They’re talking about whether the important mechanical parts that move the car around tend to last a long time. The episode says some people worry about how well these cars hold up.
“2.7-liter” describes the engine size. Bigger displacement often changes how the car accelerates and drives, and here they’re using it to talk about a specific engine option on the Porsche Cayman.
“Brass tax” just means the practical, real-life point. Here they’re saying that reading about Porsche history is fun, but buying a car requires different, more practical information.
Car
Porsche 912E
The Porsche 912E is an older Porsche from the 911 family that was positioned as the more affordable option. The speaker mentions it as their first Porsche and connects it to the idea that simpler, less powerful Porsches can still be fun.
Car
Porsche 911T
The Porsche 911T is a version of the classic 911 model line. The hosts use it as a reference to talk about how their early Porsche experiences shaped what they enjoy about the cars.
Car
Porsche 912
The Porsche 912 is a cheaper, four-cylinder version of the 911. The episode also talks about a rare 1976 re-release that was made in small numbers, which is why collectors chase it today.
The Porsche 356 is one of Porsche’s earliest classic models. The episode says the 912 used a 356-style four-cylinder engine, and it also claims the very first 356 was originally mid-engine before Porsche changed the layout for the car’s final rear-engine setup.
“Mid-engine” means the engine sits closer to the middle of the car rather than at the front or back. Putting the engine in the middle can help the car feel more balanced and easier to handle.
“Rear-engine” means the engine is in the back of the car. That changes how the car’s weight sits, which can affect how it drives and grips the road.
Concept
red-headed stepchild
This is an expression for something people unfairly treat as the “least important” or “not worth it.” The hosts are saying some Porsche models get criticized at first, then later become more respected and collectible.
“Revving the engine out” means letting the engine spin faster and using the higher RPM range. The idea here is that lower-power cars are more fun when you drive them actively instead of just cruising on power.
The plenum is part of the engine’s air intake system that helps manage how air gets to the cylinders. As the engine revs up, the intake behavior changes, and that can make the engine sound and respond differently.
RPM tells you how fast the engine is spinning. Higher RPM usually means the engine is working harder and can feel more exciting, especially in certain parts of the rev range.
Throttle response is how quickly the car reacts when you press the gas pedal. Faster throttle response usually makes the car feel more immediate and “connected” to your inputs.
“Induction” here refers to the engine’s air intake—how it pulls air in. The intake can make a distinct sound, and on some cars you can hear it more clearly than you’d expect.
“Exhaust” is the path where the engine’s burned gases go after combustion. As those gases move through the exhaust system, they create a recognizable sound.
The Porsche Boxster is a roadster with the engine placed close to you. Because it’s a convertible, the engine sounds can reach you more directly, so it feels more “alive” without changing anything.
A “dead spot” is when the car feels like it’s not responding for a moment. The engine is basically not in its best power range yet, so you feel a brief pause before it pulls.
The rev range is the range of engine speeds (RPM). If the car feels good through the rev range, it means it accelerates smoothly across a lot of those speeds.
IMS bearing issues are a known Porsche engine problem related to a bearing inside the motor. If it fails, it can cause serious (and costly) engine damage, so buyers often check whether it’s been addressed.
Bore scoring means the inside walls of the engine cylinders get scratched or worn. If it gets bad, the engine can start using more oil and lose efficiency.
Blackstone is mentioned as a source that backs up the host’s claim with real-world data. The point is that the problem people worry about isn’t happening as often as the internet suggests.
“DIYing” just means working on your own car instead of taking it to a mechanic. Some jobs are easy to do at home, and others are harder or need special tools.
Drain plugs are small openings used to let water or old fluid out during maintenance. Cleaning them helps prevent water from getting trapped in the wrong places.
Brake work is anything that keeps your stopping system in good shape, like replacing worn parts. They’re saying brake jobs are relatively manageable to do yourself on this Porsche.
The serpentine belt is the belt that powers several engine accessories at once. Changing it can be tricky because you have to route it correctly and deal with belt tension.
AOS is a part that helps keep oil mist from getting into places it shouldn’t. It can be a harder job to reach and work on, which is why the host says it’s where the frustration starts.
Suspension parts are what connect the wheels to the car and control how it handles bumps. The host is saying this kind of work is more complicated than simple maintenance.
Shocks are parts that help the car ride smoothly over bumps. They’re saying suspension work like shocks is harder and not something they’d attempt without the right setup.
Steering wheel swaps mean changing the steering wheel. On cars with airbags and controls, it’s important to do it carefully so everything stays safe and functional.
It’s a bearing that the manufacturer doesn’t expect you to replace during routine repairs. To change it, you usually have to take the engine apart a lot.
The clutch lets you smoothly connect and disconnect the engine from the gearbox. If you’re replacing it, you often have to take a lot of the drivetrain apart.
A service panel is a removable cover that gives you access to parts for maintenance. Here it’s mentioned because you can reach belt-related items without major teardown.
A body panel is part of the car’s outer shell, like the bumper cover. They’re saying some people hesitate to remove it because it’s easy to scratch or feels intimidating, even if it’s just held on with fasteners.
An oil change is when a shop replaces the engine’s oil. It’s done regularly to keep the engine protected, and here they’re using the time it takes as a cost/effort comparison between two Cayman revisions.
A “GT car” is built for longer drives—more relaxed and smooth rather than purely aggressive. The hosts are saying the 981 feels more like that kind of car than the 987.1.
Electronic steering means the car’s steering assist is controlled by electronics instead of relying on a traditional hydraulic system. The hosts say that this can change the feel of the steering when you drive.
Hydraulic steering uses fluid pressure to help you turn the wheel. In the episode, they’re contrasting it with electronic steering to explain why the driving feel can be different.
The Porsche 993 is the final generation of the air-cooled 911. The hosts are using it as a reference point for what “classic” Porsche driving feels like, and comparing that feel to the Cayman 987.1.
Air-cooled means the engine is cooled mainly by air flowing around it, not by liquid coolant. The hosts are pointing out that the 993 was the last Porsche to use that classic cooling approach.
The Porsche Cayman 987.1 is a mid-engine Porsche that’s known for feeling very “connected” and fun to drive. Here, the host says it can feel surprisingly similar to a much more expensive 911 (the 993).
Coilovers are suspension parts that let you set the car’s ride height and how firm the suspension feels. Lowering the car can make it handle more tightly, but it can also affect ride comfort.
Power-to-weight ratio is basically “how much shove the car has for how heavy it is.” If two cars are close on this number, they can feel similarly quick even if they’re different models.
Drivetrain loss is power that gets “used up” inside the car’s mechanical parts before it reaches the wheels. The hosts are saying that on the 997.1, the difference between engine power and wheel power is relatively small.
A dyno is a machine that tests a car’s power by running it under controlled conditions. The hosts are using it to talk about how much power actually makes it to the wheels.
Concept
engine in the front / driving wheels in the back
This describes the classic 911 layout: the engine sits at the front of the car, but the drive wheels are at the rear. That packaging creates a long mechanical path from engine to wheels, which can influence how power delivery feels and how much “drivetrain” work happens before the tires get torque.
