[Lightning]

Funny someone should mention Toyota. Wiedekin actual brought a bunch of manufacturing experts from Toyota to visit Porsche in the early '90s (I think) because Porsche was almost hand-assembling 911s and 968s, and they were projected to lose money on their cars and/or price themselves out of the mainstream sports car market. Toyota's consultants actually helped Porsche not only restructure their manufacturing, but also their design. That's why ever since the 986 and 996, the common component content has gone way up (sometimes as much as maybe 40%). Before that, even the 924 had every since piece custom designed and manufactured for it.

The Boxster was the first result of this cooperation, and the profits from the car actually saved the company, which is why Wiedekin was a hero back then. So no, the Stuttgart factory was not designed as an automated factory from the start, it was retrofitted to get the most bang for the buck.

As far as Porsches vs. Vettes, I was at Laguna Seca for the final ALMS race last year, and at the finish I was in the last grandstand at Start/Finish. Geez! First deFerran comes by in the LMP1 Acura, with Fernandez right behind him in the Acura LMP2. After a few seconds, you see a Porsche and a Corvette come through the last corner, both fighting for the same line. Apparently the Corvette guys had been playing pretty rough in their new GT2 car all day, so no one was going to give them quarter at the end of the day. They they both start leaning into the pit wall, and then literally sparks started flying, and when the Corvette spun accross the track and hit the right side right of the track before the finish line, everybody who had been standing right against the chain link fence ducked or jumped, and then scattered! Man!