Weekend with a 2.9 Boxster.
Discussion
Just thought i would put up a bit of a review of my time with the car.
Decided to hire a 2.9 Boxster with PDK for a few days to get up to Middlesborough from Aldershot for mates Christening. About to go to Afghanistan for 6 months so i thought me and missus could go up in style and it also makes my mind up as to what car ill buy when i get back in Oct (Cayman S, 996 C4s or 997.1). At moment im looking at 997.1's.
Car arrived on Sat morning, no dramas, silver 11-plate with 7k on the clock. Had PCM but apart from that, pretty standard spec.
Engine....having a 3.2V6 A3 the power delivery is a lot different. Very revvy but probably more down to the gearbox (more on that later). Lovely sound coming from behind your ears when accelerating, and motorway noise was acceptable.
Gearbox...now this has filled my mind since first looking for a Porsche as my next car. Manual, Tip or PDK? Budget affects my latter choice and of course as does the type of car it sits in. My experience of auto type gearboxes is in the mil vehicles we drive. Ranging from bog standard straight autos to Tip gearboxes on our new MAN trucks. With the MAN trucks you can drive it like a Tiptronic or PDK where you can manually change the gears or leave it in Auto. Its a novelty to change gears but a few miles down the road you end up letting the computer do it and this is what happened in the Porsche. I didnt like the layout of the up and down buttons either. Others have also said that the PDK comes into its own on the track or country roads but because of the button layout you had to take a sec remembering which way was up and down, but im sure you would get used to it. One thing i didnt like was it was to eager to drop a gear when accelerating, even just to overtake another veh on the motorway at normal speeds. I suppose i could override it and keep it in Man but this was stating to be a pain in the arse. Changes though are fast and a lot smoother than a "normal" auto box.
"Living with it"..ill say this now i would not get a Boxster as i dont do the convertible thing. I think we had the roof down twice the whole weekend and not very long at that. Fuel economy was better than my Audi, 300miles and fuel left over. Would i get a Cayman, well i missed the rear seats. Not for putting little people in but just throwing a coat or bag on the back seat. The boot space (front and back) was fine for the trip but would prefer the 2 rear seats. PCM/Sat-Nav was brilliant but speakers/sound could of been better. Didnt like the key fob, prefer a seperate lock and unlock button. Couple of times had to check i locked it. Speaking of locks, is there anyway of switching off the auto-lock when pulling away. When it comes to getting out, we had to pull on the handle twice? Didnt have a manual with the car so couldnt look. Apart from those minor things, there was nothing to fault the car.
Overall it was a enjoyable few days. So have i decided what car to get?....well the bit i missed out earlier was the fact my other half drove it from Aldershot to where i live in Dorset. I followed in my Audi, i say followed as i struggled to keep up after ** (lets say it was "slightly" over 70!). On arrival at home she said 3 things..
"that was brilliant!"
"get one with seats in the back"
"get one with the auto thing in it".
So it looks like the Cayman has been relegated. But it doesnt make life easier as when we came off the M3 she overtook a C4S, and said at home "did you see that 911, liked the look of that"!
Decided to hire a 2.9 Boxster with PDK for a few days to get up to Middlesborough from Aldershot for mates Christening. About to go to Afghanistan for 6 months so i thought me and missus could go up in style and it also makes my mind up as to what car ill buy when i get back in Oct (Cayman S, 996 C4s or 997.1). At moment im looking at 997.1's.
Car arrived on Sat morning, no dramas, silver 11-plate with 7k on the clock. Had PCM but apart from that, pretty standard spec.
Engine....having a 3.2V6 A3 the power delivery is a lot different. Very revvy but probably more down to the gearbox (more on that later). Lovely sound coming from behind your ears when accelerating, and motorway noise was acceptable.
Gearbox...now this has filled my mind since first looking for a Porsche as my next car. Manual, Tip or PDK? Budget affects my latter choice and of course as does the type of car it sits in. My experience of auto type gearboxes is in the mil vehicles we drive. Ranging from bog standard straight autos to Tip gearboxes on our new MAN trucks. With the MAN trucks you can drive it like a Tiptronic or PDK where you can manually change the gears or leave it in Auto. Its a novelty to change gears but a few miles down the road you end up letting the computer do it and this is what happened in the Porsche. I didnt like the layout of the up and down buttons either. Others have also said that the PDK comes into its own on the track or country roads but because of the button layout you had to take a sec remembering which way was up and down, but im sure you would get used to it. One thing i didnt like was it was to eager to drop a gear when accelerating, even just to overtake another veh on the motorway at normal speeds. I suppose i could override it and keep it in Man but this was stating to be a pain in the arse. Changes though are fast and a lot smoother than a "normal" auto box.
