I was reading one of the new car mags and they stated that the new Aston Martin V8 will have a 385 hp 4.3 L V8. This car was originally supposed to have in the 325 hp range with a 3200 lb. weight. Apparently they saw the writing on the wall, and realized that they had to be proactive with this car. I wish Porsche would do the same thing. 340 hp flat 6 (and even worse conrresponding weight increase) sounds farther & farther from being competitive. Either give me a car 200 lbs. lighter (highly unlikely) or a car that has 350-360 hp. I will pay for like or better (than the Vette, M3, AMG SLK, etc) performance but not substantially worse.

 

You raise a good point, and one that's been troubling me for awhile. Every new "sports" car these days is capable of running 0-60 times in the mid 5s and below. Subaru's and Mitsu's can run these times, too. The new Mustang (not Saleen, Roush, Cobra, or Boss) will run approx. a mid 5.

Then you move up to the $40-60 range, and the Corvette pretty much obliterates the money/speed ratio for the rest of us.

I don't know about you guys (except for the GT2/3, TT owners), but I feel that the exclusivity -- only in terms of speed, mind you -- that comes with a Porsche has waned considerably. You can't beat the feel, but you can beat the 0-60 speeds that serve as a benchmark for a lot of drivers.

We willingly spend $70-100K+ for our Porsches, and pay $10K for a relatively weak performance upgrade. So, why not drop the weight, increase the HP, do something, and make the finished product, be it $5 -10K more, something that Corvettes, BMWs, Aston Martins, you name it, aspire towards.

We're falling behind the curve.

Oh yeah, and my next car will be a TT.

 

"Oh yeah, and my next car will be a TT."

given porsche makes much much more dough on the tt, maybe that's their goal

 

I don't know... I do worry that Porsches are getting too bloated. But on a drive this Sunday, I pulled at will on a friend's new Subaru WRX STI - any gear, any speed. Corvette Coupe with perf mods we go head to head. Corvette converitble, I pull on him from 0-100; 1/4 - 1/2 car length per gear.

Now if I could get them to the track, the 996 would seriously shine - lap after lap.

But since we've embraced the Cayenne, Porsche needs to keep our 911's true to the sports car theme: light, quick, responsive.

$0.02