The comfort dilemma
Discussion
A couple of years ago I bought a 987.2 Boxster S as a specific desire. Manual, last of the hydraulic steering, 6-pot etc. I went straight for the S as I didn't want to be frustrated by a 2.9 no matter how good that was as a package. I found a great spec car and effectively bought it on the spot. It came with 20" wheels which were from delivery and whilst I'm not a fan of big wheels I liked the style of them so it wasn't a deal breaker.
The car is ace and handles well but the ride is becoming more frustrating and getting to the point where my wife really dislikes driving it. She's also got very lazy with manuals when her last 5 cars have been autos. The Boxster bangs and crashes over anything but a perfect surface and the frontal clearance is pretty low. As far as I know its on stock S suspension. I had the coffin arms done last winter but the rest of it is period (2011 car). The springs have been an advisory for corrosion on the MOT a couple of times so would need changing next winter.
Here's the kicker - I have a degenerated cervical spine and will be having complex surgery next year which may or may not be successful. That means I can no longer drive the Boxster for more than an hour and end up having to swap for the wife's M340i Touring (which is actually quicker than the Boxster). I agree with her that the ride is terrible on our modern dilapidated roads.
So here's my dilemma. Swap the Boxster for something else or can something be done to soften the suspension without ruining the car. My alternate car asks would be >4 cylinders, 2 or 2+2 seater, convertible, decent power. That limits it to another flavour of Boxster, Merc SL/SLK and have never been a fan of those, BMW Z4 or M240i and that seems a bit to samey to the M340i or an F-Type V6 which are starting to come down under £25k.
To stay with a Boxster would mean a PDK 987.2 2.9 or 981 2.7 which have come into price range. That's about 40-odd BHP down which might frustrate me but otherwise would seem a sensible solution on 18's or 19's.
The alternate route is doing something with the current car. I'm guessing somebody would be willing to swap their 19's for my 20's at no cost but don't know if that would be enough. If I'm changing the springs anyway, I could get a slightly softer one. This isn't usually the way most people mod so not sure if there is any experience out there as to whether this would work. My other concern is devaluing the car or making it ultimately more difficult to sell. Plus I don't have a lot of free cash at the moment with work being a struggle so solutions have to be as close to cost neutral as possible.
Any thoughts/advice ?
The car is ace and handles well but the ride is becoming more frustrating and getting to the point where my wife really dislikes driving it. She's also got very lazy with manuals when her last 5 cars have been autos. The Boxster bangs and crashes over anything but a perfect surface and the frontal clearance is pretty low. As far as I know its on stock S suspension. I had the coffin arms done last winter but the rest of it is period (2011 car). The springs have been an advisory for corrosion on the MOT a couple of times so would need changing next winter.
Here's the kicker - I have a degenerated cervical spine and will be having complex surgery next year which may or may not be successful. That means I can no longer drive the Boxster for more than an hour and end up having to swap for the wife's M340i Touring (which is actually quicker than the Boxster). I agree with her that the ride is terrible on our modern dilapidated roads.
So here's my dilemma. Swap the Boxster for something else or can something be done to soften the suspension without ruining the car. My alternate car asks would be >4 cylinders, 2 or 2+2 seater, convertible, decent power. That limits it to another flavour of Boxster, Merc SL/SLK and have never been a fan of those, BMW Z4 or M240i and that seems a bit to samey to the M340i or an F-Type V6 which are starting to come down under £25k.
To stay with a Boxster would mean a PDK 987.2 2.9 or 981 2.7 which have come into price range. That's about 40-odd BHP down which might frustrate me but otherwise would seem a sensible solution on 18's or 19's.
The alternate route is doing something with the current car. I'm guessing somebody would be willing to swap their 19's for my 20's at no cost but don't know if that would be enough. If I'm changing the springs anyway, I could get a slightly softer one. This isn't usually the way most people mod so not sure if there is any experience out there as to whether this would work. My other concern is devaluing the car or making it ultimately more difficult to sell. Plus I don't have a lot of free cash at the moment with work being a struggle so solutions have to be as close to cost neutral as possible.
Any thoughts/advice ?
Edited by Speed 3 on Thursday 22 August 14:21
What's the smallest size wheels that will fit over the brakes?
My car "should" have 19s, but I run 18s because I think they're better for general use. While I don't want to go down to 17s anyway, it would only be an option on lower spec version which have smaller brakes.
So I would try and find that out, and see if that helps, it has the bonus that tyres and wheels are generally a bit cheaper, too.
My car "should" have 19s, but I run 18s because I think they're better for general use. While I don't want to go down to 17s anyway, it would only be an option on lower spec version which have smaller brakes.
So I would try and find that out, and see if that helps, it has the bonus that tyres and wheels are generally a bit cheaper, too.
peterfield781 said:
F type will be softer in my experience. Or a 2.7 981 with PASM ?
I fractured T12 in 2019, four years after buying my 981 2.7 PDK with 20's and PASM.Five years on I have occasional twinges in my back but none related to driving the Cayman. Its suspension, for a sports car, is really comfortable over anything but the harshest surfaces.
I did try a standard suspension on a 981 with 20's too, prior to buying mine, and the suspension is a little harder but not terrible.
Look for a PASM 981. 18s or 19s would improve comfort but not handling.
Oh... I also have 14-way seats and electric steering column which may have helped too.
peterfield781 said:
F type will be softer in my experience. Or a 2.7 981 with PASM ?