Term
rear end when it hunkers down
As you accelerate and turn, the car’s weight shifts—often more toward the rear. That can make the back tires lose grip briefly, so the car can slide a little before it hooks back up.
PSM is a computer safety system that helps keep the car from spinning out. If you turn it off, the car is more likely to slide when you drive aggressively.
Stability management refers to electronic controls that detect when the car is not following the driver’s intended path. It can apply brakes and adjust engine output to help the car regain grip and stay stable.
“Diminished value” means your car can be worth less after an accident, even if it’s fixed. The guest is saying that risk feels smaller when the car costs less in the first place.
A Carfax report is a document that summarizes a used car’s history. It can include accident or title information, which can change how much people are willing to pay.
Scarcity just means there aren’t many of that car available. When fewer cars exist, prices often rise because more people want the same limited supply.
DFI means the engine sprays fuel directly where it burns inside the cylinders. The host is saying that, in their experience or research, these direct-injection engines may not have been as trouble-free or ideal as expected.
A sports steering wheel is a steering wheel designed to feel more “driver” oriented. It often has a thicker grip and a sportier shape so it feels better in your hands.
A factory fire extinguisher is a safety device that came with the car from the manufacturer. It’s meant to help you put out a fire faster if something goes wrong.
A rear wiper is a wiper that clears the back window. It helps you see better when it’s raining or dirty, and the host is saying this Cayman had it when most don’t.
A checklist is a structured set of inspection items used to systematically evaluate a used car’s condition. In this context, it supports the PPI/pre-PPI idea by ensuring the buyer checks common problem areas and doesn’t miss obvious red flags.
Receipts are documents that show what repairs or maintenance were done. If a seller doesn’t have them, it’s harder to know whether the car was cared for properly.
Rust is when metal starts to corrode and weaken over time. It can turn a small issue into a bigger, more expensive repair—especially if it’s found during an inspection.
Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) alert the driver when a tire’s pressure is too low or otherwise out of spec. This segment ties TPMS to regional differences—North America vs. Canada/US—when shopping for used cars.
The hosts discuss situations where a car doesn’t have certain required items for a market, so it must be dealer-installed using Porsche parts. This matters because dealer-installed changes can affect cost, documentation, and how “original” the car remains.
They’re talking about what it takes to bring a car in from another country. You deal with customs paperwork and pay taxes—then you still pay the normal state/local taxes like you would for a local car.
The Porsche Carrera GT (often written “Carrera GT”) is a supercar known for its distinctive styling and engineering. Here, the hosts say the Cayman 987.1’s design cues—like the headlight shape—are influenced by the Carrera GT.
The Porsche 550 Spyder is an old Porsche race-inspired roadster with a very distinctive shape. They’re saying the early Boxster/Cayman styling reminds them of that classic rear-end look.
Deferred maintenance is when you don’t fix things on schedule. If you catch up on it, the car is less likely to develop bigger, more costly problems later.
Cantrell Motorsports is a shop/company the host mentions for doing exhaust work. They help people get a louder, sportier sound by modifying the mufflers.
Carnival is a company that changes the inside of factory mufflers to make the exhaust sound more sporty. The outside can stay stock, but the sound changes because of what’s inside.
Baffling is the internal “pieces” inside a muffler that guide the exhaust gases. By changing it, you can change the exhaust sound without necessarily replacing the whole system.
The Porsche Carrera RS is a special, performance-oriented version of the 911. It’s known for being built to feel more focused on driving rather than comfort. People often talk about it because it represents a classic style of Porsche performance.
PASM is Porsche’s system for electronically adjusting the suspension. It helps the car feel more controlled, and it can make lowering the car easier to do without ruining the ride.
This is about the cable that connects your gear shifter to the gearbox. If it breaks or fails, you can have trouble selecting gears, and the hosts say some 6-speed layouts are more prone because of the routing.
This means the car’s sixth gear in a manual transmission. The speaker is saying the shifter-cable problem shows up more in the six-speed configuration than in the five-speed one.
“Faux-Fuchs” are wheels that look like the famous Porsche Fuchs wheels, but aren’t the original factory pieces. They’re an aesthetic upgrade you can change back later.
These are replacement gear-shifter tops made of wood. They’re mostly for style and feel, and you can swap them back if you ever sell the car.
Brand
Sony CarPlay Dexon
This is an upgraded stereo system that supports Apple CarPlay. The key point is the speaker kept the original radio too, so the car can go back to factory if needed.
Concept
base version vs more powerful variant
Sometimes people ignore the “base” version of a car because they think it won’t be as good as the faster ones. This host says the base car can actually feel more natural and engaging when you drive it.
LIVE
Hey, everyone. I'm Derek. This is 11 After 9, and I'm so happy to have my guest this week,
Jeff Lehmann. Jeff is probably, if I have to put a word to it, the utmost authority when it comes to
first-generation base boxers and caimans. As a matter of fact, Jeff wrote the Bible,
the Seportion Enthusiast Guide to the 987.1 2.7 Boxter and Cayman. Jeff has been kind of a little
bit of a mentor to me in terms of conversations we've had over the last few years. As I've kind of
dipped and dived in terms of what car am I going to buy next, I ended up with the 997.1, Jeff,
as you know, but I was real close to getting myself a first-generation Cayman, and you were
really fantastic in kind of counseling me along in that. And so I wanted to invite you on to the
podcast because I think it's an awesome generation, and you're the guy to talk to when it comes to
that. So welcome to 11 After 9. Thank you very much, Derek. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah,
it's really great to have you, man. You're just a hell of a nice guy, and might I say for the people
watching this on YouTube, you have an excellent taste in background decoration. Those of you
listening, Jeff has a matching wood shelves to mine, and they almost look like they're lining
up with all the cool Porsche stuff he has back there. Yeah, I think we have the same stylist,
right? Yeah, exactly. If I could only pull off the gray in my beard like you do.
I'm happy to trade you. Fair. All right, that's fair. Jeff, I wasn't joking in the intro when
I said thank you so much for being on and that you're the guy that really people go to when they
want to learn about these first generation cars because, I mean, you have to kind of face it.
They have a little bit of a mixed reputation based on some of the hoopla about the motors
and the survivability or the durability of the drivetrains, and we definitely want to get into
that. But maybe, can I ask you this, and this is going to sound maybe a little bit
crass as a first question to you. Great.
Hey, Jeff, this is my question to you. No, so you have 75 years of Porsche history
that you could focus on. You have generations of different cars that Porsche put out,
but you chose such a small sliver, such a very specific generation, and not only specific generation,
but the base model of that generation with a 2.7-liter motor. Can I ask why that is?
Well, there's plenty of great history books. I mean, back up here behind me is Porsche Decades,
which is a really good book, and it chronicles it. I've got a lot of these books that just over time
I've collected in there. I get to see a lot of the same cars and learn about this, but when it
comes down to brass tax and you're actually going to purchase a car, you need a whole different set
of information. I mean, those books help you like say, oh, yeah, I want to look at this range,
but I decided to pick the range that I love, and I've owned four of these cars now,
and so I feel like, I mean, I really appreciate your introduction. I feel like I'm more of a
987.1 savant, which means I'm an idiot in just about everything else, but these cars are really
important to me, and that's why I focused in on them. I just think they are the value for
Porsches today, and we'll get into a little bit more of that later as to why.
