Cooled PORSCHE’S COUPE HAS LESS SPICE
ASTON Martin has launched this stunning Roadster version of its new Vantage.
Powered by the same twin-turbo 510bhp
4.0-litre V8 engine as the coupé, it has a top speed of
190mph and does 0-60mph in
3.7sec. The Roadster is from £126,950, but deals are out there that will put one on your drive for
£795 a month.
IT took it a long time but Porsche has taken the sandpaper to the Cayenne and smoothed its back end to turn it into an SUV coupé.
It’s the same trick BMW did to its X5
10 years ago, turning it into the X6. We’re killing two birds with one stone this week and testing the plug-in hybrid version of the car.
Actually, Porsche makes two PHEV Cayennes: a fairly sensible one with a
3.0-litre V6 petrol engine and another called the Turbo S E-Hybrid, which has a total of 680bhp and costs £125,000.
We’re coming slightly closer to the ground with the former model – although, as you will read later, it’s far from cheap.
The designers have gone about turning the Cayenne into a coupé in a suitably Porsche-like thorough fashion.
It’s slightly longer than the standard car and weighs a bit more. The roof has been lowered by 10mm, but don’t worry about passengers having to duck because the rear seats have been lowered by 30mm.
Two bucket seats in the back are standard, but you can order a bench seat for three if you want for no extra cost.
The coupé’s boot is 100 litres smaller than the regular car’s and a further
100 litres smaller with the hybrid powertrain, because the batteries are under the boot floor.
It’s still a decent size and you can fold the seats 40/20/40 and slide them back or forth to increase legroom or luggage space.
Porsche has also added another spoiler, an electrically operated one on the tailgate to keep the aerodynamics in order.
Up front is a 3.0-litre V6 with a single turbocharger. Power output is 340bhp – which combined with a 136bhp electric motor gives a useable total of 462bhp.
The car is four-wheel drive, of course, with the power going to the wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Interestingly, it’s an old-school torque convertor version rather than a doubleclutch unit (which Porsche calls PDK) because the engineers say a torque convertor is better for off-roading.
As if this car will ever do that. Porsche claims an electric-only range of 18 miles if you start with fully-charged batteries. Good luck with that. Even being careful, I didn’t manage half that distance.
When you do have the car running on electric power it’s virtually silent. And it’s not much noisier when the petrol engine kicks in.
This version of the Cayenne Coupé costs £71,424 but, as usual with test cars, ours wears a healthy list of options, which bring the total up to a hefty £93,000. Twenty grand of add-ons! Can you believe seat heaters are an option? This is where Porsche makes its money. One option that does make sense is the £1,511 air suspension system, which takes bump absorption and body control to another level.
Also effective is rear-wheel steering at
£1,448. It sharpens up the handling and increases stability at speed.
An option you must buy is the £606
7.2kW on-board AC charger, which cuts charging time at home to 2.2 hours. My verdict? If you love the looks of the Cayenne Coupé over the regular car you’ll find the extra money, extra weight and reduced luggage space worth it. And the hybrid version is a no-brainer if you’re a business user because all the petrol models attract the top 37% bracket in benefit-in-kind tax.