Last week, Porsche UK announced a brief, three-round, six-race series featuring the original Boxster. They say it’s a celebration of the car’s 20th anniversary—though the math seems a bit off seeing as the car was for sale in ’96 as a ’97 model-year—but whatever the impetus may be, the result looks pretty interesting. Campaigned by English Porsche dealers, each car is judged not only for its on-track performance at circuits like Silverstone and Brands Hatch, but also for the quality of the restoration carried out on each car prior to the season.
The 986 Boxster is included in the Porsche Classic parts database now, so it’s a neat little way of highlighting the potential that still lives in the egg-eyed sports car while nudging it further into classic car territory.
The restorations aren’t simply mechanical either, for the judging also takes the liveries into consideration. So rather than a pack of beat-up bodies wearing haphazard sponsor logos and rolling around on garish spray-painted wheels, you’ll see homages to the Pink Pig, the Hippie Car, the Le Mans-winning Salzburg 917, and other mainstays of the marque’s motorsport history rendered on the controversial form of the Boxster. For a car that’s been going through a renaissance of sorts in the past few years due to its measurable assets, it’s a wise move to focus on the aesthetics here.
Why limit this format to the Boxster though? There’s nothing wrong with the various Miata series that run around the world—I’d love to enter one one day—but let’s not kid ourselves and say that a silver MX-5 with an orange roll bar and orange wheels and “Stinky Steve’s Septic Services” emblazoned on its flanks is a pretty car to look at as it hustles around the track. The idea of a one-make race will always be intriguing for its democratic nature, but damn, how cool would they be if the cars had to look good too?
Imagine a pack of E30s sporting quality recreations of Procar liveries; a paddock full of 510s with modified BRE schemes and the correct bodywork to boot; or some Deltas wearing Martini and ToTip stripes. It doesn’t have to be affordable or realistic, but there are definitely some viable options out there as well. Which series would you like to see?