Absolutely, we will. We'll talk values, but I do want to agree with you. Actually, Jay Galati,
he's a fellow Northwesterner. He's a friend of the show, and I have Porsche Decades back on my
shelf as well, and that is a wonderful compendium of history of Porsche, and he gets very specific,
very scholarly when it comes to the history of Porsche. What I appreciate about your book,
and I mentioned to you earlier before we got started, that it's actually written in my backpack
on two separate vacations where I've been reading it by the pool, because you have a level of humor
that you bring to talking about this car, and you're not afraid to talk about your mistakes and
kind of your perceptions kind of coming into owning it and kind of how that's evolved over time.
Did you own any Porsches before you kind of jumped into the 2.7 arena?
I did, so my first experience is closer to your 72-911T maybe. I had a 76-912E. That was my first
Porsche. No way. I owned that in around 89-90-91, somewhere in there, and did a little bit of
restoration on it, and really loved it. That's my... Our common bond is the base cars that
some would view as underpowered. I just viewed it as a lot of fun and something that you really
had to work at to get it to do what you wanted it to do, and so I had that car for a couple years
and really enjoyed it and kind of wish I still had it. It's funny, that car, so for the audience,
the 912 was the four-cylinder version of the 911. Back in the 60s, Porsche came out with what was
essentially maybe the Boxster of the time, an approachable entry-level car, and it was priced
with... Priced under the Long Hood 911. It had the 356 four-cylinder motor in it instead of the
six-cylinder 911 motor, and it was kind of that entry-level car. But low and behold, what people
actually found out is because there wasn't so much weight over the back, it handled like you
wouldn't believe, and it was a really fun car, and so the 912 kind of became kind of the driver's
choice. It went away in what, 69 maybe? Was that the last year? Possibly, yeah. I don't know, don't
quote me. We have to ask Jay. That's not my area of expertise. Right, this is where the savant thing
comes in. But I will say that the 356, the first one ever registered, number one, was a mid-engine
car. The very first 356 was a mid-engine car. Correct. It's in the book. I must have missed
that. Tell me more about this. Oh, no, it's just from the Porsche Archives that the original 356
number one was a mid-engine car, and as a way to market the car better, they had to put a rear
seat in it, so they had to switch the engine around the other way, and that's why the 356 is
after that ended up as rear-engine cars. I didn't know that, so that was a pre-AA 356.
But the car that Jeff was referring to a minute ago is a Porsche brought back the 912 in 1976
for one year only. Only in the US and only about 2100 cars. Is it really that few? Okay. Yeah,
and those cars today, shockingly, are selling in the 40s. It's amazing.
And they have a following, and there's demand for them, and that's what people want.
Dude, this is the thing about Porsche, which is so funny to me. Every 10 or 15 years,
there's a red-headed stepchild of the generation, and everyone says,
don't buy that car. That's a piece of crap. That's slow as anything. That's the common car. You
want something more special. And then, lo and behold, what happens is it has its comeuppance,
and it becomes so special, and then it becomes the most searched for model. And that 76912 was,
this is please no offense to you, Jeff, was considered to be a slow, kind of dog-shit
example of the 2.7911 for a long time. But then people started driving it and saying,
well, there's a purity to it, and the low horsepower is what's exciting because you
can get into it all the time, right? Yep. And just the maintenance and the handling,
all that. So that carries through all the base cars, if you really think about it.
Well, this is what I'm finding, my friend, because I am in a vowed, reformed S, and I need the best
car. I had mentioned in a podcast that's going to be coming out last week, when this comes out,
about how kind of, I was that guy that said, why wouldn't you get an S over a base? Or why
wouldn't you get a GTS over an S? I mean, better, it's faster, it's more powerful, there's more
torque. Why wouldn't you? Bases are for people that aren't really fans. And that was very early
on in my ownership kind of career. And the more I kind of, the more cars I own, the more cars I
drove, the more cars I was exposed to, Jeff, the more I came to realize that porches, they became
too fast and they became almost unusable because they're so capable. And the base cars give you
a little bit of a window into being able to really rev the motor out and a lot of fun with the car
without crashing into a tree, if the corner's too tight. Right. Or as one of the people I
quoted in the book said, with the 987.1, 2.7, you will not become scenery. And which is pretty
accurate. I feel like you drive those cars at 80 to 90 percent. You drive the equivalent
Carreras at a much lower percentage because you can get in trouble a lot quicker in those.
And my preference is to work those base cars through the gears, hear the engines rev, hear
the plenum open up between 4 and 4,500 RPM and really drive them, have the driving experience
as opposed to just having so much power that you're not going to use it. And to me, that's
inefficient. But well, not everybody agrees with me. But here's what it is, Jeff.
This is what I find so interesting driving a base car. You do have to drive it differently.
All of the fun, that car lives in breeze above 5,000 RPM. And you 4,500 to 7,000 is where your
playground is in those cars. And by the very nature of being that high in the rev range,
your throttle response is lightning quick. And the sound is glorious in these motors.
Right. So that's the interesting thing about sound in general from these cars. Everybody
focuses on the muffler or the exhaust, whatever you want to call it. But with these cars,
the engine is right over your shoulder. So you're hearing the mechanics of the engine.
You're also hearing the induction and you're hearing the exhaust. And if you're driving
a Boxster, you're hearing a lot more of it because that sound is coming right at the tops down.
It's coming right to you or it's coming through the convertible top. So they sound glorious
without really the need to do anything more. And when you're really kind of revving that motor out,
you just naturally just hear more of it. And those, the base cars, please tell me if I'm wrong.
I think you actually touched on this in your book, but not only do they need to be revved,
but they're actually, they're a healthier engine if you're revving them.
Correct. I think that's true. Yeah. I mean, those cars are meant to be driven. I mean,
do you think Porsche would have a base model, which they sell a lot of, if that was a bad car,
they wouldn't bring it to market if it was a bad car. I just think everything above the base cars
is, you know, how much more sausage do you want? I always get flamed in the comments because I'm
oftentimes described as a purist for the base models, which isn't true because I've actually
owned a lot more S models than I have base models. But I do think that there's a purity to the base
models that Porsche starts with. And then they do add horsepower and torque. And there is,
there is a role for that. Like on the racetrack, absolutely. The torque is very welcomed. Absolutely.