Talking to a couple of indie dealers / service agents the latter is the recommended option now that 981 prices are down to the low 20's. The 981 (which I haven't driven yet) is described as more "modern"/"grown up" than visceral but still tons more fun than a Golf R say. Going to drive one tomorrow to see for myself and check out the PDK. The one I'll be testing will be on 18's so I suspect it will be quite a different drive and might just appeal to Mrs S3 
Was PASM still optional on the 2.7 981 ?
Interestingly they are just not interested in taking my S, they're only buying 2.9's now in the 987.2. They claim the S market is very limited (to people like me when I bought it). Prices are all over the place but most on PH classifieds are north of £20k
DJMC said:
peterfield781 said:
F type will be softer in my experience. Or a 2.7 981 with PASM ?
I fractured T12 in 2019, four years after buying my 981 2.7 PDK with 20's and PASM.Five years on I have occasional twinges in my back but none related to driving the Cayman. Its suspension, for a sports car, is really comfortable over anything but the harshest surfaces.
I did try a standard suspension on a 981 with 20's too, prior to buying mine, and the suspension is a little harder but not terrible.
Look for a PASM 981. 18s or 19s would improve comfort but not handling.
Oh... I also have 14-way seats and electric steering column which may have helped too.
I have an extensive problem between C4 & C7 and will be having a fusion of C7/T1. It currently gives me severe neural pain in my left arm. Ironically the worst is when I have the "correct" posture - upright or standing really exacerbates it. Comfortable multi-way seats are a must now (and must be heated - amazing how many are specced with leather but no heating). My wife's M340i is fine for a few hours.
I suspect a 2.7 981 / 19's / PASM / PDK might be the perfect compromise.
I will have our daughter's Seat Mii available exclusively for a few months when they both go off to Uni in a couple of weeks so I think I'll put the 987 on PH classifieds (which seem higher prices than AT), see what I can get for it rather than spending unnecessary money on it and then wait for the right spec 981 to come up.
On standard suspension a 987.2 S should really be on 18s for UK roads. 19s get choppy and I can well believe 20s would be horrible.
19s work with PASM on soft, but otherwise anything bigger than 18s hurts the ride a lot and away from the track doesn’t help with anything except the looks.
If you still end up selling it then it might be easier to do so on factory standard rims, too.
19s work with PASM on soft, but otherwise anything bigger than 18s hurts the ride a lot and away from the track doesn’t help with anything except the looks.
If you still end up selling it then it might be easier to do so on factory standard rims, too.
to myself...I had a 987.1 on 18s for 8 years and that crashed over any lumps and bumps at reasonable speed. We used it a lot to criss cross Europe until the last trip in it to Venice in 2015 and after one 6 hour drive on the way home decided we couldn't live with it any more as we both had sore backs when we arrived at our overnight hotel. It was a great car and before we got it I'd never kept a car longer than 2 years but it just wasn't so good on long journeys on less than perfect roads.
Our current 981 on 19s was and still is a comparative revelation and our 718 on 20s with PASM is nearly as good but still a world away from the 987. We've done several European road trips in the last 3 years and even after several hours driving have had no issues with back pain or numb bum etc.
Our current 981 on 19s was and still is a comparative revelation and our 718 on 20s with PASM is nearly as good but still a world away from the 987. We've done several European road trips in the last 3 years and even after several hours driving have had no issues with back pain or numb bum etc.
Edited by Voodoo Blue on Thursday 22 August 18:44
Not interested in the Alpine as it fails on 2 of the essential criteria - not convertible or enough cylinders.
So yesterday I went to drive an early base spec 981 and that was back to back with my 987. Although the two cars have almost identical mileage and are only a year apart in age I was very surprised how different the 981 felt. Inside was a very much more modern place to be and overall the car felt like it had significantly more heft. There's probably a weight difference underpinning that. It very much reminded me of moving from an R56 MCS to an F57.
Ride-wise I'm sure this is the solution rather than throwing speculative money at the 987. The 18's helped but it did seem more compliant without being wobbly. I'm sure on the limit it wouldn't be as good but I no longer do track days so even the power reduction is a price worth paying. This one was on a weird mix of Nexen and Dunlop tyres so PS4S's would probably improve things a fair bit.
The things I really liked/observed:
So yesterday I went to drive an early base spec 981 and that was back to back with my 987. Although the two cars have almost identical mileage and are only a year apart in age I was very surprised how different the 981 felt. Inside was a very much more modern place to be and overall the car felt like it had significantly more heft. There's probably a weight difference underpinning that. It very much reminded me of moving from an R56 MCS to an F57.
Ride-wise I'm sure this is the solution rather than throwing speculative money at the 987. The 18's helped but it did seem more compliant without being wobbly. I'm sure on the limit it wouldn't be as good but I no longer do track days so even the power reduction is a price worth paying. This one was on a weird mix of Nexen and Dunlop tyres so PS4S's would probably improve things a fair bit.
The things I really liked/observed:
- First time in a PDK and it didn't disappoint me as I expected it to. The paddles do take some getting used to, all my wife's cars with paddles have been left down, right up. The Porsche system does make some sense and I'm sure I'll get used to it.
- The 2.7 thankfully has the same linear power delivery as the 3.4 and loves revving out to 7k.
- The ride is noticeably better
- Interior much better.
- The engine noise is significantly different to my 3.4, not worse or better, just different.
peterfield781 said:
worldwidewebs said:
Get an Alpine.
Four pot auto only turbo with terrible reliability? I think I’d stick with Porsche, plus it’s ugly.I suppose is usual for something French…
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