Going by the numbers
LOTS OF NUMBERS, mainly big ones, lurk in the Panamera Turbo S spec sheet. Top of the list: 621bhp at 6000rpm, making for a top speed of 196mph in a car that weighs 2135kg. There’s 605lb ft of torque on tap too, between 2300 and 4500rpm (though that results in a small number: 0-62mph in just 3.1sec). Big CO2 figures, er, figure, though they’re tiny by the standards of a car this hefty, fast and powerful just a few years ago, and there’s big thirst (it claims 25mpg; I saw 12 on the trip computer), a big engine (4.0-litre twin-turbo V8), and a pricetag from £137,760.
Porsche’s test route is in the north Pennines, taking in some epic roads and matching scenery in rural County Durham. I was last here late last year, driving a 911 Speedster and Boxsters Spider and T, cars more naturally suited to this environment thanks to their smaller stature and greater inherent agility. But Porsche has been hard at work tweaking the
Panam in detail: it doesn’t look much different inside or out, but there’s been a lot of electronic recalibration to fine-tune the air suspension, the four-wheel steering, the dual-clutch transmission, and (inside) the infotainment system. Physical engineering changes are limited to suspension and engine mounts. Spotters will note revisions to the air intake grilles, front and rear lighting modules, and new wheels.
While an unrestricted Autobahn would be more natural territory, there are long, straight, relatively smooth sections of the B6279 on which to explore what that impressive sprint figure feels like. Visceral is the word, yet it’s so easy: just plant the throttle, the four-wheel drive digs in and the paddleshift transmission gets on with flinging you up the road. At a cruise, it’s refined yet connected; you feel the road and you can hear it, too, though it’s muted. And while the engine sounded like (very) distant thunder while getting you up to speed, it would have been even more silent in a less overtly sporting limo.
From Eggleston, things get twistier. Where once you were marvelling at the German-plated Panamera’s uncanny ability to pass slower traffic with barely a twitch of the right foot, here you’re thankful for its faithful and quick-acting steering. Also its iron body control. Although Sport mode is usually the favoured option, I’d notched the damping down and here you need it back on alert to quell the hint of float that would otherwise occur over these yomps and around curiously cambered bends (while dodging errant sheep). Suddenly this is a smaller sports saloon; it rarely feels quite like the full-size limo it is, and even the brakes manage to shrink that ample kerbweight. Sure, I’d have been quicker through the bends in that Boxster T, but the Panamera Turbo S would soon have reeled it in.
For some, the Turbo S will be the only choice, but there’s also an uprated E-Hybrid, now armed with 552bhp that beats the outgoing Panamera Turbo’s 550 tally. Its suspension feels a little more supple, its turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 is quieter still, and it’ll go the first 30 miles or so on battery power alone. The interplay between charging and bringing the leccie into play KERS-style is entertaining in itself, and could easily be a more diverting source of fun during ownership than the (admittedly addictive) starship thrust of the Turbo S. Saves you 37 grand, the environment.