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Crash said:
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69bossnine said:
Who knows what Porsche will come up with next. But, if it doesn't have a flat six nestled all the way out back, they've got no REASON to call it a "911", when they've got nine hundred and ninety-nine OTHER 3-digit numbers they could throw at whatever new contraptions they want to "move us toward".
If Porsche ever ceases to produce what we've always known to be the 911, the number will die with it. That you can
bet your life on.
Agreed. If you want a mid-engine car, buy a Cayman or a Lambo/Ferrari. No real enthusiast would even THINK about changing the 911 concept.
On another note, with gas prices going up and the retarded public opinion slowly turning against high-powered cars, I really don't think the horsepower wars are going to continue for all that long. Do you really think power is going to keep increasing until 2010 or 2015? Get real, the public won't tolerate 800 HP AMG sedans and 700 HP mass produced Porsches and Ferraris running about. I think the era is slowly but surely coming to a close, unless a replaceable and more environmentally friendly fuel source can be found.
Gotta disagree here. People who look at SUV's and big thirsty/heavy sedans in disgust may have a point. But people who would look at high-horsepower as a vulgarity are just ignorant.
High horsepower and good economy are not mutually exclusive.
Sports cars are light weight (relatively) and aerodynamic by nature. Whether you've got 500 h.p. on tap, or 100 h.p., those are PEAK figures. The amount of power it takes to maintain a constant speed in any particular car is a constant. How efficiently an engine can deliver that dose of power to maintain that speed is what dictates your mileage. Many mega-horsepower cars get superb mileage on the highway (Corvette, both base and Z06 for instance), and do fairly well around town as well, if you just keep your foot out of it and accelerate comparably to what an econo-box would.
In addition, technologies are rapidly advancing, including cylinder deactivation, and things like that, to boost fuel efficiency on hi-po engines that only need a fraction of their cylinders to keep the car moving steadily down the road.
Look at it this way. Displacement and horsepower represent potential power and speed. Weight, driveline friction, aerodynamics, and engine efficiency represent fuel economy. You can have both in a nutty-powerful car.
Just one case in point:
2006 Chevy Corvette, 400 h.p.:
EPA 18 mpg city, 28 mpg hwy
2006 Honda Accord EX V6, 244 h.p.:
EPA 20 mpg city, 29 mpg hwy
Not that big of a difference between the sensible sedan and the high-twelve-second rocket, eh??
A powerful car hardly takes any throttle to cruise around at speed. An economy car is working hard maintaining 80 mph. Of course, all that displacement means that you're never going to be as good, or better, than a small economy engine. But it's just ignorant to assume that all high-powered cars are gas hogs. Our 997's are pretty thrifty, compared to most of what's running around my town.
. Not sure what I think about that.
