A COOLER CAYENNE
Porsche tweaks GTS crossover for 2013
If you buy a Porsche, you are going to get a sporty vehicle. But with so much sportiness up and down its lineup, Porsche gives each model its own personality.
In the Cayenne range, the Turbo is the most powerful, but not necessarily the most emotional or engaging. That mantle goes to the newest Cayenne, the GTS. Based on the Cayenne S, the GTS gets a bunch of tweaks to make it look cooler, sound meaner, handle better and go faster.
Let’s start with the appearance. One of the major reasons the GTS looks better is the 20 mm lower ride height, which drapes it more seductively over the 20-inch RS Spyder-style wheels. Up front, the GTS gets the front fascia and larger air intakes from the Cayenne Turbo, though those intakes are partially blocked off because the GTS doesn’t need that much breathing capacity. The hood and LED headlights are also from the Turbo, and the headlight bezels are black.
Along the sides, the GTS features wider wheel arches to handle a wider track as well as black trim around the windows and Porsche side skirts. At the rear it gets flat
John Stein jstein@suntimes.com black exhaust pipes, a gloss black trim strip on the tailgate and a split rear spoiler.
The more important changes are mechanical. Under the hood, the GTS uses the same 4.8-liter V-8 as the S, but it features a new intake camshaft and revised engine tuning to add 20 horsepower for a total of 420. Shorter transmission gearing and a shorter final drive ratio also aid acceleration. As a result, 0 to 60 mph is cut by two-tenths to 5.4 seconds and the top speed is 162 mph. Those are impressive numbers, but they’re not as ridiculously quick as the Cayenne Turbo, which needs just 4.4 seconds to hit 60; it tops out at 173 mph. The feel, however, is a bit more engaging.
Throttle response is immediate, and the engine works well with the eight-speed automatic transmission to quickly provide even more power for passing. Porsche says the shifts are up to 5 percent quicker than in other Cayennes.
Porsche elevates the engine’s presence even further by giving it a heavy metal soundtrack. The engine is fairly quiet at idle but it lets out a prominent growl during acceleration. Porsche also provides a way to turn the volume up to 11. Press a button on the center console and two things happen. Jennifer Burklow John Lemein First, two flaps open in the exhaust system, increasing the volume from the rear. Second, a device under the hood called a sound symposer opens a channel in each A-pillar to send the engine’s intake pulses into the cabin. The result is a rumbling, snarling engine note that car guys will love but significant others will likely find annoying.
The steering is fairly light, but quick and direct, and the vehicle feels smaller than its 4,597 pounds. It stays flat in corners and gathers its weight quickly to head back in the other direction. Porsche also offers active roll bars to reduce body lean, further helping this SUV carve through turns even more like a sport sedan.
The adjustable shocks can be set to improve either ride comfort or handling. In comfort mode, the ride is firm but forgiving and well composed over bumps. In sport, the vehicle responds quicker to steering inputs and feels more agile, but it rides harder and it becomes jittery over broken pavement.
The interior environment is also a bit sportier. To the S model it adds Alcantara for the headliner, center armrest, door panels and seat inserts. The seats have only eight-way adjustments, but they get the thicker side bolsters from the top-line 18-way seats, which combine
Terry Boyle with the grippy suede-like inserts to keep occupants from sliding around through corners.
On top of all that sportiness, the GTS is just as functional as other Cayennes. It has plenty of room for five passengers and a useful 62.9 cubic feet of space. The cargo area is versatile, too, thanks to an adjustable cargo fence that can be moved forward and back to hold items in place or separate different types of cargo.
While the Cayenne GTS starts at $82,050, some $16,200 more than a Cayenne S, it’s actually a bargain. Most of the equipment that defines the GTS is available for the S model as well, but it’s packaged here for a discount of about $10,000.