Also people keep saying these cars are 10 years old, when in actual fact they're probably 15 years old in that they were on the drawing board being developed then put into production.
15 years ago 500 bhp was pretty impressive, now we are talking about cars with 1000 bhp as if it's what we 'expect' from a Supercar.
Also I think a gen 1 997, with 480 bhp was considered to be at the top end of what standard road cars would be running to keep them reasonably safe and not have people picking them selves out of the scenery every time they floor it!
I think it's testament to Porsche that they put such a good engine, the mezger, into their top end flagship car.
I drove the 997 gen 2 turbo that was for sale in March at Redline, that was running at I think, 670 bhp and whilst it did go really well, it certainly had an appetite for V power, I had the readout showing 9 mpg and I wasn't going nuts in it, not brave enough in a car I didn't know!