You know, even, listen, hand on heart, my 014 base Boxster 981, you know, when I'm on these
back roads and I'm at a stop sign and I come out and I shift from first to second, and if I kind
of short shift in my revs around 2,500, 3,000, there is a little dead spot that I have to kind
of work out of before it starts to get on cam, as it were, and really pull. And so you don't really
have that in an S. And so I do see the appeal of that. But boy, once you're 45,000 RPM, man,
that thing is fun. Well, I will say, you know, we all love our twisties. And if you put that car in
third gear, you can go up and down the rev range and the torque range, and you will have an excellent
car through the twisties without having to shift. Yes. But I know this on the 981 that it actually,
because the 981s are known for very long gears, and that's kind of a criticism. The base models,
at least on the 981s, are a little bit shorter than the S models in terms of gearing. Is it the
same for the 987s, do you know? You know, so the 987s, unless you have one of the really rare
six-speeds that was attached to the 2.7. You know, that's a really good question. I'm not sure.
They feel quick to me. They feel plenty quick. You know, taking it through the rev range,
accelerating up, shifting up, they all, they feel great. Maybe I'm not as nuanced. Maybe
I just love just driving the car, and I don't get caught up in all the little, you know, details, but
you know, so we're in the deep. Listen, Jeff, this is the deep end of the pool of portion
nerdery that we're talking about. We're talking about gear ratio. So I'm going to back this up,
because this is the problem. The problem that I have is I get so excited about the minutia
of these things, because I find it so interesting that I am just a complete mess for this.
You, I want to talk about IMS bearing issues. I want to talk about bore scoring issues.
Give me your take on this. Okay. So let's talk about IMS first. So the cars that I think are
the sweet spot from 2005 to 2008 are the 2007 and 2008. And so those have the improved IMS
bearing very, you know, almost zero issues there. Even the later 2005 models got the upgraded bearing,
right? But I think for those cars, I would say, and I would echo what
Panorama found in some research they did a couple years ago, really no issue.
As far as the bore scoring, even less of an issue. And to this day, as I follow, bring a trailer,
you know, auctions for these cars, because I like to see the price ranges they're falling in.
What the options are, all that. There is always somebody that says,
has the IMS bearing been done on this 2007? And it's just become comical.
The lack of information, which is one of the reasons why I decided to write the book. I followed
a lot of these blogs on Facebook. I mean, I think you're calling the blogs of death or something,
but follow these things on Facebook. And I just like, for years, I would get up at five in the
morning and I would go on and just start answering questions. And I'd be like, no, they have this
one wrong or gosh, somebody told them this and they're just repeating it. And I felt bad for
these people. So that was one of the impetus for the book was to just, you know, let's get the
information out there and stop regurgitating the stuff that everybody just once they hear at once,
it becomes telephone and then it becomes worse and as the story goes on.
And let's just get the straight information out there or as best as we know. So I would say for
the 2.7 cars and even the Boxster 3.2 from 2005 and 2006, bore scoring and IMS are really not an
issue. That's great to hear. And that is backed up. I did a podcast not too long ago with Joe
Adams from Blackstone who echoed that, that, you know, the percentage of issues was in the 3%
range. And so certainly not for the earlier ones. And so for certainly not something that is as
overblown where if you were to go on the forums, you think it's 50% of all cars, the engines fail.
Two years ago, I would say there was more buzz about this. But here's the problem that this
creates clarifying this point that it's not that big of an issue. That means this great value play
that we've been getting because everybody's been scared of these cars is now, I've seen the prices
creep up a little bit on these cars as they go through auction because, you know, if you're like
me and you looked at the 993 and you looked at the 997.1 and you just see the multiples in price
increase over those, you're like, wow, so this Cayman and Boxster is a really good deal. Yep.
And it's not just about the deal, it's about the driving experience. We buy these cars because of
the Porsche driving experience. And these cars are meant to drive. And that's why I put
thousands and thousands of miles on both of my, I have a Boxster and a Cayman,
they're somewhere up here in the corner. And I drive the actual size ones, not those.
You don't just drive those around on your desk and make little noises.
Those days are gone. But I have put thousands of miles on these cars on road trips,
and they're just fabulous road trip cars. They really are, for any number of reasons,
from a storage and space situation. But also, they really are very happy at highway speeds and
they're happier on back road speeds. And they're really a nice Swiss Army tool when it comes to
the road. Here's a question I have for you. Do you do any of your own work on them? Do you
do any DIYing on your cars? Yes. Do you think they're friendly? I mean, are they approachable
for the use and me's that want to do some stuff in their garage? Well, I sort of take
it in gradients, all right? So there's the stuff that we can all do, the air filter,
cabin filter, cleaning out the drain plugs, wherever they are. There's four of them in the
front and in the Boxster. There's some in the back and the convertible top deck.
I've done my own breaks on them. They're not particularly difficult to do.
When you get into doing an AOS or a serpentine belt, that's where the cursing and screaming
could start for some people. I would never do shocks or suspension parts or that kind of stuff.
I don't have a garage that can do that kind of thing, but I can do tire swaps. I can do
radio swaps. I can do steering wheel swaps even are pretty easy to do in those cars.
They don't require a ton of maintenance. It's just the usual stuff that any car would have.
I wouldn't do plugs and coils, although that's borderline. Some people are totally happy getting
their hands up there and doing all that. I'd rather just have somebody else do it because
it always happens at an inter-opportune time. I'd rather just let the car go away for a day and
come back running perfectly. Oh, believe me. I invented the 730 on a Sunday night. For some
reason, something's stripped or something's frozen and I just can't get it out. I'm cursing
because I have to get up and go to work in the morning. That means that the car is going to sit
for another week. I agree with you. Just touching back on the IMS thing that you had mentioned,
just so everyone knows, the early versions of the 987.1 still had a replaceable IMS bearing.
That was 05 to halfway through 06. It depends on who you ask. I would say
Lado 5. I think that's a pretty good range. They tried to do it by engine numbers and all
that and I don't even know if that was 100% accurate. You can go in and hold the flange off
and you can see what it is. That's a funny thing. Porsche is funny about that. I think with a lot
of their repairs that they do over time, there's not quite so much of a rhyme or reason to how
they do it. There's not like a definitive cutoff and so there's always a little bit of
investigation that comes with it. In general, that 05 to 06 range, they went to a non-serviceable
bearing. It's a permanent bearing and it's a larger bearing, I understand.
If you're going to have the engine taken apart, which God forbid that ever happened to you,
then you can replace that bearing. The chances of that are pretty impossible.
You have to split the case to do that.
Correct. I had this experience with my first Boxster 2005 and I was redoing the clutch. I had
it in the shop, they were doing the clutch and I'm like, well, I better do the... What they were
calling the IMS back then was just the flange. I ordered the parts, had them shipped in, took them
and then when the guys did it, they said, this doesn't fit. I clearly had one that was the
new bearing, but they'd sent me the flange for the old bearing.
They weren't talking to each other, so I returned it back to the Porsche dealer that I bought it
from and they're like, no, this isn't possible and I'm like, well, I'm sorry, but this one fit
and that one didn't. I must have been right at the break point.
Yep. Your car was made on a Thursday and they stopped on a Wednesday.
Probably.
Went back in the day with Porsche that they would just change like in the middle of the week.
Okay, we're doing this now. Being a mid-edged car, the motor is... It's not completely open to you,
but you can do a lot to your point. You put the top in a service position in a Boxster
or you are under the hatch on the Cayman, you can get to it readily.
Between the seats, there is a service panel that you can access the belts.
