Thanks for input everyone, keep it coming, especially those who test drove and/or own(ed) one.
To answer everyone's questions, no sadly, I can't drop $80k on a car and not feel it. I can in theory afford the Pcar, and frankly, if I end up going this route, I'll prob be looking for '17 or '18 low miles car anyway as people say the initial depreciation is downright depressing. I can do the basic maintenance myself, plus a friend (see below) just told me of a guy who used to work at Porsche who has for years now had a garage 10 min away from me where he specializes in german cars, and is reasonably priced.
Side story: hung out with a few friends yesterday, one has an '08 (I think) Cayenne which he got of a lease about 4 yrs old and 40k on it, he now has 155k on it and is looking to sell it, wants to get a Panamera. I got good idea of repairs and maintenance that he's had to do on it. Then so happens that another acquaintance had a '14 Panamera -- drove that last night -- that he is currently selling b/c he just bought an '08 911 4S Cab (in retrospect, although almost no alcohol was involved, this may have been the funnest Halloween ever
Then walked into the office this morning and one of my bosses is there with a brand new 718 Boxster S fully fully f'in loaded. Just drove that also and I'll say it sure is an impressive car if I can swing for the S with not to mention some of the performance options.
I have no intention of modding the car in any way. I'm looking for a DD primarily, and hope to start doing at least a few track events a year, which would of course require brakes, brake fluids, tires. But between the Z already being a great cruiser/GT car, and the uncertainty of what's happening in the US over the next year or two with the 718 models featuring 4T I AM REALLY TORN.