Prettier Panamera launched
Porsche has continued with its current trend of getting the looks right second time around, with the reveal of the all-new Panamera.
Like the Cayenne, Porsche seems to have nailed the second-gen Panamera, eschewing the awkward ‘‘humpy’’’profile of the previous car for a far sleeker and more cohesive look.
Despite looking lower and more sporty, the new Panamera is 34mm longer (5049mm), 6mm wider (1937mm) and 5mm taller (1423mm) than the previous car.
The sleek look (particularly around the rear hatch) is primarily due to the reduced height above the rear of the passenger compartment – reduced by 20mm – which changes the car’s silhouette completely.
Three powertrains will be available at launch. All are more powerful, with significantly improved fuel economy and reduced emissions.
A 404kW V8 petrol engine powers the Panamera Turbo, with a 324kW petrol V6 driving the Panamera 4S. In the Panamera 4S diesel, a 310kW V8 does the honours – with a massive 850Nm of torque.
All of the engines – including the diesel, for the first time – are offered with a permanent all-wheel drive system and a new eightspeed Porsche dual-clutch transmission (PDK).
The Turbo and 4S will launch locally in the first quarter of 2017, with the diesel to follow. Pricing starts at $275,300 for the 4S, with the 4S diesel costing $284,900. The Turbo tops the range at $346,300.
When I first met him at the international launch of the Lamborghini Gallardo back in 2003, South Africaneducated designer, Luc Donckerwolke, confessed to me that hadn’t expected to design ‘‘so many holes’’ when he joined Lamborghini.
The task should have come as no great surprise given that midengine supercars rely upon their engine heat-relieving vents as much as John Key leans upon the support of his public image manager.
This reliance makes it difficult to design a supersports car that cuts a visual dash with its clean and elegant looks. And when it is to bear the four-ring Audi badge, that’s exactly what the design brief requires, given that the marque is wedded to a simplistic Bauhausinspired design philosophy.
This is probably why it took a further four years for the sister-car to Donckerwolke’s signature vehicle to emerge.
Audi would continue to showcase the proposed looks of its coming R8 at major motor shows, allowing the Gallardo to enjoy a sibling rival-free charge up the sales charts as the best-selling and most-convincing Lamborghini ever.
Donckerwolke had also expressed his doubts that he had created a car as iconic and enduring in its design as a Porsche 911, back when we shared a lunch table at the Vallelunga race circuit in Italy.
However, his masters would soon confirm that he had, by putting the Gallardo into production for 13 years straight with just a few small detail changes to update it.
Meanwhile, at every motor show there’d be the unveiling of a further Audi supercar prototype, and when the production R8 finally emerged in 2008, it still wasn’t right. From some angles it looked clumsy – a supercar sin for which there is no forgiveness.
There’s no such proportional imbalance to the newestgeneration R8, however. It’s gone from a mobile statue that could have been shaped by Joan Miro to one could have been chiselled by Michelangelo.
Although few dimensions have changed other than the parking space-challenging addition of an extra 40mm of width, there’s now an elegance that was AWOL in the appearance of the first R8.
I even like the fixed rear spoiler that replaces an active aero-aid on the New Zealand version. It’s discreet, tasteful, and artfully fashioned in carbon-fibre, so hold all those HSV jokes please.
The new interior is no less successful, and quite possibly makes the best use of the digital cockpit that has become the signature feature on the most recently released Audis.
This allows the R8 to dispense with the usual centrally mounted screen, as all information is displayed on the multi-screen instrument binnacle instead. This frees up space for some beautifully designed HVAC switches, and the R8 interior has the minimalist control layout that matches Audi’s design ethos.
By contrast, a Porsche 911 could have had all its multiple buttons and switches distributed around the cabin by a blunderbuss.
The one exception to this visual sanitation-by-design is the steering wheel of the R8, but there’s a compelling reason for Audi to cluster so many controls within its flat-bottomed rim.
In the SW and SSW positions are two controls that are the key to the multiple driving personalities of the R8.
The former is the ‘‘drive select’’ button that gives access to four driving modes – comfort, auto, dynamic, and individual. Let’s call that one the ‘‘Dr Jekyll’’ button, for each of these is quite sane, although dynamic is only marginally so.
The other is the performance button, and releases the R8’s ‘‘Mr Hyde’’ alter-ego. The engine screams, the gears smash noiselessly into one another, the steering carves, and Alpha-Audi pushes itself into the driver’s back with Cape Canaveral-strength.
You can tame the performance mode for either wet or snowy conditions, but it creates an Audi that is as wild as any Lamborghini (V12s included) in the dry setting. It also gives access to a launch control system that’ll catapult the car from rest to the open-road limit in three seconds flat.
When launched thus, the R8 gives its fat rear Pirelli P-Zeros quite a spin at first, which shows just how adaptive the four-wheeldrive powertrain is in 2016. The car will send all of its considerable power to the rear wheels if the occasion warrants it, and there’s no longer a default front-to-rear torque split.
This extra flexibility in engine output distribution has blessed the R8 with added agility to match its unflappable amounts of grip and stability. There’s a G-meter available in the multiple instrument options, and if you can afford to take your eyes off the road when really punting it through a corner, you can see lateral-force readings of more than 1.1g being registered on it.
But we all know supersports cars are seriously fast and can offer the grip of a police german shepherd.
What really separates them is how they perform in the real world, and the R8 is one of the most adept at everyday use. It’ll even register single-digit fuel use readings if you pussy-foot it. And you can hear the latest episode of The Archers ever-so-clearly on the 13-speaker B&O audio system as you tootle down to the shops to cash in the pension.
At $350,000, this car is also a bargain, but only when comparing it to the Lamborghini Huracan sibling-supercar that costs $70k more. And you get fewer holes.