And so the car is funny. Unless you have to drop the motor, which you really don't have to do for
any of the maintenance items, they're surprisingly easy to work on, which is very heartening for
someone like me who likes to get their hands dirty every once in a while if I had any free time.
Well, try doing that on your 997.1 because you'll be pulling the back bumper off to do stuff.
That's just how it is.
Yeah, especially I can tell you this. When I had my 991, just to change the engine filters,
you had to take off the rear bumper. Here's the thing, Jeff, it's not a big deal to take the
bumper off. It's just a bunch of fasteners and it comes off and you just make sure you don't scratch
it. But for some reason, there's like a mental block to removing a body panel to get something
You know, the other issue is that if you're taking it to a dealer for service, you're paying for
them to take that off and put it back on again. So here's one thing I found out, because I get
my cars serviced every year minimum. And for the 987.1 cars, it's one hour of labor to do an oil
change. And for the 987.2 cars, it's an hour and a half of labor. I don't know why, maybe because
the motors were redesigned or something like that. But you know, at a couple hundred bucks an hour
for service, whether it's an independent or a dealer, I mean, it does make a little bit of
a difference and it all adds up and everything helps, right? Because we want these cars to be
affordable. That's the real reason. If such a word can be said in the same sentence as the word
That is 100% correct. Yeah, no, but listen, it's very relative, right? The words value and
affordable. However, I think boxers and cabins have always represented the value play when it
comes to driving a Porsche that is very engaging for the least amount of entry fee, I guess you
could call it. And listen, that's why, Jeff, I sing to the top of the hills about my base 981,
because for a $35,000 to $40,000, $42,000 car, it is so much more car than that money represents.
That, and then you look at the 987s, the Dot 1s and the Dot 2s. Now, I have owned two 987.1 Ss
and they were both fantastic cars. Really, really enjoyed them. They were both very, very fast.
Again, a yes at the base. But I was just so unbelievably impressed about the size of them
and kind of the almost the old school feel that they kind of represented. Certainly almost like
more engaging than even the 986s in a weird kind of way. I don't know,
have you had much experience comparing those? No, so I have not driven either, but I have
looked at the metrics. So to me, the 981 starts to get a little bit closer to a GT car. It's a
little bit bigger. So there are some people that think that, well, why would I just spend a little
more money and get a 981? Well, it's a very different car when you drive it from what people
have told me. And I do follow a couple guys on the web that own them and I write about one guy
in the book who basically takes them apart and puts them back together again as a hobby and
makes a YouTube channel out of it. But I think that it depends on the form factor and the driving
experience that you want. 981s are fantastic cars, but that's when we got into the electronic
steering, electric steering, whatever it is and went away from the hydraulic steering and all
that. So it's just a couple of little nuances and you as the buyer have to decide if it's worth
X number of dollars more to have a little bit bigger car, a little bit different driving
experience, maybe more electronics in it, that kind of thing. It's a matter of taste to me rather
than a matter of money. If I was given the choice of one or the other, I would take the 987.1.
I just think it's closer to the old school Porsches than it is to the new school Porsches.
Let's talk about that. So I'm listening to you and I talk on my lawn mower or driving my car to
work and I'm thinking to myself, all right, that's great. You're talking to Jeff Layman,
he's the 987.1 base guy, but he's had four of them and that's what he knows. Of course,
he's going to say that they're great. So you let me know a week or two ago that you had the
opportunity to kind of put your opinion to the test by driving not only a 997.1, which is a car
that I also own, but then you were also able to drive the last of the air-cooled cars, a 993,
from the late 90s. And you were able to bookend your experience with your Cayman between those
two. And so if you don't mind, I'd love to talk about that a little bit because I like to put
everything in a frame of reference for people. Now, understandably, Jeff, from a price point of
view, a 993 is in far excess to what we're talking about. Yeah, it's four to five X what a Cayman
would be. But representative of the final iteration of what the air-cooled became. Sure.
And then you compare it to what I think you can very rightly call a bit of a GT car,
which would be the 997.1, which I have. And so let's talk about that first. All right, so here
you are because I think probably you could probably pick up a good 987.1, 2.7 for $20 to $25,000 right
now. Is that completely crazy? So for a Boxster, yes. For a Cayman, I would say $25 to $30,
depending on the condition. I track the Stuttgart market letter and also bring a trailer and I
kind of watch how the prices fluctuate around. And they have crept up just a little bit, but
not the multiples that we're seeing in the other cars. And so for a 997 that range.
Okay, so let's call it a median of 25. And so for a 997.1, you can pick one of those up a higher
mileage one for maybe 40, a lower mileage for maybe mid 40. So appreciable value bump in terms of
cost, but not crazy, another $10,000 or $15,000. So tell me, so you get out of your Cayman and you
get into, it was a lower mileage car if I remember correctly. So the 997.1 was about 25,000 miles I
think. Special thanks to my friend Greg Johnson who lent me his two cars. He got to drive my Cayman,
I got to drive his two cars and we sort of traded notes on what we thought of them. And I would say
as I drove those two cars and then got in my car to go back home, I was like, huh, okay.
So this 987 felt closer to the 993 because of the handling, the exhaust sound,
and just the lightness of being as you're driving the car. Now the 993, you're really close to the
thing and the shifter's a little bit longer of a throw and that kind of thing, but still very
mechanical, which I feel the 987 is also. And yeah, you're a little more setback, you've got a little
more safety measures in between you and the windshield going on there. Yeah, the slope of the
windshield if nothing else is definitely. Exactly right. And I felt like, as I'm driving the 993,
I'm like, obviously the pedals are to the floor and all these things, but it was stock except
for coil overs that kind of lowered it to European ride height. And it felt, I just felt like, okay,
this is really indicative of what everybody thinks of when they think of an air-cooled 911.
And then when I'm in the Cayman, I'm like, well, that is not that far off.
Some of the engine sounds for this, I mean, the 993 has got a louder exhaust, obviously, because
it's air-cooled, there's less insulation in the car, just all the cacophony inside the cockpit
and all that. Cacophony is a great word. And that's really what it is with the air-cooled.
If you, at almost every rev range, the kind of the gnashing of the gears and the drive train
sounds are fantastic in the 993, no doubt about it. Yep. And the brakes are obviously a little more
mechanical. And then I get in the 997.1. And that car is very planted and also feels very heavy,
which is a compliment to the feeling planted. And then the exhaust seems more muted because
it's farther out the back and there's a lot more stuff in between that exhaust and my ears.
And then the acceleration on the 997.1 is over the top. There's so much power in that car. And I
felt like I'm only 40, 50% in the throttle on this thing. And I'm like, I'm about to hit the guy in
front of me. So I'm like, wow, that's a lot of power. Will we all ever use that power? And I feel
like I'm using almost all of it in the Boxster or the Cayman when I drive them. And I put my foot
into it pretty good on the 993 and it delivered. The 993 and the 987.1 cars have a very similar
power to weight ratio. They're only off by about a pound per horsepower. But the 997, I mean,
that's things a beast. And that's just the base. You got to remember my point of reference as I'm
on a 2.7 liter. Of course. Of course. Yeah. The 987. Would you say that the 993 and your 987.1
felt pretty similar in terms of, I know you just talked about the power to weight ratio, but
did they feel like on your butt dyno? Did they feel about the same in terms of pepiness and how
fast they were? I would say that the 993 is just a tick quicker feeling, but not $100,000 different.
