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  The Panamera is a big car — it stretches to 4970mm and sits on a long 2920mm wheelbase — but dances confidently through tight corners at considerable speed. Photo Gallery

Neil Dowling road tests and reviews the Porsche Panamera on 1000km of WA roads ? and roos.

Angry tail lights flare in the rain-sodden darkness and headlights illuminate a struggling kangaroo. For any Porsche to hit a kangaroo 200km from the nearest town, in the middle of a storm, this scenario would have been disastrous.

It would have been made even worse if it was one of two Panameras — the only two in Australia of Porsche's ambitious four-door luxury express. If it was luck, the kangaroo - which bounced away in the darkness, shaken and stirred - hit the Porsche Cayenne SUV support vehicle, leaving it with a cracked bumper and broken indicator lens.

But this is Australia. You expect the odd kangaroo or two. Porsche is running two Panameras around Australia in a 17,000km lap that will take 33 days and end in Melbourne on October 3 to co-incide with the Panamera's official Australian launch.

The company is recreating its 356 model debut in the 1953 Redex Trial. It was the first time Australia had seen the little German sports car and few would have guessed that the bathtub with a Volkswagen-based engine would progress to today's Panamera.

On the leg from Esperance to Perth via Albany and Augusta, the two new Porsches stretched their legs to reveal an appetite for long-distance motoring that could take a bite out of its direct rivals, among them the Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes CLS AMG, Bentley Flying Spur and the forthcoming BMW GT.

Variants and pricing

Prices start at $270,200 for the S and rise to $364,900 for the Turbo. But options abound and the price can be pushed close to half-a-million dollars. For the record, Porsche has 36 Panameras coming this year and most are already accounted for. Orders with deposits total about 50 with many cars arriving next year, delayed because they have been customised.

Appearance

How good is the first production four-door Porsche passenger car? Close to brilliant. Photos don't do its aerodynamic shape — at 0.28 it matches the Toyota Prius and Mercedes E-Class Coupe — justice and unfortunately highlight a rounded rump. In the flesh, the shape appears more gentle and hides a substantial boot that can be extended by flipping down the split rear seats. The Panamera seats only four and the rear seats are, subjectively, more comfortable and have more room than those in the front.

Porsche Cars Australia product manager John Murray says the accent is on rear-seat comfort and features as most buyers in developing nations will never drive the car. "Not many Australians, however, will sit in the back," he says. "We're focused more on the owner and the driver so Australia gets chassis control (Porsche Active Suspension Management) as standard.

"Other countries have a big option list tailored for the rear occupants, including laptop tables and fridges." Sitting in the back will deprive the owner of some remarkable engineering trickery that translates into a stunning road car that is silently as adept at city commuting as it is tracing the outline of a continent.

Equipment

Rear seat heating and cooling is standard on the Turbo, as is four-zone airconditioning, stop-go (automatically stops and restarts the engine in traffic), air suspension with sports modes and all-wheel drive. All models have eight airbags, leather, electric rear hatch, automatic range bi-xenon headlights, 14-speaker 585-Watt sound (a 1000W system is optional) and sunroof.

Drivetrains and platform

Engines start with the Cayenne-derived 294kW/500Nm 4.8-litre V8 and move into the bi-turbo version with 368kW and 700Nm of torque. Both mate to seven-speed PDK transmissions. The Panamera S weighs 1770kg thanks to aluminium for most body panels and magnesium and high-tensile steel for others. The engine, transmission casing, suspension wishbones and wheels are aluminium.

Even the Turbo's additional engine components, higher feature list, bigger 100-litre fuel tank and the all-wheel drive system add only 200kg. But hi-tech doesn't trump tradition. Porsche retains hydraulic steering because it has superior road feel and accuracy.

Driving

The Panamera is a big car — it stretches to 4970mm and sits on a long 2920mm wheelbase — but dances confidently through tight corners at considerable speed. If one was particularly fussy, the S — without the extra weight up front of the two turbochargers, intercoolers and drivetrain — feels more accurate and steers more directly.

Shown a corner, the Turbo hints at understeer in the first move of the steering wheel then becomes neutral before the dynamic drive feeds into the front wheels for a rapid exit. The suspension on both test cars was air sprung with precise control by Porsche's specialist suspension management system.The suspension is standard on the Turbo, optional on the S. Without having a steel suspension for comparison, the air system revealed itself to be incredibly competent at absorbing some of WA's rutted southern country roads. Even switching to the full sports suspension mode wasn't as harsh as some rival cars and the comfort setting was as supple as a Caprice.

Engines are practically silent though under pressure the S model releases a muted intake roar that mixes its song with the noise from the four exhaust pipes. By contrast, the Turbo is quieter as intake air is muffled by the turbos. The immediacy of the Turbo is breathtaking. Even with its pneumatic suspension, flooring the accelerator pedal will make it crouch and spring with its nose high and the traction system working hard to prevent the four wheels from twisting on the bitumen.

The S feels as quick. Rather than the 4.2 seconds the Turbo takes to reach 100km/h — though if you use the Sport Chrono launch control it drops to 4 seconds flat — the S does it in 5.4. The all-wheel drive version of the S, called 4S, will do the sprint in 5 seconds.

All cars roar through the PDK's seven cogs. Porsche has flip levers on the steering wheel so you can change gears yourself, but these levers aren't as effective as conventional paddles. On that note, Porsche's upcoming GT3 will have the option of paddles — a first for Porsche — and that is likely to dribble down to other models. It is a brilliant car and the four year drip feed from Porsche — that has now ended for the train spotters — presents a distinctive saloon that is another direction on Porsche's unpredictable business and product road.