911 envy ?

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by coreseller

In the Porsche model line up, since 1996, that [entry level] is exactly what it is.

Which Porsche, to their credit, have cleverly exploited to build up the Carrera image. First by inexplicably declaring the best engines off limits to a car that isn't even in the same category of sports car as the Carrera to create this pseudo hierarchy. They did it to the Boxster and then the Cayman. But the most ironic thing of all about an " entry level " or "stepping stone car" that their marketing people used so effectively to upsell the Carrera, is that it is born of the very insecurity you speak of: Porsche's obvious as the Sun insecurity that equipping non-Carrera cars with their finest engines would reveal that their flagship car was not the most capable track performer. Porsche have been insecure about their flagship car for 50 years. Inexplicably tall 1st gears in the Box/Cayman to deliberately make it slower than a base Carrera's launch start? You don't get anymore transparently insecure than that. No other sports car company would have fabricated this forced hierarchy. A point made all the more obvious when a Cayman won its class (against factory supported rivals) in the Rolex 24 with no support from Porsche or any real acknowledgment either.
They're insecure even when their own badge takes the checkered flag if the winning Porsche is not their commercial favorite!

P.s.
I believe base Cayennes were the cheapest Porsche you could buy in certain years since the SUV was introduced. It hasn't always been the Boxster even if the auto journalists didn't always bother to check.

[ghostrider300]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Which Porsche, to their credit, have cleverly exploited to build up the Carrera image. First by inexplicably declaring the best engines off limits to a car that isn't even in the same category of sports car to create this pseudo hierarchy. They did it to the Boxster and then the Cayman. But the most ironic thing of all about an " entry level " or "stepping stone car" that their marketing people used so effectively is that it is born of the very insecurity you speak of: Porsche's obvious as the Sun insecurity that equipping non-Carrera cars with their finest engines would reveal that their flagship car was not the most capable track performer. Porsche have been insecure about their flagship car for 50 years. No other sports car company would have fabricated this forced hierarchy. A point made all the more obvious when a Cayman won its class (against factory supported rivals) in the Rolex 24 with no support from Porsche or any real acknowledgment.
They're insecure even when their own badge takes the checkered flag.

I agree with you 100%, I know Porsche wants to protect the cash cow but look at it this way, they have more cows in the pasture, it's not like they are Kodak trying to protect film as their sole high profit product.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by ghostrider300

I agree with you 100%, I know Porsche wants to protect the cash cow but look at it this way, they have more cows in the pasture, it's not like they are Kodak trying to protect film as their sole high profit product.

The most bizzare thing about this 50 year old strategy is that a mid engine or even front engine car with the finest Porsche NA and Turbo engines could have easily coexisted with the Carrera..and might have kept them far away from even the whiff of bankruptcy. Instead they used the best engines towards an all eggs in one model basket strategy and nearly lost the company in the middle of a U.S. economic boom when Americans were buying two of everything (mid-late 1990's).
Stubborn c-blocking of their own Porsches... Whats wrong with putting the best engines in all their cars and letting the chips fall where they may on the race track? What Porsche learned since those days of putting it all behind the 911, as far as top engine allocation, is that the Porsche brand is bigger than the Carrera loyalists. They protected the Carrera for 50 years only to come to the realization that their obvious insecurities were misplaced since their greatest pay days would come from non-Carrera models (Cayenne/Pana) that the 911 purists/worshipers all dismissed.

[Topless]

Originally Posted by ghostrider300

I agree with you 100%, I know Porsche wants to protect the cash cow but look at it this way, they have more cows in the pasture, it's not like they are Kodak trying to protect film as their sole high profit product.

... And the biggest cash cow of them all, eclipsing all Porsche sports car sales in 2012:

The Pepperwagen. Who knew?

Porsche Reports Best-Ever Sales in 2012; 21 percent increase over 2011

[Ian c]

And some of the guys in charge on fraud charges ....