“Panamerica??”asked the gentleman parked next to me at the coffee shop as he got into his Nissan Sentra SE-R.
Moments earlier, seeing a four-door Porsche made this guy do a quadruple take and curious walk-around. Styling gave the brand away-- though the badging was all obscured by a few hundred kilometres worth of salty, February road spray.
“It’s pronounced ‘Panamera’” I replied.
“I’ll remember that! Four door Porsche. Panamera. Shame about driving it in the snow, though”.
He must have been referring to all the sand and salt on the paint-- because driving the Panamera in the wintertime is far from shameful.
400-horsepower, winter road-trip ready
To date, Porsche had exactly zero car models that were road-trip ready for 4 adults. The controversial new Panamera changes that, and then some.
The tester got four doors, four Pirelli snow tires and an optional AWD system that sent engine power to all four wheels. The smaller of Panamera’s engine options was on board-- namely a free-breathing 4.8 litre direct-injected V8 with 400 horsepower. The Panamera Turbo gets a hundred more than that. A V6 is slated for arrival shortly as well.
The flexible base engine is happy to dawdle along in traffic at 1,000 RPM in near silence. If you’re not in a rush, the standard PDK dual-clutch transmission finds its way into 7th gear by 70 km/h, treating drivers to imperceptible gearshifts on the way. It even takes off in second gear, in the name of smoothness.
Dial the speed up to 130 km/h, and the tachometer registers a mere 2,000 rpm. Wind noise levels are near-nil here, and little more road noise reaches the cabin than the muted pitter-pattering of tires over tar strips. Expect highway cruising mileage of just over 10L / 100km.
Moments earlier, seeing a four-door Porsche made this guy do a quadruple take and curious walk-around. Styling gave the brand away-- though the badging was all obscured by a few hundred kilometres worth of salty, February road spray.
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| The tester got four doors, four Pirelli snow tires and an optional AWD system that sent engine power to all four wheels. (Photo: Justin Pritchard/ Auto123.com) |
“It’s pronounced ‘Panamera’” I replied.
“I’ll remember that! Four door Porsche. Panamera. Shame about driving it in the snow, though”.
He must have been referring to all the sand and salt on the paint-- because driving the Panamera in the wintertime is far from shameful.
400-horsepower, winter road-trip ready
To date, Porsche had exactly zero car models that were road-trip ready for 4 adults. The controversial new Panamera changes that, and then some.
The tester got four doors, four Pirelli snow tires and an optional AWD system that sent engine power to all four wheels. The smaller of Panamera’s engine options was on board-- namely a free-breathing 4.8 litre direct-injected V8 with 400 horsepower. The Panamera Turbo gets a hundred more than that. A V6 is slated for arrival shortly as well.
The flexible base engine is happy to dawdle along in traffic at 1,000 RPM in near silence. If you’re not in a rush, the standard PDK dual-clutch transmission finds its way into 7th gear by 70 km/h, treating drivers to imperceptible gearshifts on the way. It even takes off in second gear, in the name of smoothness.
Dial the speed up to 130 km/h, and the tachometer registers a mere 2,000 rpm. Wind noise levels are near-nil here, and little more road noise reaches the cabin than the muted pitter-pattering of tires over tar strips. Expect highway cruising mileage of just over 10L / 100km.
 |
| The smaller of Panamera’s engine options was on board-- namely a free-breathing 4.8 litre direct-injected V8 with 400 horsepower. (Photo: Justin Pritchard/ Auto123.com) |