Performance upgrades for my @005 Boxster S

[medic6940]

I just bought 2005 Boxster S and love it. This is my first Porsche experience and I must say I have never loved a car more. I am looking for advice for performance upgrades. Nothing radical just intake, ECU, and exhaust. When replacing the exhaust am I waisting time and money if I don't replace the headers? I am average at wrenching and wondering how much of this I can do myself. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[JFP in PA]

Unless you are planning to go “ten tenths” (re flash, headers, etc. all at one time), leave it alone. Individually, intake, headers, exhaust, and a DME flash only add marginally, if at all, to the car’s output. And in many cases, any of the small gains are only in RPM ranges the car seldom sees. Aftermarket exhausts, in particular, have shown the least gains other than in the number of headaches caused by incessant droning and normal driving speeds.

[ronster]

Drive it, enjoy it and learn to drive it to its full potential by investing in AX and DE courses. Those are the best mods you can make as the car already has more potential than most of us ever utilize.

[mikefocke]

Your options are many

My thoughts here itisn'tfastenough - mikefocke2

[ronster]

I know this will sound ridiculous but a cheap performance mod is to run a bottle of Techron through. I couldn't believe what I had read about it and tried it. Almost instantly the cars idle started to even out and I swear I felt better performance. My gas mileage had dropped almost 2 mpg and it is now back up where it was and my driving style hasn't changed. I'm not saying this because I wanted to believe it worked I was very skeptical about it. I'm going to be using it once a quarter now for a cheap and quick pick me up for my Boxster.
As a PS Mike has a lot of good info on "performance" upgrades and when I first bought my Boxster I read his info and started my own research and found that he is spot on.

[bklyn]

Just mt 2-cents, leave your Boxster S as is, the engineers at Porsche know what they are doing. You can see that I have spent numerous dollars on my 87 Targa to only get slightly more power. My wifes"s Boxster with no mods still beats my 87 Targa. I know its addictive, do what you may, and enjoy your ride.

[Facey]

there's gotta be someone making good headers and an intake that is an upgrade over the stock unit.

[mikefocke]

Facey, the challenge is finding mods to the intake and outflow that match their benefits to the way you are going to drive the car. I know a guy who took well over 20 dyno sessions looking for the perfect combo and he had essentially unlimited $ to throw at the task. Some that looked good on the dyno didn't drive worth a darn.

Peak HP is pretty useless if it costs you driveability and torque down low. Porsche did things in balance and it is very easy to throw things off.

Now if all you care about is sound, that is easy to achieve (at the cost to your hearing years later).

[ProjectM96]

Look into Fabspeed headers and exhaust.
For ECU, Revo Technik is good.
For Intake, you will get more of a nicer sound then a power increase.

[Senna#1]

I have a 2006 cayman s.I know you might not get another 50 hp,but it sure fun trying.The first thing I did was a Fabspeed cat back race exhaust.Yes it is loud because of the drone.But it sure runs way better.Much better performance,and the sound is so cool.I have to use ear plugs on freeway because of spending so much time in the drone zone...But I love it.My wife always laughs when I come home driving between apartments I always lower the windows just to hear the the feed back.Now I don,t rev it up so as not be a good neighbor.
Also did a Fabspeed intake my god! the performance from this is like night and day,and also ads another cool sound to the car.
And no matter what people may say when you free up the suck and blow you get better performance.No to mention losing over 40 lbs worth of Porsche exhaust junk!
If I was you I would do the Fabspeed version just below the race because you do not get the drone but very good sound and performance.And their stuff is very high
quality,very nice made in America.
God bless America while driving German cars!