My 2 cents, In Europe during late 90's in our heavy straw and higher moisture crops the Claas 480 was "smoking" every other combine put up against it.JD tried to counter act this by introducing the 465hp 9880sts in 2002.Because of all the talk on these boards and the internet in general about "biggest combine etc" JD was "forced" due to market demand to introduce the 9860sts along with the rest of the 60 series.I believe that the 9760 would have as much performance as any operator will need in N.America and is a helluva cheaper to boot!!! Claas has now carried on the "horsepower" challenge by introducing the(world record holder harvesting 1080 tons of wheat in 15 hours!!) massive 512hp 580 lexion,it will be interesting to see if "market forces" get it to bring it to N.America.