Got it. Yep. Yeah. That makes sense. It's funny. You mentioned that about the 997.1 about it being
a beast. It's surprising. You know, 325 horsepower, give or take in that car. Porsche has an
interesting way of putting power down. I watched a video the other day. I was on a plane and someone
did some dyno work. They took an exhaust off the car to see if it would change the dyno. But
when they did the stock 997.1 on the dyno, the drivetrain loss was only a few horsepower. It was
maybe like six or seven horsepower to the hubs and the wheel. I thought it was fantastic. Anyone
who drives a 911, they all say, wow, this feels a lot more powerful than you would think because
when the engine's in the front and the driving wheels are in the back, you have a lot of drivetrain
loss when it comes to the actual power delivery. But I wonder, Jeff, you get 350 horsepower right
around there. I start to ask myself for the type of driving I do. Do you really need more than that?
Yeah. So I was, part of my undergraduate college degree is economics. And so you always think
about probabilities, right? It's like, so how much of the time am I going to use this car zero to the
market? Or how much of this time am I going to be out in the twisties? Or how much am I going to be
trying to exceed every speed limit in the Western states on the highways? How often
am I actually going to do all this? Now, yeah, it's a great rush when you're doing it. But how do I
use the car most of the time? And I am not going to take a super curvy road at 9 tenths. I just,
I'm not going to do it. I'll push it as much as I feel like I can push it. But I just don't want to
cause a problem. Well, you can, especially today where cars are so fast and people aren't paying
attention on their phones, you really do have to be on the defensive all the time. And I think there's
a fine line between driving safely and having fun and driving safely and being unsafe. And I have
noticed in my 997 that it is still, while it is a much more planted car than some earlier 996s I've
driven, and certainly some of the air cooled stuff, certainly more than my 72911, you know,
when you really get on the gas, especially going around a corner, you can feel the rear end when
it hunkers down. It steps out just a little bit before it catches. And so it can still bite you
if you're not careful. Right. And then the 987, I mean, you would have to turn the PSM off, right?
The stability management off to get the car to slide like that. Now, some people do. That's great.
That's the nice thing about the cars. You could turn that off if you want. Sure. And but you're
not going to turn off the ABS brakes and you're not going to turn off, you know, a lot of the other
stuff that will save you if you just overestimate by a little bit. And I think your chances of
overestimating are probably a little higher in a 997 than they are in a 987. Well, I think it's
because you do feel isolated from the road. You have a weird kind of sense of maybe a little bit
more safety. I don't know why I say that, except that I've driven the 987.1s and I know that in
my 997, it's very easy to go quick and it's very easy to carry a lot of speed into a corner,
maybe a little bit more than you really need to. Now granted, the brakes are fantastic,
but no one wants to be soaring at the wheel going around a corner.
Right. Right. I think that's true. For the overall driving experience, this is why I'm a huge fan
and why I love the 987.1 cars because they are just, the 993 has such a following, is such a
fantastic car. I mean, who doesn't think that they'd want to have one in their garage, right?
And the same is true for a lot of the 997.1s or 997.2s, but I think everybody has focused on the
.2s in the range and have really missed the value in the .1s. And to me, it's not just about being
cheap and having value. It's about the driving experience. And if I felt like I was getting a
multiple better driving experience in a 993 or a 997, I'd buy one. But I don't. I don't feel that
way. I feel like that is enough car for me and I enjoy driving it almost any condition. I can take
it on the highway, take it on a road trip, take it up through the mountains, whatever. It's a
want to have that feeling that if something happens to the car that all of a sudden I'm not
dealing with a diminished value case and a bad car fax report or something like that, it's like,
I'm playing with $25,000 to $30,000. Now, that's a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. But it's way
different than playing with $120,000 and having something happen to that car which diminishes
its value by what the actual value is of the 987. Yeah, that's a great point to make.
Yeah. We're talking about two different things here. We're talking about the benefit of a base
versus an S and we've talked about why maybe more power isn't always better. What we haven't talked
about is why a 987.1 makes more sense to you than a 987.2. And people will say all day just like the
997.1 versus .2. Well, you got to go with the .2. It's a better car. The engine changed. It's a better
engine. We've established that maybe it's not a more reliable engine given some of the most up-to-date
data, but people generally go to the .2s. So how would you respond to that? Because you're a huge
fan of the .1 987. Why choose that over a 987.2? Well, this is more of a personal point.
I like the aesthetics better on the 987.1 and the 997.1 than I do on the .2 cars. I just think
they look better. I think the front end is fine on both of those cars. I think the back end
with the Christmas tree LED lights on the back, I don't know. They look more dated to me now
than .1 cars do. Okay. But here's the other point that's really interesting. So when
2009 models were coming out, so the .2s were coming out, we were in a world of hurt economically.
So they didn't make a lot of them. That's part of the reason why the price has been driven up so
high is that there's scarcity on those. They made a lot of the .1 cars. So I just think
for a little bit different guy, and they're finding out now that those DFI engines, maybe
those weren't the best. And also, this is just a super subtle point, but the 987.1
and your 981 both have 2.7 liter engines. And I think that's a throwback all the way to the 1973
Carrera RS 2.7. Porsche has been making 2.7 engines. They even put them in, I think a 924
had 2.7. It was a water cooled, very different engine, but that 2.7
is just something that's very historical to Porsche. And so that just makes me feel more
connected to the brand. When the 986 came out, everybody just lost it. There was like, oh,
this isn't a real Porsche. Yeah, all that stuff. Well, yeah, sure, say what you want. But ultimately,
that car had a 2.7 and it also towards the end of its model life. And those cars are just as much
a part of Porsche's history as any other car that has saved the company or helped move it forward.
So I'm a bigger fan of this car just because of all the little points, metrics that make it the
kind of car that it is from the handling to the value to, I don't know the algorithm to put together
to say, yeah, that's why I picked this car, because it's how I feel when I drive it. It's how I feel
when I work on it. It's how I feel when people come up and ask me about it, although that's like
2% of my life. And it's just how it makes my bank account feel when I'm like, wow, this is a great
car to have. And, you know, I've been in PCA for 21 years. And I don't ever feel like I have to
upgrade to something else. I don't have to keep doing the whole upgrade, you know, hamster wheel.
I just think this is a great car, so I'm going to stick with it.
Here's the other thing with when it comes to values. It is such a value in terms of
outlay of money that sometimes it's an amazing second Porsche. So let's say you have your 9-11,
but you want a different taste. You want a different flavor of ice cream. Well, the 987.1
represents a wonderful way to get a completely different drive from the brand for not a huge
outlay of money. You're not shilling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a second car,
but it punches way above its weight class. It really does. Go ahead.
