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The Panamera will earn plenty of friends as a drivers car. Photo Gallery
Kevin Hepworth road tests and reviews the Porsche Panamera at the international launch.
What could be Porsche’s most important model ever – its first four-door Grand Tourer, the Panamera — is on the road.
Panamera will be here on October 3 in three trims, a rear-wheel drive S at $270,200, the mid-spec all-wheel drive 4S at $282,400 and the range-topping all-wheel drive Turbo at $364,900.
Drivetrains
The 4.8-litre V8 makes 294kW and 500Nm in the S and 4S but that jumps to 368kW and 700Nm for the twin-blower turbo.
Porsche's brilliant 7-speed dual-clutch automatic PDK gearbox is standard for all models although a six-speed manual is available as a ‘no cost option’ for the rear-wheel drive car.
Fuel economy
Porsche claims a combined fuel economy — on the European cycle — of 12.2L/100km for the Turbo and an impressive 11.1L/100km in the naturally-aspirated V8s. Helping that figure is the ‘stop-start’ technology standard on the PDK — an industry first for a system previously restricted to manuals.
Interior
The two rear seats are mirrors of the front seats — adjustable, comfortable and set low enough that there is ample headroom for a taller than average adult.
There is good leg and knee room, a general feeling of adequate space but finding somewhere to put your feet without wedging them under the low-set front seats is a problem.
From the perspective of the front seats the cockpit feel is very much that of the 911. There is a string of buttons surround the gearlever which group according to function.
Driving
It doesn't take long at all after turning the ignition key to answer the second question. The Panamera is a Porsche worthy of the badge.
At just a tick under two tonnes and almost five-metres long there is no disguising that it is a big car. The first glance out over the bonnet confirms that. Judging just where the corners are makes for a testing first few minutes — but settle in, tickle the Panamera out onto the road and it is all good news.
With a near-perfect 52:48 weight balance and steering feel that wouldn't be out of place in a 911, the Panamera will earn plenty of friends as a drivers car. In the two naturally-aspirated models the pick-up is good … in the Turbo it is breath-taking.
The car is impressively quiet and there is no need to raise the level of conversation above normal tones even when the Panamera is slipping along the Autobahn at 200km/h-plus.
But it’s a shame the gorgeous exhaust burble has been tamed to the extent that a push button active-exhaust function (optional) is necessary to get a truly throaty note. But that is only a minor irritation in a car that is, after all, aimed at a market that supposedly values refinement with their serving of sportiness.
For full drive impressions, see your newspaper’s Carsguide section, or check back here later this week.
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