Porsche Boxster

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 words 'boxer' (its horizontally-opposed engine configuration) 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 200bhp (149kW), 2.5L flat six cylinder engine (enlarged to 2.7L and 225bhp (168kW) in later model years), and the model "S" with an enlarged 3.2L engine producing 258bhp (192kW). 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.