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