Porsche Boxster: The Practically Free Sportscar

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Release Date

August 17, 2020

Author

Robert McGowan

Publisher

Self-Published

Pages

277

ISBN

979-8672377872

Where To Get It

Amazon

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There are a few sports cars that are so plentiful and so ubiquitous that finding a good one, buying it, and enjoying it is as easy as falling off of a log. Mazda Miatas and Toyota MR2s spring to mind. They made so many of them, and they’re so reliable that finding a good one is pretty easy. There are scores of clubs, and the aftermarket gives a new owner plenty of options for customization. If Robert McGowan’s latest book is to be believed, you can add the Porsche Boxster to that list.

And why wouldn’t I believe him? He’s the fine fellow that wrote Porsche 911: The Practically Free Supercar, a fabulous book about finding, owning, and living with Porsche’s fantastic 911.

The Ultimate Roadster

This time he’s turned his attention to Porsche’s mid-engined sports car in Porsche Boxster: The Practically Free Sportscar: The Beginner’s Guide to Owning the Ultimate Roadster. It’s an interesting proposition since, like MR2s and Miatas, there are tons of Boxsters out there. While reading McGowan’s book, I took an afternoon and searched most major metropolitan areas; I found dozens of Boxsters available and for not that much money.

So if you add all this up, finding a Boxster for a reasonable price is as easy as finding a Miata for a reasonable price; only this is a Porsche we’re talking about. As Mr. McGowan will rightfully point out, there’s a certain amount of cache that goes along with owning and maintaining a Porsche.

Porsche Boxster: The Practically Free Sportscar is a well-written and thoroughly enjoyable book on just this subject. It’s not only a quick “how-to” book (although it’s relatively brief at about 270 pages), but rather a handy tome about how the Boxster came to be with an excellent history of Porsche mid-engine specials. And then it gets into the nitty-gritty of owning one!

Taking a Deep Dive

And I do mean the nitty-gritty. With chapter titles like “Potential Engine Issues, Rear Main Seal” and “Potential Engine Issues, Cracked Cylinders” and “Potential Engine Issues, Bore Scoring,” there’s tons of detailed info here that makes owning a Boxster an easier proposition. It also looks sort of scary if you’re completely uninitiated here. I mean, Rear Main Seal and Cracked Cylinders and Bore Scoring, those are heavy, scary words.

But don’t worry. That stuff can happen to literally any car on the road, and McGowan is just being thorough here, which all Porsche collectors can appreciate. Porsche Boxster: The Practically Free Sportscar gives you an idea of what to expect when you finally get your dream Boxster home. McGowan has the kind of firsthand knowledge that made his first book such a helpful resource to the Porsche faithful. And his latest is no different.

Porsche photo collage by Robert McGowan.

Porsche Boxster: A True Sports Car

McGowan also does a good job reminding us how the Boxster is a sports car to be taken Seriously (with a capital “S”). For some, it’s far too easy to dismiss the Boxster as not a real Porsche. This, to use my dad’s phrase, is horse manure.

Boxsters are serious business. Even the base models are durn quick, and they all handle fantastically (better than the rear-engined 911s (Cough! Cough!)). And, the cherry on top is that they’re fairly inexpensive. I found 10 of them in the $10,000 to $20,000 range not far from me. That’s less than a decent minivan. That’s waaaay less than a 911 (and since when did 911 prices get so stupid?) and about the same as pre-owned Corvettes in good shape.

An Enjoyable Read

As usual, McGowan is hard to argue with. Shoot, by the end of the book, I was poking around online, muttering things like “That dark blue one is rather nice …” which is always a dangerous sign.

So like I said, don’t worry about some of the in-depth things addressed in the book (McGowan does a good job easing your mind). Just read it before you go searching for a Boxster, and you will have an idea of what to expect. Shoot, just read the book, even if you aren’t in the market for a Boxster! It’s a fun read, and there’s tons of useful info here.

Longtime Automoblog writer Tony Borroz has worked on popular driving games as a content expert, in addition to working for aerospace companies, software giants, and as a movie stuntman. He lives in the northeast corner of the northwestern-most part of the Pacific Northwest.