Here's a beautiful picture of Briseis, my new Porsche Boxster a few hours after I bought her from Roger Beasley Porsche in Austin. This is north of the 360 bridge in Austin, Texas. It's a very recognizable land mark. Here's another picture taken later on a brighter day but with the front license plate removed. My Dad complained that he hasn't seen a boxster in person yet, so he was wondering what they look like from behind, since that's how he'll normally see them after they've passed him. This was also taken the day I bought her.
Here's another picture of Briseis at the entrance to Bull Creek park. Being the lady that she is, she wouldn't deign to ford the creek, but didn't mind posing by it. This is my favorite picture. I like how the light comes through the trees, and I really like the crumbling asphalt in the foreground. I'm no photographer so I can't explain it, but I like what it looks like. You poor schmucks using Windows probably won't appreciate it because Windows is very poor at color matching, meaning that this probably looks very dark to you. If so, correct your monitor so that the car looks light blue. Here's another picture of her at Bull Creek.
Here's one more picture of me with Briseis in the hills west of Austin. I'm about to participate in a friend's wedding. That's why I'm wearing a tux.
News Flash!
I've gotten recent news that Porsche is offering some new options for their cars in the United States. Here's the Texas Option, and this is the Los Angeles Option.
Spoiler
So good old Dad, living far from Austin, doesn't know what the spoiler looks like, so I'm adding a couple more pictures. Here is Briseis letting me know she's happy to see me. And here's another view from the side. The spoiler goes up when her engine is screaming and she's moving at 75mph. She doesn't calm down after that until she gets to 55mph. Of course, sometimes a gentle touch works as well, and for these pictures I just used the toggle switch to arouse her. Also notice that I removed the Boxster logo from the rear trunk lid. It just didn't work for me, it seemed too chintzy and made it harder to wax the car.
Why Briseis?
People often ask why my car is named Briseis and how it is pronounced. It is pronounced "bry-SEE-iss." It is the name of a very intersting lady in the immortal Homer's Iliad. She is a slave woman who belongs to Achilles (she was the daughter of a king of an island that they pillaged, boy those were the days!) and has become his defacto wife. After nine years of war with Troy, she is taken from Achilles by Agammemnon, the senior Greek king. The irony is that the war came about because Agammemnon's brother, Menelaus, had his wife, Helen, stolen from him by Paris, a prince of Troy. Achilles is not pleased with this behavior and sits out the war. This starts the entire story of the Iliad and the rage of Achilles as he goes on to kill Hector, breaker of horses, with the flashing helmet, etc. the son of Priam, King of Troy. But now I'm giving too much detail. Suffice it to say that I find the somewhat obscure character of Briseis to be fascinating and I named my car after this woman.
Briseis Unbridled
I took Briseis out to Texas World Speedway in March of '00. Here's a picture of the instructor telling me just a tiny part of what I was doing wrong. He couldn't possibly tell me everything I was doing wrong because there isn't enough time for it in a day! Suffice it to say that this is a lot harder than it looks. Thanks to Rob Grainger for cluing me in to the event and to Larry Whatley for donating his ticket to me. By the way Larry, you won the raffle (a boxster) but I told them you didn't want it.
I went out to the same track again on 18 and 19 August '00 with the Motorsport Club and did a lot better this time, even though I did have an Off Track Excursion (OTE). I was a lot more consistent and by the end I felt like I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Doing what I'm supposed to is a different story!
Here's a picture of me putting on my helmet. Rob Grainger's 944 is behind me and my instructor is giving advice. John was fantastic and I learned a lot from him.
After a little off-road excursion while at a driver's ed event in November 2000, I decided to change the look of Briseis' back end.
