2009 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S Review

Initial Impression
There is no sane reason for sticking a twin-turbo V8 into an SUV (technically a CUV because it is a car-type platform), let alone add a sport option that remaps the fuel injection and boost pressure settings to produce 550 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque. If you really want to justify the numbers, then you switch to horsepower-to-weight, and here, the Cayenne falls into the same category as Hemi Roadrunners from the muscle-car era of the sixties, or you could compare it to a new Z06 Corvette. I'm sure this makes it all reasonable.

On-road or off, there is no doubt this is a Porsche and at $156,000, you will be getting your money's worth!

When parked on the street, you would never expect this type of performance to come out of a body style that looks so much like any other SUV/CUV. Sure, it has a bit of chrome on the sides and there is a rear lip spoiler on the back window, but it just looks like any other barge. Then you move to the front and see the front grille opening that feeds air to the 4.8-litre V8 in massive amounts if you push the pedal.

Turbo Response
I pushed the pedal once and I thought I was prepared for what would happen. Before I pushed the pedal, I turned on the sport mode and then turned off the separate setting for shock dampening. This gave me a comfortable ride and all 550 horses on tap. Out on the highway, I wanted to see what would happen if I used passing gear, so I floored it.

Let me tell you that in the split part of a second between hitting passing gear and when the traction and stability controls kick in, all four wheels started to spin. At that point, the Cayenne stayed pretty much in a straight line and I rocketed from legal to go-to-jail speeds in two twitches of an eye. I also didn't need a seat belt to hold me in the seat for a few seconds. In retrospect, I should have known what was gong to happen. The pavement was clear, but cold, which means traction was not at its best.

On the humorous side of this adventure, I also found out that the turbo exhaust comes out hot enough at -35 to absolutely fog over everything behind you. It was like watching an old WWII movie where the Destroyer Captain orders "Make Smoke" so that the ship can hide from the enemy and everything disappears.

Twin-turbo V8 producing 550 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque.