After the Beginning...

 I've always liked cars but never in the dedicated way of the show-going, polish-obsessed purists - I just always liked cars.

I was not one of those lucky people who's family owned a garage or a farm where they learnt to drive before they could walk. I passed my test at 17 (first time, 10 lessons - just saying) in 1987 and drove my mum's car for the first few years. Only after my university gap year did I have enough cash to buy my first car, a 1981 VW Polo.

I was only ever able to afford one car at a time and none were very exciting - until the car I built myself in 2015 (see the linked blog on the right).

Now, it's 2023 and as you can read in my last few blog entries for my kit car, I'm reverting to the mainstream, although something I'd hope to think is a little less dull - a Porsche Boxster.

I've always quite liked them but never thought much more about it until I realised how much I loved driving (but not fixing) my kit car - I needed a replacement with the fun of a kit car and hopefully less of the downsides (reliability and comfort).

I couldn't afford (or easily fit into) a Lotus Elise, an MX5 didn't really have the oomph and a BMW Z4 felt a bit chavvy (and I've owned the Z3 which was OK but not amazing). So Boxster it was...

This example has 88k miles, a full service history (with some rather expensive bills I hope I won't need to repeat), recent new disks and pads and a recently refurbished roof, all for a very reasonable £8,500.

I picked up the car from a private seller in Warwick after a brief inspection (I had little idea of what I was looking for), where the test drive alone sold it for me - it felt awesome!

I've had it for just over a week now and I've changed the head unit:

Before:                             After:

This unit works amazingly - I've never really tried Android Auto but it is very impressive in that it can read out text and WhatsApp messages you get as you go along in a very realistic way (not the robotic voice you might expect) and the voice recognition enables you to speak replies - very impressive and most importantly, it works at 70 mph, if needed, without taking your hands off the wheel.

I've also replaced the rear boot strut and put new car mats in - not earth-shattering changes but I've made a promise to myself to not go too mental.

The biggest job left is to repair the scratches I completely missed on my first inspection on the n/s rear wing - they look very bad but you can't feel them, which suggests the simple scratch-remover polish I've bought should improve it at least.

I've done my first road trip of 500 miles to Cornwall and back, to see family - the car was AMAZING! So darn fast and smooth, it feels like it is accelerating slowly but you suddenly realise everyone else is going backwards or the car in front suddenly approaches much quicker than you expect.

But that does show up one downside to the Boxster - the brakes are woeful. They are powerful enough, eventually, but there is so much pedal travel, you really have to start braking a fraction earlier than you'd like, just to allow for that travel. I've got the car booked in for a brake bleed and early MOT in a few days - see if that improves it. However, looking online, it's a known/common issue which I may just have to get used to.

With this car, I'm also not planning on working on it myself. I may have built a kit car but that had a nice simple 4-pot engine in the front, with no sensors, servos, power steering, ABS etc, etc, that make up modern cars. You should see the process you need to go through to get to the Boxster engine! It's in the middle and you have to remove carpet and unbolt a panel just to see the top of it.

So far, it's looking good but I may yet change my mind and keep the kit car instead....we'll  see.