Porsche Boxter

Production of the 986 model began at the former Porsche 928 facility in Stuttgart, Germany in 1996. Valmet Automotive also manufactures Boxsters under contract to Porsche at a facility in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The Boxster was Porsche's biggest volume seller from its introduction in model year 1997 until the company introduced the Cayenne utility vehicle in model year 2003.

The Boxster's name is a portmanteau of the word "boxer", referring to the vehicle's horizontally-opposed or "boxer" engine, and the word "roadster", referring to the vehicle's convertible top.

The styling of the Boxster is due 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.

The first generation of the Boxster whose visual appearance was heavily inspired by the Porsche Spyder and Speedster as well as the Porsche 550 Spyder. The Boxster was released ahead of the release of its big brother, the 996. Through consultation with Toyota, Porsche greatly decreased the cost of manufacture, and introduced large scale sharing of components between its models. The 986 Boxster had the same bonnet, front wings, and distinctive 'fried-egg' headlight units as the 996. Its original 2.5L M96 engine shared the same architecture with the 3.4L engine used in the 996. Many believe the combination of the new Boxster / 911 styling and the reduced build costs through component sharing saved Porsche from being acquired by another car company.

All 986/987 Boxsters use the M96 water cooled, horizontally opposed ("flat"), six-cylinder engine. The M96 is the first completely water-cooled engine used in a production non-front-engined Porsche. In the Boxster the M96 is placed in a mid-engine configuration as opposed to the rear-engine placement in all 911s. The combination of the M96 and a mid-engine layout provide a low center of gravity, smoothness throughout the rev range, near perfect weight distribution, and neutral handling characteristics. Early production M96 engines had a small but significant number of engine failures due to cracked or slipped cylinder liners, but since a minor redesign in 2000 these problems have been resolved.

The second generation of the Boxster (internally known as the 987) made its debut at the 2004 Paris Motor Show alongside the new 911 (997). The car became available for model year 2005.

In appearance the car remains very similar to the previous generation. The most obvious styling change is to the headlights, which now have a profile similar to those of the Carrera GT, Porsche's mid-engined supercar. The intake vents on the sides of the Boxster are now larger, with more pronounced horizontal slats and are coloured metallic silver, irrespective of the paint colour on the rest of the car. The wheel arches have been enlarged to allow wheels up to 19 inches in diameter, a first for the Boxster series. The most significant updates from the 986 series are in the interior, with a more prominent circular theme evident in the instrument cluster and cooling vents. Porsche claims that the 987 Boxster shares only 20% of its components with its predecessor, despite their being almost identical from the outside. The base engine is a 2.7 L 176 kW (240 hp) flat-6, with the Boxster S getting a 3.2 L 206 kW (280 hp) engine. The Cayman series is derived from the 987.

For the 2007 model year the base Boxster received a revised engine featuring VarioCam Plus to provide a 5 hp boost (245 hp; the same as the Cayman). The Boxster S engine was upgraded from 3.2L to 3.4L, resulting in the production of 15 more hp (295 hp; the same as the Cayman S). These upgrades made the Boxster series and the Cayman series equivalent in terms of horsepower.

Porsche has announced a commemorative RS60 edition of the Boxster to celebrate the history of the Boxster. Only 1960 examples will be produced with a badge on the dash showing each example's production number.

Porsche also announced the production of limited Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2, to be available on October 2008 as 2009 model.[2] It features freer-flowing exhaust, which raises power from 295 hp at 6250 rpm to 303 hp at an identical 6250 rpm. It came with painted interior surfaces and gauges, white 19-inch wheels, and light gray stripes on the front fascia, hood, and bodyside, monochrome red taillights, white body. 500 are to be made for worldwide market, with 100 for the U.S. and Canada. It cost $66,900 USD

Within a year of marketplace acceptance in the United States, the original Boxster was the recipient of many awards, including those listed below:

Car & Driver - One of the 10 Best Cars of 1997
Automobile - Automobile of the Year
Motor - 1997 Performance Car of the Year
Autocar - Best Roadster in the World
Motorweek - 1997 Drivers Choice for Best Sports Car
The Philadelphia Inquirer - Best Sports Car of the Decade
Newsweek - One of the Best New Products of 1997
BusinessWeek - One of the Best New Products of 1997
American Marketing Association - Best New Product of 1997
Automobile Journalists of Canada - 1997 Car of the Year
Automobile Journalists of Canada - Best Design of 1997
The Boxster has been on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list nine times, from 1998 through 2003 and 2006 through 2008.

The Boxster S (986s) was rated as one of the top ten Porsches of all time by Excellence magazine.

The Boxster (in both 986 and 987 guise) is evo magazine's recommended buy in the 'Sports Car' category and has been ever since the model's introduction