So can I tell you then that my 987.1 Cayman was a perfect complement to the 987.1 Boxster that I
already own. And honestly, they are two very different cars when you drive them. You've got
the open air experience in the Boxster. You've got the windows down. You've got better sounds.
You've got all that. Maybe a little teeny bit of flex in the body when you're driving it,
but they're still really stiff cars. And then you've got kind of like the Cayman. I tend to
take that on road trips compared to the Boxster because I have more room in the back to put more
stuff. But both of those together, and I joke with some of my friends that I have less invested
in my two 987.1s than they have invested in their Carrera. But I mean, I have twice the service,
right? But that's a pretty insignificant number. But what a choice to make when you look at your
garage and you decide which key to take when you decide to leave the house. So that leads me to
a question for you. Someone's listening to this and they're like, you know what? Maybe I haven't
given the 987.1 a fair shake. Maybe this is something I really want to look into. What would
be the Jeff Lehman advice of Cayman or Boxster year and configuration? What are your must-have
options that you think are really important in these cars?
Well, the two that I have are very different. So the Boxster is a pretty base spec. It's got the
mid-range radio. Maybe it had a premium package or something in it. Not a whole lot going on there.
The Cayman I got really lucky on. It's almost like an S spec but with a 2.7 motor in it. So it's got
the sports seats, sports steering wheel, bows. They even had a factory fire extinguisher in it.
It has a rear wiper. A rear wiper is super rare. I found the car in Canada. I think that's why it had
the rear wiper. For those of you out there, the rear wiper is like this weird thing that Porsche
people, like you'd think no one would want a rear wiper. But to have a rear wiper on a car,
whether it was a 944 or a 911 or a Cayman, is like Porsche geekery of like, oh, you have a rear
wiper. That's super cool. Maybe it's because it makes it more usable. It makes it more like a
daily driver. So you can use it more in more inclement weather. I mean, it's very popular in
climates that aren't the US. So Germany, they're very popular to see them on a lot of the cars there.
And Porsche still offers them, except on the Carrera T.
Also, the car also had Pazzo. So it's got a whole... It had 19s, but I took those off because I just
find the 19s just ride a little too rough, even with Pazzo. Yeah. So opposite is the spectrum.
But I would say, how are you going to use the car? What kind of climb are you in? What kind of fun
do you want to have? Do you want to do road trips? Do you want to do short hops? Do you want to do
weekend trips? Think about that. And then, I always think if you can get a hold of the VIN number
and see what the build was, you can kind of see what was going on. Because the difference in
the spec of my Boxster compared to the spec of the Cayman was thousands of dollars.
But look at all the extra features that I got on the Cayman. It was a big, big difference.
And I would say, it's the usual stuff. Get a PPI done or have a checklist. Do a pre-PPI.
Like walk around the car. Just see what's wrong with it. One of the things that people always
think is that the onus is always on the buyer to figure the car out and see if it's worth it. I
think sellers have two issues they need to think about. One is, and sometimes this is an advantage
to a buyer and sometimes it isn't. So, the seller really needs to know what they have
in the car. Like, what is the real condition of this car? I looked at one particular car
back east. I couldn't go see it. Everything sounded great. The guy was an older owner. He was aging
out. Couldn't really drive it that much. Hadn't driven it a lot. Clearly, the tires had aged out
and all that. But he said, yeah, it's in pretty good shape. And I said, well, do you have any
receipts? And he goes, no, I don't have any receipts. And I'm like, what do you mean you
don't have any receipts? He goes, oh, well, the dealer has all of them. I said, okay, so you have
all the receipts. You just need to let me go to the Porsche dealer and say it's okay to release
them. So, we got those. It looked like it had been fairly well maintained. So, I went to the PPI
stage. They put it up on the jack, on the jack stand. And in about three minutes, they sent me
a video. I saw rust, corrosion, coolant pipes failing, oil leaks, all this stuff. I'm like,
okay, the dealer said, yeah, it's about $10,000 to fix it. I'm like, okay. So, if this guy knew what
he had and knew what his problems were and rectified them, he could have gotten some pretty
decent money for the car. On the other side, when a seller doesn't know what they have,
they will post grainy pictures. And this was the case of my Cayman. I saw the pictures posted,
but I'm like, oh, those are sports seats. Oh, that thing has a rear wiper. And then I look up the
VIN number and see the build. I'm like, oh, this thing's pretty cool. Well, they were doing such a
bad job of marketing it. Nobody jumped on it. So, it took me a couple of months to negotiate with
the owner because it was up in Canada and I had to import it in, which, by the way, is not that
huge of a deal. And I ended up with a really nice car. But it's on the seller sometime to make
the buying a lot easier. And if they don't do that, then they're just going to have the car
sitting there. Well, that's the romance of it, isn't it? It's the romance of the barn find. You
find this blurry ad in the back pages of the one ads when I was younger. And it's just not
represented well. Back in when Craigslist, if you get one blurry photo of a picture and no one's
paying attention to it, it's like, oh, this could be the one, this could be the unicorn
and you go for it. And it sounds like you found that. Touch on that real quick about importing,
just for my knowledge and for those out there. Yeah, so there's a lot to it. I mean,
more than we can probably do in this podcast, but I do have a whole chapter devoted to it.
Certain cars, if they have tire pressure monitoring systems, this is in this range of
cars that I'm writing about, but if they have tire pressure monitoring systems,
they're basically a North America car as opposed to a Canadian car or US car. It does have a Canadian
sticker on the door and Canadian safety stuff, but that pretty much mirrors US. But the only
hitching point is if it doesn't have TPMS, which they were starting to put on around 2006, 2007,
a lot of the cars got it in both countries. But if it doesn't have it, it has to be dealer
installed using Porsche parts in Canada and then imported to the US. And I say that's a no bueno.
I would not go through that. I mean, there's so many other cars down here that you could pick from.
I just wouldn't go through that hassle. But as far as bringing it over the border,
you just build a relationship with the customs people. You'll tell them when you're bringing
it in. You fill out some forms. The taxes are minimal to bring it in. And then you just pay
your state and local taxes just like you would any car once you would buy it from a local deal
or something like that. But that's the kind of thing that I try to cover was soup to nuts on
these cars. I want people to know, what are the parts that you're going to need when you do maintenance?
What's the checklist for a PPI? How are these cars on road trips? How do you import them?
What's the history of these cars? Where do they get their design cues? A lot of the design cues
from the 987.1 cars come from the Carrera GT. And a lot of people don't get that. You look at them
face to face and you're like, oh, I see why the headlights are like that. And nobody dishes on
the Carrera GT headlights. They don't go bananas because they're not round.
No. And I also don't feel like with the 987, I feel like it kind of avoids that whole like
that's not a Porsche. It's a hairdresser's car. I feel like that's much more on the 986,
the first generation Boxster. And I feel like it really died out when Porsche came out of the 987.
And certainly anyone who drives one, a 986 or a 987, realizes very quickly it has 100% Porsche
DNA to it. And also, I mean, if anything, you can even say the early 986 is harking back to
the beautiful lines of the 550 Spyder. And that was... Especially the back end, for sure.
