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The Porsche Boxster is a convertible sports car released in late 1996. The Boxster has a mid-mounted engine, two doors, two seats, and a folding cloth roof. Throughout its production it has been Porsche's smallest and least expensive sports car model.
The Boxster's name plays on the two words, 'boxer' (after its horizontally-opposed engine configuration, called the boxer engine which was patented by Karl Benz in 1896) and 'roadster'. Boxster production began at the former Porsche 928 facility at Stuttgart after the 928 was discontinued due to poor sales. Boxsters are also manufactured in Uusikaupunki, Finland by Valmet under contract to Porsche.
986
The styling of the Boxster is owed to former "Style Porsche" department head Harm Lagaay. His Boxster design study and the production Boxster stimulated a commercial turnaround for Porsche after several difficult years of falling sales. Porsche internally designated the first generation of the Boxster the 986. The visual appearance of the 986 is heavily inspired by the Porsche Spyder and Speedster. The Boxster features two models; the standard model with a 200 bhp (149 kW), 2.5 L flat six cylinder engine (enlarged to 2.7 L and 225 bhp (168 kW) in later model years), and the model "S" with an enlarged 3.2 L engine producing 258 bhp (192 kW). One unique styling feature on both the 986 and 987 is the automatically extending rear spoiler that extends at 75mph and retracts at 56mph which pushes down on the back end to increase steering control and stability. Combining the traditional Porsche virtues of quality, reliability, performance, and handling, with styling reminiscent of the larger 911 (to the point where buyers of the 911 complained that their car looked too similar to the Boxster), the car has been popular both with car industry journalists and with buyers. It was Porsche's biggest volume seller from its introduction in model year 1997 until the company introduced the Cayenne SUV in model year 2003.
987
Porsche internally designated the second generation of the Boxster the 987. The 987 Boxster made its debut at the 2004 Paris Motor Show alongside the 997 911. The car became available for model year 2005.
The appearance of the car remains very similar to the previous generation. The most obvious styling change would be the headlights, that have moved towards a more classic round style, much like the current generation 911. There has also been a significant update to the intake vents on the sides of the car, which are now larger. Overall, the styling of the car has been updated to match that of its hard top stable mate, the Cayman. The base engine is a 2.7 L 176 kW (240 PS) flat-6, with the Boxster S getting a 3.2 L 206 kW (280 PS) engine.
Awards
The Boxster has been on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list seven times, from 1998 through 2003 and in 2006.
The Boxster S (986s) was rated as one of the top ten Porsches of all time by Excellence magazine.
References
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