffeur


Tim Gets Andrew's thoughts about the on track drive


The Eye Candy
















Time to go home

Questions:

"The new car was heavier, longer, wider, and had 20” tires; why wouldn’t it drive and ride better?"
-From what I've read, the S was about 50+ lbs less than the 987.2., not sure about the 986.
-What specifically was wrong with the way it drove and rode?

"All of us amateur drivers commented on the new car’s brakes, they felt soft or spongy. We finally decided to call the feel “non-linear.” It appeared that you really had to stand on the pedal to get the full braking you wanted on the new car."

-They were all properly bled and the PCNA people thought the brakes were ok--right?
-Did Porsche have an explanation? They haven't gone with electro-mechanical braking I hope.

Quote
MikenOH
Questions:

"The new car was heavier, longer, wider, and had 20” tires; why wouldn’t it drive and ride better?"

It is true the the wheelbase is longer and the track is wider. However,the overall dimensions of the 981 are about the same as a 987 - just barely longer (0.2" ) and about the same width and actually lighter than a 987. My custom car cover from my now departed 987 fits the 981 pretty well.

Put it mostly on "wouldn't" and it reduces the doubt that it will drive and ride better.
From the movie, Passion Fish:
[www.youtube.com]

I understand what you're saying, Laz.
His use of those qualities as the basis for a given escaped me on the first read, since the issue of ride and "driving" improvement hadn't been raised in the preceding sentences . Learn something every day I guess...

The "spongy" brake is a bigger deal and the main reason I responded.
How this improved car ended up with braking which seemed less responsive to owners of earlier Boxsters is a concern for me. Issues with the individual car or is this a common trait?

This must have been an issue with that car. I don't notice this characteristic in my car and I have read virtually every review done on the 981 (and there are a lot!) and never saw this issue mentioned. To the contrary,most of the articles commented on how good the brakes are.

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

also had the digital speed in the center below the tach. No idea why they moved it left in '00 as that in combination with the small graduations of the speedometer always left me guessing after a quick glance. Never got a ticket but liked the '99 display much better than my ''01.

I guess I should have listened a little closer in my "language arts" classes.
The 981 both drove and rode better than the older cars. The article pretty much attributed that fact to technology and the age of Sean's and my cars. The second generation car was a low mileage 2011. The off-track roads we used had several railroad crossings, plenty of uneven pavement, hills, and generous curves of all types. The new car handled all of that very nicely with no problems, definitely a little easier to drive and a better ride. Before the drive, I was suspicious of the new electric steering. It did have some artificial feel of resistance, but very little of the direct road feedback of bumps. None of us thought to simulate parallel parking the car.
As to the brakes, no one thought there was anything wrong with the brakes on the new car, they just felt different from the 986 and 987. I used the term non-linear. In my old car, a 60-70% pedal push will get you hanging in the straps and cycling the ABS. In the new car, you had to push the pedal harder (further) to get the same effect. All of us amateurs had the same thought, "the brakes feel different." Andrew Davis said, of the 986, "The pedals feel so much stiffer, The ABS seems so much cruder." Of the 981, he said, "Under hard braking, the 981's revised front-end geometry really shines. The anti-dive works way better, and the front end stays planted under heavy, heavy braking way better than either of the older cars." (quoted from the Grassroots Motorsports article)
On the track, the numbers were no surprise: 986 - 1:55.570, 987 - 1:49.381, and the 981 - 1:46.894 (only 8 seconds slower than a Grand-Am Continental Tire series 911).
I hope this further clarifies what I was trying to say.

Thanks for the reply and your posting. I subscribe to GRM and posted a comment about the article when the issue arrived in the mail.

My mistake on the ride/drive issue--no big deal.

Regarding the brakes, additional effort required for braking is a bit of a surprise given how the pre-981 Porsche brakes were regarded as among the best in the business. Just for grins, I did a search on other forums/reviews to see if other Porsche drivers felt the braking effort had changed and could not find a one.

Did any of you mention this to the Porsche people? if so, what was their response?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2012 05:44PM by MikenOH. (view changes)

MikenOH,
To my knowledge, no one said anything to the Porsche folks that were monitoring the Monday morning comparison. We were on our own Sunday afternoon.
Maybe Lawdevil or Jim in SC, who have new 981s could comment on any difference they feel in the brakes. They still work wonderfully well, just feel different from the 986 and 987.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2012 05:50PM by jfarris. (view changes)

Thanks for all in the info, Jim.

One thing that did surprise me a bit was how close the times were between the 987.2 and 981. The 987.2 had a manual and the 981 had the PDK. From what I've heard from the Porsche people, the PDK provides something like a 2 second advantage on the track compared tot he manual. If that's the case, there's only a .5 second difference between the new cars.

even mind advertising some products on my own car, I just love the painted lines.

Same cars were at BRBS.

I've heard many comments on all the new (991/981/Pana) brakes. Now, i didnt get anywhere near as many miles as you did, but what track miles i did get, i thought they were pretty darn good - clearly superior to my 986 brakes. Now, the pedal feel might be less linear, and typically i don't like that. but on the track, i had little chance to be delicate :-) And they worked. Quickly.

Anyway, lucky you!

Grant

Grant

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