Another peerless Porsche?

Poor motoring manufacturers. One often has to feel sorry for the buggers, when approaching them from a motoring journalist perspective. The logistics for planning launches are simply monstrous. The range of tastes being catered for, no pandered to, are quite vast. Nearly endless. If they have just a short drive and then layer on the extras, the luncheons, spa treatments et al, half of the attendees will moan about not getting enough wheel time. Plot a 1000km course, and the other half will complain that there was too much time spent on the road, and not enough basking in the lap of luxury.

Of course it does depend on what the car is, but still it is impossible to please all of their important media guests all of the time. But I stop feeling sorry for our Porsche SA PR lady when she explains somewhat mournfully how her and boss-man Toby Venter had to spend a week covering several thousand kilometres of the greatest roads the country has to offer criss-crossing the small dorpies of the Eastern Cape coastline and interior, scouting the ideal route.

In a GT3.

Is it just me, or does that sound like heaven? And then getting paid for it…!

Anyway yesterday we flew down to Cape Town, long before any sparrows even thought of breaking wind, for a long day sampling Porsche’s latest superstar, the four-door four-seat Panamera. We did well over 400ks on the day, with hurried stops for some lunch practically on a gorgeous beach, sampling the three models on offer. Panamera S, 4S, and Turbo.

Although the full details have to wait for our feature report in next month’s magazine itself, let me just say that no matter what you think of the looks of the thing, or the apparent loss of focus of the Porsche brand (already happened with the Cayenne, which also somehow worked), or the idea of yet another “incorrect” engine location for a Porsche, this car is exactly like our day was yesterday.

Which is to say, all but perfect.

Personally speaking, I didn’t love the Panameras look before yesterday, nor did I approve of the front-mounted engine, the limousine aspirations, nor even the almost “mainstream” focus. The Panamera was just wrong in so many ways.

But after spending the day with them, well. Despite all the adjustments, this car remains a true Porsche to its very core. It really is a driver’s car before it is a luxury saloon (not that it isn’t luxurious), a car that rewards the enthusiast with possibly the richest driving experience available today, in every facet and through every dynamic and tactile nuance.

And it is so far ahead of it’s competition in this space, that it can be said that like the Veyron did in the hypercar territory, this rewrites the rulebook for swanky sports saloons. Jaguar XFs, Beemer M5s, Merc AMGs, they simply don’t compare, even though the Porsche is priced miraculously in-line with these existing icons.

Naturally I’ll be waxing a lot more lyrical, and giving a lot more details, in the full article gracing next month’s magazine, but for now I just have to say – they really have done it again!

What a car!

What a Porsche!

Even if it does still have hints of Crossfire from certain angles…

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