Porsche Cayenne turbo (2017) evaluation

► Cayenne rapid driven► V8 vigour and irritated looks► Yours for £100k

remember when Porsche purists had been beside themselves when the maker of the 911 stated it might make an SUV? Oh, how they moaned.

before the Macan arrived, it became the Cayenne's blitzing success that brought Porsche again from the brink and on to turn into one of the most ecocnomic names in the company.

This new one, then, has plenty to reside as much as. We've driven it on UK roads in feisty faster spec, priced from £ninety nine,291.

It's still not a looker, is it?

Nope, however when has the Cayenne ever been 'pretty'? This turbo peculiarly feels like a catfish that swallowed an elephant, as that gopping grille is accentuated with the aid of the white paint and black trimming across the edges. It's pretty much reminiscent of a Glasgow Smile. Yeesh.

nevertheless, it's arguably enhanced resolved, design-intelligent, than the old two generations. It looks extra like a model of car in its personal correct, instead of 'just a 911 on stilts'. The rear end especially looks more purposeful, as Porsche appears to have 'accomplished a Panamera' to the Cayenne's booty. A thick, lightly-tinted light bar stretches across the whole tailgate and four purposeful exhausts are your portal to the burbly V8 that lies just a few ft extra forward.

Oh, and that rear spoiler? It's active – the primary time an SUV has include one, in accordance with Porsche. A mammoth flap lifts out of the spoiler housing, which raises and lowers reckoning on which performance mode the automobile is in and might even act as an airbrake when it's wholly deployed.

Cool. every other suave tech?

Oh, that's just the birth. The common form and styling hides lots of tweaks, revisions and all-new equipment below.

Like its Q7 brother-from-another-mom, the Cayenne has a 48V mild hybrid gadget taking care of the energetic anti-roll gadget, plus three-chamber air suspension (available as an alternative) and the use of mixed-width tyres between the front and rears, with the rears being wider for greater traction. The wheelbase is also shorter than its MLB platform stablemates, the Audi Q7 and Bentley Bentayga for enhanced dealing with.

another tech first for the Cayenne is rear-wheel steering – a bit of tech that's wormed its way throughout from the 911 and Panamera, along with the Audi SQ7.

This era of Cayenne is 65kg lighter than earlier than, because the bodyshell now uses a lot extra aluminium, and Porsche's new surface coated Brake system (common on the rapid, with the alternative to step as much as full ceramics) use a tungsten carbide coating on the steel discs to reduce fade below complicated braking and brake filth from heavy use.

So this surely translates into decent managing, then?

Yup - the Cayenne is predictably a superb steer in the event you're out for a blast via some countryside. The 918-derived steering wheel's chunky rim fills your palm, while the hefty weighting to the rack itself gives you fairly a self assurance boost. You know precisely where the wheels are pointing, even with the rears guidance with you, aiding your inputs.

physique manage via complicated cornering is seriously amazing. Go too difficult or too quick into a nook and, for probably the most part, the faster is still virtually fully flat the entire manner circular, despite the Cayenne's lofty peak.

Our motor vehicle had the non-compulsory ceramic brakes instead of the usual 'surface covered' ones, that are filled with stopping vigour and chunk even after heavy use.

It's still a big car, notwithstanding. not like the Macan, the place that cliché of the automobile shrinking around you is fantastically accurate, the Cayenne isn't rather like that. Its gigantic bulk received't make you neighbour of the 12 months if you're squeezing through eeny-weeny villages in the domestic Counties, as an instance, and also you're all the time conscious of the car's width when on the stream.

Plus, while all the Cayenne's managing prowess is thrilling if you happen to're hooning it around, the experience is fidgety on the rapid when just plodding about. The hefty 21-inch alloys on our test car threw up all types of communication throughout the base of the seat, even when the Dynamic Chassis manage was in its softest, waftiest environment.

Motorways might get tedious in the faster, too. Wind noise as air passes during the door mirrors is minimal and the engine is pretty much mute at a cruise, but appreciable tyre roar spoils that. once more, this will particularly be a rapid concentrated difficulty, as these huge 21s and low-profile tyres are to blame. 

but is it quickly?

mind-bogglingly so. here is nevertheless a two-tonne SUV, yet it surges ahead with what feels like as an awful lot force as a 911 GTS. if you use the game Plus mode's launch manage, your Cayenne turbo can speed up from a standstill to 62mph in exactly 3.9 seconds – sooner than an Audi RS3 that's half the measurement.

The V8's boomy roar will slap a smile on your face, too, and on account that height power is just 800rpm away from the red line, it's addictive to hang the apparatus you're in and use the entire breadth of the biturbo'd vee's knowledge. It's a vastly ready and versatile element.

nevertheless it is an SUV, too…

We didn't actually get a chance to take it away from tarmac right through our check, but we did event the Cayenne's off-roading potential from the passenger seat as a preview to our power.

again then, we had a go in a Cayenne S round an off-highway route in Dusseldorf and the results were relatively effective. ride manage changed into decent over effectively rocky surfaces, our check vehicle climbed one very steep incline like it became nothing however momentarily slipped on another.

Frankly, if you've already skipped this part we wouldn't be surprised – hardly any one will take a Cayenne off highway, regardless of its staggering breadth off in addition to on highway.

How is it from in the back of the wheel?

a great deal like the Panamera, truly. The dashboard has been mostly lifted throughout from Porsche's sporty saloon, so there's a large 12.3-inch full-HD screen and a high centre console with haptic buttons in its place of physical ones.

There's a chunky apparatus selector and some respectable storage within the cabin, while an analogue rev counter is flanked through four small monitors that reveal every little thing out of your speed to the navigation, performance information to the not obligatory night imaginative and prescient digicam device. All very slick, and pleasingly solid, too.

area within the rear is considerable for even six-foot adults, and the boot (at 770 litres) is up there with the category most suitable.

Any flaws?

apart from the aforementioned experience and NVH concerns at motorway cruising, objectively not lots else.

Subjectively, even though, the Cayenne is a tough vehicle to… gel with. It's no longer as charming as a Macan rapid, as an instance, so in spite of the fact that you go for a proper B-road blast, you get out at the other end pleased along with your growth however not precisely enthralled by using the journey. means doesn't always translate into the enjoyable aspect.

Verdict

And that's just it. The Cayenne turbo's breadth of potential and jack-of-all-trades nature make it a really, very good vehicle however no longer one which screams exhilaration.

There's tech brimming out of it, it handles fantastically for such a huge computer and the V8's shove makes it bewitchingly short, however it leaves you feeling a bit bloodless.

It'll still find a lot of consumers, notwithstanding, and what they'll get is a genuine do anything, go anyplace machine.

take a look at our Porsche stories right here

Share this post