I have had the pleasure of spending a bit more time with the Boxster the past couple of weeks.
This is the first mid engined car we've owned and I was worried about the level of extra difficulty that maintenance may present. So far, with the help of a guidebook (101 projects) we have changed all four CV boots plus changed brake fluid, gearbox oil and the coolant. Access is straightforward from underneath and even things like the plugs and belts don't look too bad.
We did a last minute cheapie trackday at Keevil on Monday in both cars. As expected the Boxster is a bit soft and understeer biased in the dry, but still pretty quick and happy to be hussled. Considering it's a completely standard car on road rubber it was pleasing to drive and gave Beth a lot of confidence (compared to the twitchy Caterham).
It rained heavily twice through the day and on both occasions the Boxster came alive and was the fastest car on track bar non, which was impressive considering some of the other cars there (Imprezza, new M3, hordes of Caterhams, Elises and other track fare). The back tyres had amazing traction, the only way to get the rears to spin was to change to first at the hairpin, but that proved unrewarding as it would spin up just one wheel.
With a few mods such as reducing the final drive, adding a limited slip diff and as recommended above the M030 suspension.
Sadly right at the end of the day (whilst chasing a mate in his CSR260) the Caterham has had some sort of transmission issue, probably clutch or spigot bearing so I'll be taking the engine out next week, fun! Still out of almost 100 trackdays this is only the second time I've had a mechanical
As a positive Beth wants to do more trackdays now, brilliant.