Why should you bother about a Hot Cayenne?
As you read this, a new Porsche is being tested. Its what Porsche labels the ‘hottest Cayenne variant yet’. It could be Porsche’s answer to the Aston Martin DBX and the Lamborghini Urus.
Lamborghini may have made the first sporting off-roader, and Range Rovers were getting Corvette engines from Overfinch, but it was Porsche that really broke the SUV moulde with the Cayenne Turbo back in 2002. Until then a 450bhp, twin turbocharged V8 SUV was unheard off, with the closest thing to a practical performance car being the RS Audi’s with in Avant bodyshells. The Super-SUV range was born.
Today, mega powered Super-SUV’s are the in trend, with the Levante Trofeo, Urus and DBX clocking 300kph top speeds (or close). Porsche feels the car that started this power race should reaffirm its stand. Hence the development.
Whose testing it?
A certain German gentlemen who goes by the name Walter Rohrl. For those who were born with Astro in their houses, he’s a rally driver. Not just any rally driver, he was the World Champion during the crazy Group B era. Sort of Germany’s Karamjit Singh. If you want t know who Karamjit Singh is, here you go…
Walter Rohrl describes this car as “a great leap forward compared to everything that has gone before”. High praise from a guy who drove 600bhp unruly rally cars into packed spectator groups in the dirt, sideways.
The highest performance Cayenne at the moment on sale is...
The model in development at the moment is a coupe bodied variant. The highest output Cayenne Coupe at the moment is the Turbo S E-Hybrid. This monster SUV puts out a combined output of 680bhp and 900Nm. In comparison the Urus puts out 650bhp and 850Nm of torque.
The Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid runs on 21 inch tyres, 10 piston brakes, and 440mm carbon ceramic brake discs. It can accelerate to 100kph in 3.6 seconds, and to 200kph in 13.2 seconds, and all the way to 295kph.
The technical juicy bits so far...
While Porsche remains ambiguous with majority of the tech details, there are some juicy titbits they have revealed. For one the tyres are newly developed 22 inch units for this model, and the front rims are half inch wider. The current Cayenne Turbo Coupe is already running a 285/40/21 setup at the front, with 9.5j rims. And the front camber is increased by 0.45 degrees more over the existing figure.
The Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control system of PDCC is their version of active roll stabilisation, and supposedly keeps the body balanced even during very spirited cornering. This hot variant gets a new, centrally positioned titanium exhaust system. The final verdict on this development car by Walter Rohrl was “You have the feeling that you are sitting in a compact sports car rather than in a large SUV”.
Why such a Super SUV?
It would be easy to dismiss this last statement as glorification. But Porsche as a brand takes serious pride in its products, and most of the time undersell what the product can actually do.But why do you really need such a high powered SUV? The simple answer is, because we have the tech for it today.
Plus these high powered SUV’s are the best ‘Grand Tourer’s’ you can buy today. They are ridiculously fast, both in a straight line and in the corners. And they can, to a certain extent, handle rough surfaces with an ease no saloon can match. Plus it’s a whole lot easier to get in and get out of a high riding vehicle, compared to say, a 911.
For those who wish to get sports car performance without the practicality compromises, you can find the answer in the form of the Super SUV. And Porsche could be delivering the baddest, evilest one yet.