Oh, absolutely. And they're gorgeous. That silver with the red interior, that's where it came from.
I mean, it's beautiful. You think they did that on purpose?
100%. 100%. Well, listen, they're not stupid. We know that. They know how to separate us from
our money. Do you have any mods that you think are great for the 987s? Like, let's say you have one
in your garage or you're buying one. Is there anything that you say that they could really
benefit from? Sure. Okay. Now, I did a whole section on mods. And I tried to just say, look,
here's what you could do. Here's what it costs. You decide if it's worth it.
The two most important mods on that car are, one, get the deferred maintenance up to date.
That, to me, is a mod. Good for you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Two, do the regular maintenance. You do all
that and those cars will be solid for you. All the other stuff. You know, okay, there's one little
thing. I mean, I know you're a fister guy. I know you like your fister exhausts, right?
I do. I do, admittedly. But out here, we have a company called Cantrell Motorsports,
and they are the US representative of Carnival. And Carnival, I think they're Austria,
and they modify the factory mufflers to make it sound like the sports exhaust. So they
rearrange some baffling and some stuff like that. And it's just basically the stock exhaust with
some modifications inside. So they can do that. They do that over in Bellevue. And so for those of
us in this area that can get a muffler to them or find a used one for a couple of hundred bucks and
take it over and have it done, then for under a thousand bucks, we're good with a sport muffler.
Now, I happen to love my neighbors. So I don't want to wake them up on a Saturday morning or
Sunday morning when I'm going out for a romp. But that was one maybe I would consider. But I'm
pretty much a stock guy. These cars are so good the way they are. And some of the mods I did
are more like throwbacks to make me feel more connected to that 2.7 Carrera RS, right?
I got a wood shift knob. I got Coco mats. I found two sets of faux-fuchs wheels
that I have on the cars that kind of just make me think of the old school wheels. But they're
18s. So they really drive well. So that's the kind of stuff I would do.
Coilovers, things like that. You can do them. If your suspension needs a refresh
and you want to lower the car a little bit, my Cayman is lowered because of the PASM. So if you
lower it 10 to 20 millimeters, great. That's going to make it handle. The 993 I drove
did have the Coilovers and was lowered to European factory height. It handled great.
And I also understand why people get short shifter kits for the 993s because that's
quite a bit of rowing. I mean, I think it's nostalgic. So it's fine. In the 997.1 cars,
you're not really going to have the 2.7s. You're not going to have, because they're five speeds,
you're not going to have the shifter cable issues anywhere near like you do in the sixth speed.
It's just the way the cable's routed that causes them to sometimes break in the sixth speed.
You're not going to have that issue. So you may not even need that. So I would say,
if you get the car, get the maintenance all up to date, do the regular maintenance,
and then in a year, think about what you might want to do. I mean, it took me a year to put the
faux-fuchs on. It took me a couple of years to do the wood shift knobs. I mean, it's just something
that morphs over time, but all these things are reversible. And that's the key because when you
ever go to sell it, I also put Sony CarPlay Dexon, but I kept the original radios. So if somebody
ever wants the original radio, I'll give it to them with the car if I ever sell it. But it might
be a while before I sell either of these because I'm just having too much fun with them.
It's still on my list to experience a Cayman. It's one car I've never owned. You send me pictures
all the time of cars you see coming up. And they're beautiful. They're beautiful because
they're simplistic and the lines are just gorgeous. I mean, they're at once feminine and masculine.
They're very sexy cars. And I'm excited to own one at some point. I just need to convince my
beautiful wife that we need to put an addition on the garage because I'm in a capacity.
So I'll make a deal with you. If you let me drive your 72911T, I'll let you drive my Cayman.
Done. Done. Done, done, done, done. Come on out to New Hampshire, my friend.
No, no, no. You come to Seattle.
That's fair. Neither place do you want to be in the winter. So it needs to be a spring-fall deal
right there. Done. All right. You have my bet on that, Jeff. I want to thank you for spending so
much time with me and really demystifying the 987.1. I can't tell you much. I've enjoyed this
discussion. You can go toe-to-toe with as deep nerdy as anyone I've ever met when it comes to
this kind of car. But I think probably I want to end this podcast by saying that I think it's
really important, and you're a perfect example of this, and this is something that I've been
touting too, is that people just dismiss the base version of these cars out of hand because
there are more powerful versions out there. And I was one of them. Once you have it on these cars
and really drive them, you find out that there's a purity and a level of beautiful connectiveness
that the base cars really exhibit that sometimes a more powerful variant kind of masks because it
is so fast and it is so powerful. And I think that your book is really just a wonderful example
of that, and you really go into all that. So, one more time, there's a plug for Jeff's book
available everywhere. Appreciate it. And, you know, Jeff, you were good enough to me some time ago
to send me a signed copy of this. So, why don't we do this? If everyone out there who might want
this book, leave me a comment down below, and I will pick a comment and reach out, and I will
send the signed copy per Jeff to you so that you can start your own journey with the 987.1.
Let me say one last thing about this book. And that is, so this book was a give back. I don't
ever intend to make money on it. Any money we do make, I donate to charities. In this case,
they'll probably be car-related charities. The real value of this book is, and I've read comments
from people on Amazon and stuff, and on the blogs. They love the book. They read it over and over
again. They really appreciate it. But what I would ultimately like to see happen is that this helps
people not make mistakes around these cars, helps them keep these cars going, but that it ends up
in their glove box so that they have a reference whenever they're out on the road. And if something
happens or they need some sort of assistance, hold the book out. There's so much information in there
for them. Truly make it easy. And there's lots of books out on boxters and Caymans. And Robert
McGowan has a good book on practically free boxters. It's fantastic. It covers a range of boxters.
And then there's Wayne Dempsey that has the 101 Boxter Projects. That's mostly for the 986s
and maybe some of the early 987s. But I felt like this book filled a void, which is why I wrote it
this way and created the content around it the way I did, was so that you had a complete range of
information to really appreciate these cars. And then if you do own them, to make sure that you
get the most out of them. So end of commercial. That's a 987.1 survival guide. And it makes
a lot of sense. Unfortunately, per what you're saying, Jeff, if you do the deferred maintenance
and the regular maintenance, your car won't break. So you'll just have to read it for fun
as you're out of red light, I suppose. Well, you do need maintenance parts from time to time.
That's fair. Jeff, thank you so much for taking the time. It was an absolute pleasure.
Derek, thank you. Really appreciate the time. Absolutely, man. Any time. And for all of you
out there, thanks again for listening to 11 After 9. And I will see you next Tuesday. Bye-bye now.
About this episode
Jeff Lehmann’s 987.1 Cayman/Boxster expertise sets the tone as the hosts tackle durability worries, then pivot to why these base cars feel so alive. They compare the 987.1’s rev-happy character and mid-engine sound to a 993, quantify drivetrain loss on a 997.1, and debate IMS/bore-scoring fears versus real-world risk. Practical used-buying advice follows—VIN/spec checks, PPI findings, and maintenance-first mod strategy—before closing with a 987.1 survival guide.
