Slow In, Fast out

It’s been a long time coming, but Porsche’s new sport Turismo is basically the station wagon version of the Panamera limousine. As such, it is the second body shape in a range that might just speed off with the “Best wheels in the world” moniker. You know all about it: the tortoise and hare, a story by Greek fabulist Aesop. speed alone isn’t enough to win the race. slow and methodical may do as well. Yet, the real trick is to know when to be slow and when to be quick – when to be a hare and when to be a tortoise. slow in, for instance, and fast out is a commonly used phrase in racing parlance.

Porsche, the world’s foremost manufacturer of sports cars, has seemingly perfected this game, starting in 1948 with the 356 roadster plus a couple of racing car derivatives before the next big move: the iconic 911 model in 1964. sixteen years between the 356 and 911 is not exactly what one would call “at a hare’s pace”.

while it might have been slow in, it was fast out making the 911 into the world’s most beloved sports cars, a position it holds to this day. A couple of less well-renowned models followed, but Porsche’s next major move doubled the time lapse of the previous hiatus when the Boxster was introduced 32 years after the 911. Now, that’s slow going.

Post-boxster, things sped up a bit when it became patently obvious that the next

big thing in motoring would be the SUV. Disgruntled purists may have scoffed and cursed, but the Porsche Cayenne arrived in 2002, rocking the world not only by being the first Porsche ever to tower more than 1.3 m high and weigh more than 1.5 tonnes, but also by selling like hot cakes. Capitalising on this stunning success, a smaller SUV, the Macan, was introduced a dozen years later.

In between, Porsche also developed a hard-topped version of the soft-top Boxster and called it the Cayman, the gap between the two spanning a full decade. Biding its time, being measured when needed, and pouncing when it matters, yielded the car feared by the Mercedes-benz s-class and BMW 7-series: Enter the Porsche Panamera in 2009, a luxury sports limousine which looked like a tortoise and went like a hare.

The overall design closely mirrored that of the 911’s, albeit with an elongated section behind the front seats to create space for four adults. The Panamera shape was also a classic example of form following function, as the limo sported a large hatch at the back for easy access, instead of a conventionally boxed boot with a limited aperture. All of this led to challenging aesthetics, with the car’s Rubenesque contours and bloated, bulbous rear sitting uneasily on the eye.

Yet, Porsche’s grand new limo countered superlatively by upping the ante in terms of performance, dynamics, interior design, and quality, leaving the Panamera poised to annex the “Best Car in the world” tag – if it could just sort out the styling and ride on Version II.

second-generation Panameras, already on sale locally (including the 4 E-hybrid and longwheelbase models), look a lot sharper and sleeker, while ride quality has been improved via a host of technical improvements, not least three-chamber air springs plus a redeveloped chassis control system.

And the third requisite to bag that ultimate moniker? well, in their slow-burning way Porsche has taken five long years since the world was teased with a concept model called the Panamera Sport Turismo, first shown at the 2012 Paris Motor show. Now, the car has been launched internationally. The sport Turismo is a station wagon iteration of the Panamera, replete with all the fire power and technology – including standard all-wheel drive – that makes the limousine such a winner. The sport Turismo is also the looker at the Panamera stable, the rearranged rear sheet metal resulting in fully fleshed exotica of the kind associated with ample power and good health.

The range, which will be available locally in the last quarter, has been launched with a 3.0-liter V6 turbo (243 kw), a 2.9-liter V6 biturbo (324 kw), and a 4.0-liter V8 bi-turbo (404 kw), with a Turbo s E-hybrid waiting in the wings.

one interesting factoid about the sport Turismo is polyurethane foam cladding on the inner surfaces of the Michelin rubber that was developed for the Panamera range. At 10 km/h, 90% of noise inside a vehicle is generated by the engine. At 150 km/h, 80% of that noise is generated by tyres. Michelin’s Pilot Sport 3 rubber halves this figure, though, as the foam helps to absorb tyre vibration, reducing noise levels by up to 8 decibels.

slow in, fast out, and ever so silently when it comes to the interface between Mother Earth and mobility – that’s the Panamera.