Funny things happens when talking about perspectives on cars.

My impression is that Porsche actually is toying with Ferrari/Lambo on performance, it's like me doing a bike race with Lance Armstrong, he is can be much faster than I but he won't race full speed, he would let me catch up and pass and bit a little bit of a lead, letting me think I got the upper hand, then he would pedal a little bit harder and pass me again, not much but just enough to take the lead and let me play catch up again.

997 Turbo is just that little bit ahead of F430/G, not blowing it away but enough to make people think about upgrading to the next version of F430/G. When that one comes out, Porsche, like Lance in the bike race, pedal ahead a little bit with the next Turbo S and plays the game all over.

So depends on which perspective one is taking side, Ferrari/Lambo or Porsche is the one playing catch-up.

From the marketing point of view, clearly Porsche is the Lance Armstrong of the sports car race, they, unlike Ferrari/Lambo, don't need to go full speed on the next model, just enough is already good enough, there is no need to go 100% as the competition is working 100% just to keep up. The sales figure told the tale, Porsche didn't need to go all out to have a successful car, just enough is already good enough.

THAT, actually validates one of nberry's point of view, he hates Porsche for not going all out with their cars, 911 are always the just enough cars. I hate to agree with nberry but on this front he is right, the 997 Turbo is engineered as a just enough car, but a car that has Ferrai/Lambo sweating for the next version to counter, but they already know full well that if the next F430/G is not truely specticular, Porsche will again do the toying part with the next Turbo S.

These are what fuel the buying of sports cars, kinda makes me wonder if Porsche and Ferrari don't have a secret cartel on suckering people to buy more cars.