Is this the "second coming" ?

Yep, on the 21st of the month.

What the heck..I am not i understand where this thread is going now.

On a related note, and maybe I need to repent for this, I test drove a 996 this past weekend. Have to say I liked it a lot...mostly the extra power it had. I am not sure about the rear engine tho vs the boxster, I really like the precision of the boxster. Best tho was the car I drove had a PSE. I LOVED it ...especially compared to my stock boxster s exhaust. I might have to get a borla or something soon to keep me happy with the box.

Comet

Johnny, it's actually the opposite, H.P. is a function of Torque x RPM:

HowStuffWorks "How do you convert engine torque to horsepower?"

They're really one in the same aren't they ? Anyway, my point was that hp at the wheel
(i.e. ft./lbs of torque) is a more critical indication of a vehicle's power output than hp at the crank. .

This makes me think back to when I first autocrossed the BoxsterS. I was matching and in some cases beating the times of guys with the standard 996. Granted they weren't the best drivers present but that's sort of the point.

I drove all the 996s. I found the standard to be the most agile. The Turbo, C4S the least. Actually the C4S felt like a boat. C4S Cabriolet felt like a wet noodle boat. 996 Cabriolet I would not even bother to drive -- cutting the roof off that car of all cars makes as much sense as putting chrome spinners on a F430. and I was once a passenger in a 996 GT3 during a downpour that came out of nowhere. Not safe. Out of alignment: dangerous

Torque is what gets your car moving and lets you pull things (move weight) . a large torque number will help you down low in the revs . if a motor does not have a good balance between torque and horse power it will feel slow. typically motors than rev well have lower torque numbers. our Boxsters could use i bit more in the torque department.

I suppose it's all relative to what comparisons you're drawing. It's likely just your incredible driving abilities that give you the ability to see the drastic differences between these cars. However, I've spent a notable amount of time wringing out a 02 996 C4S Cabrio and to say it's a "wet noodle boat" is just well...silly. No , it's not as precise as my Boxster S. It's really not that much quicker in a straight line. But a "wet noodle boat"??? Negative...Perhaps you need to slum it for a bit and relearn what a "wet noodle boat" is, because saying such a thing about any 996 stinks of petulance.

Sorry the higher the asking price the higher the bar. As for slumming it, I've driven plenty of convertible cars that were not meant to be minus a rigid roof. The C4S reminded me of them. I'd add one convertible M3 to that as well.
However, I have driven properly set up Cabs and C4s that were totally different but that's not the same in my book because of the expense required to make them what other much less expensive cars are right out of the box.