The 2010 Porsche Panamera 4S, for some Grand Touring

On a recent trip to California, I had the chance to drive a Porsche Panamera 4S from Los Angeles to Carmel, near San Francisco. (Interesting side note: Carmel once had Clint Eastwood as its mayor.) We could have taken Highway 5 through the desert, but we opted instead for the 101, which runs along the coast. In addition to stunning views, this highway offered plenty of curves – perfect for the Panamera. A hard day’s work for sure, but it’s the sort of thing we’re willing to do for our readers...
In 2003, Porsche flirted with heresy by coming out with the Cayenne, an SUV. Almost everyone cried fowl at first, but in hindsight Porsche knew what they were doing. Seven years later, the big old Cayenne is not only still kicking, it’s the company’s most popular model, with 721 units sold in Canada in 2008.

Starting out like the Cayenne

The all-new Panamera is starting out much the same as the Cayenne did. This time, though, it’s not the fact that it is Porsche’s first sedan that’s shocking the crowds, but rather its unusual physique. While the front end has Porsche written all over it, the rear section respects the characteristics of other Stuttgart models and yet is entirely different from anything else on the market. You either love it or you hate it, but personally (yes, you’ve got to hear my two cents), I find the Panamera much more attractive in person than in photos. And once you get behind its wheel, you quickly forget any qualms you had about the design...

First off, the Panamera is a major piece of work. Longer and wider than the Cayenne, it’s fairly heavy for a sports car, weighing in at 1860kg. But we’ll get back to that later. The four doors are particularly heavy, especially the front ones which have a hard time staying open when you’re parked on an uphill incline.

Inside the vehicle, it’s pure Porsche. The leather, plastic and wood finish are of the best quality and match perfectly. The dashboard is reminiscent of other Porsche vehicles with five gauges laid out in a sort of pyramid. Like usual at Porsche, the rev-counter is bigger than the others and is placed right smack in the middle. But where it gets really interesting is the central console which houses several controls and the gear shift. Smaller than you’d think, it doesn’t take up too much space. It stretches to the rear where it separates the two seats.

From considerable size to shortcomings

The seats are enveloping and very comfortable, and it’s easy to find a good driving position. But if you’re worried about visibility, you’ve got good reason to. Rear visibility is not that great, and it just gets worse when the rear wing goes up at 90 km/hr. And although visibility is better out front, pedestrians could breath easier if the A pillars weren’t so wide. Comfort is just as good in the back as in front, and there’s plenty of space in the rear too. We had a 6’5"guy back there and he never complained  (with the front seat moved quite a bit forward, mind you). That said, sounds from the road and the rear fin motors are much more perceptible in the back. Also, we were a little disappointed that a car of this calibre didn’t have air con controls, sun shades or heated seats in the back. Guess we’re getting more demanding with age!

Just 400 horses…

All of that is well and good, but the Panamera shows its truest colours on the road! The 4.8-litre naturally aspirated V8 produces 400 hp and 369 lbs.-ft. of torque, and it has no trouble propelling the car’s 1860 kg. Yet, you get the impression that the chassis could take a whole lot more. Then there’s the fact that the Panamera Turbo gets 500 hp. The accelerator on our test vehicle was not very progressive and the driver looked practically like a novice as we started out! The seven-speed PDK double-clutch transmission works like a charm in Regular mode. Put it into Sport and you’ll find that the tachometer climbs happily to 4,000 rpm before changing gears in just a fraction of a second. This mode completely transforms the vehicle’s handling. So just imagine what it’s like in Sport+! The Panamera goes from sports car to road beast! If numbers drive you, you’ll be interested to know that at 60 mph (96 km/hr) the Panamera’s engine "turns" at 1,450 rpm in Regular mode, 2,000 in Sport and 2,500 in Sport+. To say that the accelerations are energetic is a gross understatement!

Our Panamera came with AWD, which ensured better traction. Since we were out on unfamiliar public roads, we refrained from really putting the four-wheel drive to the test. This mechanism adds 60 kg to the vehicle’s weight, but it helps reduce the acceleration times (by a little). 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds for the 4S and 5.2 for the "basic" Panamera says Porsche. (And I’ll add that accelerations are accompanied with the most amazing sound.) On the first road’s pronounced curves, the Panamera 4S was positively regal. Were it not for its considerable weight, which we noted more than once, this vehicle would be a real sports car. That’s why the real name of this four-door Porsche is the Panamera Gran Turismo. Even though it holds the road the way a starving dog bites its bone, the best way to appreciate this vehicle is on long straights, where its outstanding stability is most evident.

One heck of a chassis!

Developed specially for the Panamera, the chassis is unusually rigid and the independent aluminum suspensions attached to it (superposed triangles in the front and multi-arm axles in the rear, all linked to the PASM system which adapts the settings electronically) strike an excellent balance between comfort and road handling. The steering is exceptionally precise and offers excellent feedback. The vehicle’s weight is most noticeable on double curves, when changing the trajectory leads to weight transfer. On a racetrack, Sport+ mode would be the order of the day, but on the road, Sport mode seemed more appropriate to me. Generally speaking, when a vehicle comes with three modes, the middle one tends to be for sporty driving on public roads.

We found that if the driver was ever too enthusiastic, he could count on the extremely powerful brakes to stop the vehicle authoritatively. While we expected no less from a Porsche, it was impressive nonetheless when you consider how heavy the vehicle is! And if the brakes weren’t enough, the different electronic safety systems kicked in. And should the unexplainable ever occur (you know, those crazy incidents such as "I was driving along peacefully when this tree suddenly jumped out in front of me"), a whole bunch of inflatable air bags would be there to soften the blow and limit injuries. Unfortunately, however, those air bags are mostly ineffective when it comes to damage to the ego...

A confused journalist…

Perhaps the Panamera’s biggest sin lies in the steering-wheel-mounted shifters. Like many other Porsche products equipped with the PDK gearbox, each spoke of the steering wheel has a button to change gears. Push down for upshifts and pop up for downshifts. Each button has the same functions. But after several hours at the wheel, I was still hesitating about whether to push or pop, and whether I should be using the button on the left spoke or on the right one. I talked to a Porsche engineer about it, and he admitted that conventional paddle shifters were more intuitive. However, he did also make the point that they had received practically no complaints about this, other than from journalists (who drive all kinds of different cars).

There’s really so much to say about the new Porsche Panamera Gran Turismo. I haven’t even had time to tell you about the button on the console that lets you adjust the muffler sound (audible mostly from outside the car), the more generous cargo space (from 445 to 1263 litres with the seat backs down, which is the same as a Mazda3 Sport), and what I consider very reasonable fuel consumption... at 100 km/hr and staggering during sport driving, an excellent sound system, the too-small glove compartment, the microscopic storage spaces, the light and easy to use cargo cover, the maximum speed of 283 km/hr, the starting price of $120,300 ($115,100 for the Panamera S and $155,000 for the Turbo), the monocoque body made of aluminum, steel and magnesium, the Porsche Active Suspension Management and the Porsche Stability Management that work in concert to ensure road handling and safety, the Sport Chrono+ which makes it more fun to drive, etc. It really leaves me no choice; I’ll just have to take the Panamera out for a long test drive on Canadian roads. Tough job, but someone’s got to do it...