Porsche launches prettier Panamera
missile stability at high speed.
Three chamber air suspension comes as standard fitment, and together with clever electromechanical anti-roll bars offers a ride quality that ranges from plush like a duck down duvet, to tight as a grasshopper’s hamstring at the push of a button. The test route at last week’s media launch in Dubai involved mostly long, straight stretches of desert highway where its softest settings made hundreds of kilometers disappear into blissful oblivion. But then when a rare string of bends arose, sportier modes saw the twoton luxobarge hunker down with a tar-to-rubber magnetism I’ve never before experienced in this class of car.
What class is that? Yeah, that’s a difficult one. Somewhere between four-door coupe, luxury limo and ultimate hatchback. Technically this is an A7, CLS, Gran Coupe or Ghibli competitor, but the Panamera leans way more toward the “race me, race me, I was born at the Nurburgring” performance end of the sports sedan spectrum.
The South African range will kick off with 4S and Turbo variants near the end of the February, with base (rear-wheel drive) Panamera, normal (less powerful) 4 and extended wheelbase models expected to land later. The plug-in E-Hybrid probably won’t make it to our market.
The 4S gets an all-new 2.9-litre V6 with two turbos nestled between the cylinder banks in similar style to Merc’s latest high-performance engines. Outputs are set at 324kW and 550Nm - good enough for claimed 0-100km/h times of 4.2 seconds with a top speed of 289. The Turbo’s 4-litre V8 sees the same inner-V turbo arrangement, but power here is up to 404kW and 770Nm and 0-100km/h happens in 3.6 seconds (not a typo!) with a max speed of 306.
Both, and all forthcoming models have exchanged seven-speed PDK autoboxes for new eight-speeders which Porsche confidently says is the “best shifting dual-clutch transmission ever”. While “best shifting” is quite the ambiguous statement, we won’t argue that it’s indeed up there with the best in the business in terms of smoothness in comfort, and sharpness in sport modes. A clever new InnoDrive system also uses radar, cameras and GPS data to preview the road ahead for up to 3km and prime the PDK with ideal shift maps.
The majority of my time was spent at the wheel of a 4S so I can’t really comment on the range-topping Turbo’s frightening performance claims. But let me tell you, the lesser V6 still packs a hefty enough punch to stand toe-to-toe with the quickest AMGs, Ms and RSs from rival brands. This is a seriously quick machine, with sublime handling and enough electronica to win over even the geekiest technophile. It’s good to look at too.
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PRICES: Panamera 4S R1 564 000 Panamera Turbo R2 441 000
Includes three-year Porsche Driveplan