"Living with it"..ill say this now i would not get a Boxster as i dont do the convertible thing. I think we had the roof down twice the whole weekend and not very long at that. Fuel economy was better than my Audi, 300miles and fuel left over. Would i get a Cayman, well i missed the rear seats. Not for putting little people in but just throwing a coat or bag on the back seat. The boot space (front and back) was fine for the trip but would prefer the 2 rear seats. PCM/Sat-Nav was brilliant but speakers/sound could of been better. Didnt like the key fob, prefer a seperate lock and unlock button. Couple of times had to check i locked it. Speaking of locks, is there anyway of switching off the auto-lock when pulling away. When it comes to getting out, we had to pull on the handle twice? Didnt have a manual with the car so couldnt look. Apart from those minor things, there was nothing to fault the car.
Overall it was a enjoyable few days. So have i decided what car to get?....well the bit i missed out earlier was the fact my other half drove it from Aldershot to where i live in Dorset. I followed in my Audi, i say followed as i struggled to keep up after ** (lets say it was "slightly" over 70!). On arrival at home she said 3 things..
"that was brilliant!"
"get one with seats in the back"
"get one with the auto thing in it".
So it looks like the Cayman has been relegated. But it doesnt make life easier as when we came off the M3 she overtook a C4S, and said at home "did you see that 911, liked the look of that"!
I can do better than that.
I trialled all the new Army trucks a few years ago and one of the best times in the Army. I was responsible for the fuel tanker (pretty apt considering todays news!) variant and apart from doing a DVD with Tiff Needell i did a lot of publicity work as well as basically driving the trucks until they broke. Got around a bit like Canada when they were first issued to the Army to see what soldiers thought about them.
So first clip is me driving the large 15t variant on a lane change test. Basically, drive it as fast as you can and do a quick change from one side of the road to another, as if something has pulled out in front of you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...
Second is me driving the armoured fuel tanker variant to see again how stable it is at speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...
I trialled all the new Army trucks a few years ago and one of the best times in the Army. I was responsible for the fuel tanker (pretty apt considering todays news!) variant and apart from doing a DVD with Tiff Needell i did a lot of publicity work as well as basically driving the trucks until they broke. Got around a bit like Canada when they were first issued to the Army to see what soldiers thought about them.
So first clip is me driving the large 15t variant on a lane change test. Basically, drive it as fast as you can and do a quick change from one side of the road to another, as if something has pulled out in front of you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...
Second is me driving the armoured fuel tanker variant to see again how stable it is at speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...
As for fuel economy, didnt really ask but it all the 3 types the Army bought should be able to travel 400 odd miles on a tank.
The gearbox on them is actually pretty good.
Here is a good but geeky video on how it works. I suppose its more like PDK as it actually has a clutch unlike Tiptronic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKpkOUq9o7U
The gearbox on them is actually pretty good.
Here is a good but geeky video on how it works. I suppose its more like PDK as it actually has a clutch unlike Tiptronic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKpkOUq9o7U
With the red light on and 37 miles left in the tank i spent £71 last night filling it up to the brim. The Europcar bloke didnt turn up on time and was going to be 2 hours late this morning so ended up putting another £18 in this morning!! 
I reckon you can get 300 plus on a steady motorway run. This morning during spirited driving on the back roads of Dorset on a full tank it was saying 277 mile until fill up.
I thought the engine was pretty good. But, with the PDK dropping down a gear all the time to accelerate i did try it in manual, in 6th, at a steady 70odd and my A3 in the same gear felt it may of been faster on the pickup. But if i was going for the Cayman i would go for the 3.4 as i would be for ever wondering what im missing!
I reckon you can get 300 plus on a steady motorway run. This morning during spirited driving on the back roads of Dorset on a full tank it was saying 277 mile until fill up. I thought the engine was pretty good. But, with the PDK dropping down a gear all the time to accelerate i did try it in manual, in 6th, at a steady 70odd and my A3 in the same gear felt it may of been faster on the pickup. But if i was going for the Cayman i would go for the 3.4 as i would be for ever wondering what im missing!
Edited by petop on Tuesday 27th March 17:57
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