When I was 16, the 2006 Porsche Cayman S was just revealed. It instantly became my ultimate dream car. From the moment I received my driver’s license, I told all of my friends and family that the first car I will buy will be a Porsche. I worked several part time jobs, starting with JiffyLube earning $7.50 per hour, then later Autostrada, a specialty and collector car dealership. After being laid off due to poor sales, (the company went under shortly after I left), I went on to work as a delivery driver for Domino’s pizza. I worked 31 hours per week while taking 21 credits (7 classes) in my 7th semester of college, senior year. After 5 years of working, I managed to save up $10,000, which was just enough for a used Porsche Boxster. While not a Porsche Cayman S, it was the next best thing. The Porsche Boxster was codenamed 986. The 986.1 was the first iteration made from 1997-1999. The 986.2 was a minor refresh with a larger engine and more power. Then there was the 986.3 which had a few more cosmetic upgrades. I ended up finding a 986.2 Boxster in Virginia for just under $10,000 with 72,000 miles.
At the time, this is one of the fastest cars you can get for under $10,000 with a top speed of 156mph and a 0-60mph time of 6.1 seconds. It had a perfect 50-50 weight distribution due to the mid-engine layout and it weighed just under 2800 lbs, making it a very nimble and sharp handling sports car. These cars are cheap due to their bad reputations with three particular parts: IMS Bearing, AOS, and Water Pump. If the IMS bearing fails, Porsche will need to put in a new $19,000 engine. I was not worried about the IMS issue because my car was a higher mileage Porsche and the IMS defect affected a small percentage of cars. If my car had a bad IMS, the engine would have died around 30,000-50,000 miles.
When I picked up the car, I immediately cracked the brittle plastic rear window because I tried to lower the top in freezing temperatures. This cost me $300 to replace at an auto upholstery shop. Then 1 month later, I had to replace an O2 sensor for $120. I kept working as a delivery driver until I made enough money to modify the Porsche. I quickly bought bypass test pipes, a cat-back exhaust system, a cold air intake, an under drive pulley, and Eibach lower springs and I got to work transforming the car. Doing all of the work myself, I ended up purchasing all of the tamper-proof speciality german car tools that prevent people from working on their own Porsche’s, BMW’s, Audi’s, VW’s, and Mercedes-Benz’s.
In my first year of ownership, I attended plenty of car meets and did things I shouldn’t do in public roads. After 1 year of ownership, I finally joined a Porsche Club of America HPDE (High Performance Driving Event) at New Jersey Motorsports Raceway. It was there where I learned the racing line, car control, and track prep. Shortly after, I started to autocross the car at local Philadelphia SCCA events where I constantly lost against the unbeatable Mazda MX-5’s (Miata’s).
It was a great and exhilarating car to own, but I sold it after 3 years for $10,200, more than what I paid for it. That sale allowed me to make the final payment on my and my wife’s student loans. If you would like to learn more about the cost of ownership and adventures I had with my Porsche, subscribe to be updated when a new post is made.
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