Big things come in small Boxsters

I’ll admit, as a teenager, I had a snotty, sarcastic side. When my girlfriend’s dad brought home a Porsche Boxster in 2000, his son and I gave him a hard time about buying the “baby Boxster.” His son told him it wasn’t a real Porsche unless it was a 911. We were both talking tough from behind our car magazines and high school egos, so he taught us a valuable lesson about speed and life.

To our young minds, the faster car was automatically the better car because getting from one point to another as fast as possible had to be the end goal of a car. We only saw in terms of speed and horsepower. So, Mr. Baker asked us if we planned on being professional race drivers, to which we replied, “No...”

Mr. Baker shook his head, and then he explained that the car that a person is looking for is dependent upon one’s end goal of driving. Is this for pleasure, for pursuit, for speed, for survival? Each of type of car follows different rules and is for a different role. We wouldn’t use a Phillips head screwdriver for a flathead screw, so why use a race car like the 911 when you’re really doing the work of a day-cruiser like the Boxster? It didn’t make sense to spend a significant amount more money to own horsepower that he would never use, when what he really wanted was something that had all of the amazing Porsche trimmings of the higher-end models along with the better fuel efficiency and friendlier ride, especially in a sprawled out city like Charlotte with frequent starts and stops. He wanted something that he could drive every day if he wanted to and not to have to haul out of town on the weekends just because he wanted to open it up.

And as he also taught us that a bird doesn’t have to have the biggest wings to still be able to fly. We took full advantage of the smooth power of that little beast that summer and tore up the beltway at night. I thought we were getting a ticket on a Friday night one time, but it turned out we had just slowed down as we passed the cop, and when he pulled us over, he was only looking for our age for driving curfew. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. So don’t be fooled, dear readers - big things come in small Boxsters.

-Trey Fennell