Photo: Porsche
The year was 1993 and the month was January when Porsche took the wraps off the Boxster design study at the Detroit Motor Show. The public and automotive media received the newcomer will great enthusiasm, celebrating Porsche’s decision to embrace the mid-engine configuration once more with a feeling. But better still, the Boxster saved Porsche from bankruptcy.
To understand the shape the Stuttgart-based automaker was in in the early 1990s, you simply need to look at the annual sales. With 14,000 vehicles sold in 1993 compared to 50,000 in 1986, there was no denying Porsche found itself between a rock and a hard place. Something had to change if the company was to live on, and that change took inspiration from Japan.
Porsche’s higher-ups looked at the MX-5 Miata's success, thinking that it would be worth to try replicating the formula in accordance with Porsche's sporting past. This is where the Boxster came in, with influences from the 550 Spyder and 718 RSK. The concept, although adorned with the oft-ridiculed egg headlamps of the 996, is the incarnation of those two past glories.
Both the first-generation Boxster and 996 generation of the 911 were made possible by Toyota's manufacturing know-how. Toyota helped Porsche in terms of cost management and productivity, and these are most obvious if you consider the assembly of one vehicle was cut down from 120 to 72 hours. The number of production-related issues had also fallen by 50 percent.
Three years since the concept premiered in Detroit, the production-spec Boxster made its long-anticipated debut, sporting a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter six-cylinder boxer engine with more than 200 horsepower on tap.
The Boxster predates the 996 by one year, and as time passed, displacement increased up to 3.8 liters. Both the Boxster and the Cayman went on to become collateral victims of downsizing, with the current models sporting 2.0- and 2.5-liter engines. In hindsight, however, the Typ 986 Boxster was a turning point for Porsche, a car that changed the company for the better.
Porsche’s higher-ups looked at the MX-5 Miata's success, thinking that it would be worth to try replicating the formula in accordance with Porsche's sporting past. This is where the Boxster came in, with influences from the 550 Spyder and 718 RSK. The concept, although adorned with the oft-ridiculed egg headlamps of the 996, is the incarnation of those two past glories.
Both the first-generation Boxster and 996 generation of the 911 were made possible by Toyota's manufacturing know-how. Toyota helped Porsche in terms of cost management and productivity, and these are most obvious if you consider the assembly of one vehicle was cut down from 120 to 72 hours. The number of production-related issues had also fallen by 50 percent.
Three years since the concept premiered in Detroit, the production-spec Boxster made its long-anticipated debut, sporting a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter six-cylinder boxer engine with more than 200 horsepower on tap.
The Boxster predates the 996 by one year, and as time passed, displacement increased up to 3.8 liters. Both the Boxster and the Cayman went on to become collateral victims of downsizing, with the current models sporting 2.0- and 2.5-liter engines. In hindsight, however, the Typ 986 Boxster was a turning point for Porsche, a car that changed the company for the better.
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