914 Nostalgia, When the Boxter was on the drawing board Options

[ZachP]

5 minutes ago I was doing a number in the bathroom. I was looking through the August 2004 issue of Excellence and when I was just about through, I took a quick look at the cover. There's a Boxster S on there. Was the idea for this car built from what the 914 may have looked like if it had progressed generation after generation as the 911 did? When designs were being drawn up for this car, did anyone at Porsche say, hey, that looks a little like a 914? I'm interested in your opinions too, you's think the 914 would have looked similar or completely different from the Boxter?

[Brando]

IMHO, the 986 is a modern day 914. Let's see what they have in common.

When the 914 was produced in the 70's, it outhandled a 911 of it's time. It had a smaller displacement engine, and also a boxer Type 4 Porsche-designed VW-manufactured engine. It had less power than the 911 as to not outrun it's 'big brother' the 911. The 914 was designed by Porsche, manufactured by Volkswagen.

Jump to the 986...

The Boxster was designed by Porsche, manufactured by Porsche. It outhandles 996's of it's time, has a smaller displacement engine that is an opposing 6. It has less power than the 993/996 as to not outrun it's "big brother", the 996.

It has always been Porsche's intention not to smear their flagship car, the 911. The 914/6 and 916 were flukes of success. They made a car that could outperform the 911s of it's time and thus production was very short. Similar to a 914, if you can upgrade the powerplant in a boxster to make it on par with a 996(7) or 996tt... i believe it would be recognized as another fluke of success. But then again, the Carerra GT could be seen as the next step in design and evolution of Porsche's mid-engined wonders...