Nick

FWIW it is my understanding many present owners of the Elise are looking to get out of it. Nice tossable car but other than track work not very practical.

Regarding Porsche and the lack of hp, understand Porsche does not give anything away. It has models with plenty of hp but you must pay for it. Also understand, it is a mass produced sport car and thus it must cater to a wider consumer base. Very much like Ford and GM.

mooty

don't give up on the elise. get it, it's a pure driver's car.
without the LSS wheels, it's $500 less. you can pick up a set of SSR wheels which is almost as light.
it's a absolute useless and impractical car, BUT if you like driving, you will love it. on streets, i love mine more than my 993 or gt3 ;-)

Alan Smithee

Mooty, I just noticed that you have another car that I'm considering as well...'05 S4 Avant. Basically, I'm considering going from my E46 M3 to the S4/Elise combo. Also considering a track prepared 993 instead of the Elise. The GF drives the 997 primarily.

dnp_now

Lets be honest. HP and 0-60 are very important indicators, just as price and badge of your car. Why else would every iteration of the next model has more hp and better 0-60 than the previous model.

But everyone who has a por$che$ or is considering buying should understand they have never been about value, and best bang for your buck. Neither are super exclusive sportscars (ferrari, lambo, aston martin), super luxury cars and exclusive sportscar club (nsx, porsches, SL, etc).

If money was not a problem, we would be talking about Ferarris, Lambo, Mercedes SLR. But since it is, we have to be a bit more choosey.

cooz

YES.....there was no need for 997 Carrera & Carrera "S".

I think they should have marketed one 997 with new increased hp engine (355-375) including bigger red brakes standard.

then we could have a 300hp boxster "S" and a 325 boxster coupe.

mooty

alan, i noticed i a can't pm you?

'05 S4 Avant: great daily drive, lots of torque, suspension is just firm enough for street and still comfy. this is no M3 and not meant to be. interior is light years ahead of any bimmer or porsches. BUT, yu get 14mpg on avg.

haven't driven elise on track. but my mechanic doesn't think the elise will last if i put 5000 track miles on it a year. 993 is more bullet proof, but it's heavy and feels totally different than elise. if you want a nice track prep'd 993, search under user ACW. he has a great C4S modded to wazoo and is ready to sell.

The_Phantom

I agree with you but I think that the reason Porsche didn't go north of 400 or at least closer to 400 is that then the 997S would have more hp than the GT3 (at least on paper), and I don't think Porsche wants that. Imagine a 2005 996 GT3 base price $100K and a 2005 997 911S base price of $75K and the less expensive car has more or almost the same hp? Actually if you went north of 400 it would have as much as a 996 non-S turbo which has 415, (plus no turbo lag) and 996 Turbos base at something like $115K. But it is kind of ridiculous that in a world where cars are coming with more hp all of the time, the Porsche would come out with a new model 997 with the same 320 as the 996. Bearing those considerations in mind, the only way they could have increased the hp substantially in the 997 would be to come out with a complete new line of cars or not make certain models (i.e. Turbo, GT3, GT2) for the first (few) year(s).

CO997

Fishman all you say makes sense. Like I said I'm happy with my car and have no complaints. That being said some improvement in HP over the 996 would have been welcome. I would have imagined that the next generation GT3's and turbo's would have more HP the the previous models so in the end it would have all balanced out. I'm sure there is some sort of plan at Porsche to keep all these cars in order with the proper HP. They seem to have done pretty good the last 50 years or so anyway.

Randy M

Thanks, I've enjoyed all of the comments.

scycle2020

the 997s shouldhave been the base model, with perhaps a power kit option for 30more hp....the 997s is very fast, low 4s to lower to 60 according to the car mags..after having driven this car, i can tell you it feels very , very fast withgood torque down low..it acctually feels faster than the 360 spider i used to have...its the fastest 355 hp car i have ever driven by a mile..porsches have never been about big hp or monster engines..it is about feel, handling, well built , indistructalbe cars with a nice sounding free reving engine....