The Boxster was smaller, lighter and cheaper than the 911 – but closer to the spirit of a purist sports machine than the adult sports car legend. His surprise success saved the company at the time.
Everything is running smoothly at Porsche today. The 911 is and will remain the ultimate sports car legend, plus SUVs and sedans and the electric offensive. But that was not always so. In 1991 Porsche only sold 23,000 cars, the quality of the vehicles was criticized. The whole production was out of date and stopped in the golden days.
The brand had only one trump card left, one that had to stand out: the starting shot for the Boxster was given, of all places, at the less glamorous auto show in Detroit. A light silver prototype of a two-seater mid-engine sports car was placed on the stand. The newly appointed Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking and chief designer Harm Lagaay conjured up a return to the roots of the brand. With the “James Dean 550 Spyder” or the 718 RS 60 Spyder racing car. And it hits the mark, the Americans are enthusiastic: “Please built this car,” it said. “Now that’s how we build it,” recalled Harm Lagaay. “This car was the initial spark.”
The run on small sports cars
Wiedeking now put everything on the roadster. And the Boxster hit the zeitgeist: Small, agile vehicles with a lot of driving pleasure were a trend that Porsche had not set. The trigger was the Mazda MX-5. BMW Z3, Mercedes SLK and Porsche Boxster picked up the wave and carried it into higher price regions. Three years after the prototype, the production version of the Porsche Boxster – internal designation 986 – was shown at the Geneva Motor Show. The dimensions – 4.32 meters long and only 1.29 meters high had hardly changed. The most noticeable change was the protective metal brackets behind the seats. It remained a pure, unreasonable driving fun machine that was reminiscent of the models from the 1950s.
The advertising flirted with the distance to the 911: “Before you fall in love with your daughter, take a closer look at the mother.” The price of 76,500 D-Marks at the time was quite lavish and yet the Boxster was a success. The flood of orders exceeded all expectations. “At some point we stopped counting,” said Wendelin Wiedeking once. The last trump card stood out and saved Porsche. 164,874 models of the first generation Boxster were sold. More than any subsequent generation. By 2019, 343,942 boxster customers had picked up their car keys from the dealer.
Always cheaper than the 911 convertible
Because even if the car wasn’t cheap, it was much cheaper than a 911 convertible. Well equipped it cost almost twice as much. However, this was also noticeable in the drive. The 2.5 liter six-cylinder boxer engine developed a manageable 204 hp, which is why it quickly got rid of the nickname “housewives Porsche”. However, there was also a special roadster effect. Even the much more modest motorized MX5 feels extremely sporty and agile. And the Boxster only had to move 1250 kilograms and benefited from the perfect load distribution of the mid-engine.
The Boxster is no longer fully in the focus of Porsche. In 2016 the car got a major facelift, but the 2012 series was actually renewed for the last time.
I am a 24-year-old writer and journalist who has been working in the news industry for the past two years. I write primarily about market news, so if you’re looking for insights into what’s going on in the stock market or economic indicators, you’ve come to the right place. I also dabble in writing articles on lifestyle trends and pop culture news.
