[f6fhellcat13]

Wow, Leon. I feel a "this" is in order.

Ten years ago, maybe even fifteen (as I still think it's the early '00s), it would have been Ferrari in a heartbeat. Porsche was making just the 996 and the Boxster. Both of these cars were underwhelming stylistically and were not lusted after by young boys (me). They were very civilized, none of the lunacy of dangerous rear-heavy air-cooled panzers.
Ferrari, on the other hand, was making the 355 and the 360, both of which were sights to behold. Ferrari was not quite at the peak of its game, but it was doing quite well. Their cars were new and exiting and all Lambo had to offer was the botoxed and facelifted, but still old-looking Diablo. In other words Ferrari was winning the bedroom-poster war.
A Ferrari was a rare treat that made me smile and think what I would do when I grew up and had a million dollars, the Porsches where just cars that my mom swore at, and told me not to use the words she used.
Ferrari had so much further to to fall.

Then, in the early '00s, it went horribly wrong for both of them. Porsche: the creator of so many light, lithe, but not-quite-special-enough sportscars released what can only be classified as a lump. I was pretty sure that the Cayenne was a badly done custom job in which somebody had the front of their SUV replaced with a Boxster front-end. When I learned this was a Porsche I was not as heartbroken as you might expect, as I never had very high standards for Porsches (I was too young and not enough into cars to know about their rather epic past).

However, when Ferrari stopped putting pop-up headlights on their cars and went into a Schumacher-induced state of pride (which the Church of Ferrari, the Catholic Church, lists as the worst of the Seven Deadly sins), they lost their specialness and became too serious, too Japanese, and too German. Though now I appreciate (but, critically, I don't like) the understated F430's styling, back then it was horribly boring and so un-Italian and un-Ferrari. To the present day, Ferrari has continued in this vein. The Enzo is a shockingly ugly car and the California makes me want to bomb the factory and cease to be a Californian. I also like to root for the underdog, and when I started watching F1, the massive throngs of tifosi turned me away. We go on and on about how stupid the average motorist is, on this site, and the average motorist is a Ferrari fanboy. Those of you with amazing memories and those of you who are stalking me will note that I voted for the 599 in the recent 599 vs. DBS thread. This is because I acknowledge the 599 to be the better car, but it has no soul or charisma. I would rather have a 911 S than one, and the only reason I picked it over the DBS is because of the Aston's factory-rice look, which I feel is worse than boring.

Porsche on the other hand was making what in my view were pretty boring cars. I had accepted that the 996 and the Boxster were boring looking and that the Cayenne was there and was stupid. These were just facts of life. But, then, Porsche came out with the 997, one of my favorite looking cars at the time. At the same time I started seeing more old Porsches as well, 993s, 914s, the occasional 356 etc... These cars blew me away. Porsche could only really rise from where it had been, and I love almost all of the 997 variants as well as the Cayman and Carrera GT (a truly handsome car, in my opinion.)

You might notice that I have included almost nothing about either of the companies' histories. My views of Ferrari and Porsche are firmly rooted in my earlier impressionable years. As I've grown older, I've begun to learn and appreciate what came before me from these two a little more. Even in that I am a bigger fan of Porsche. I have always been more interested in the late 60s/70s than I am in the 50s(that's not to say I don't like things from the 50s). 908s, 935s, and 917 ruled the world then. Beyond that, in the 80s, Porsche kept winning and kept making attractive(ish) car. The "folded paper" Ferraris for the mid-70s to late-80s are downright ugly in my opinion. The mid-70s to late 80s were a styling cluster**** for all manufacturers, but Porsche managed to weather the storm and produce cars with curves.

I have left some pretty large holes in this, but I don't feel like writing any more.

For me: Porsche.