New Turbo looks menacing in black
When the Prius was the only hybrid in town, I quite liked it. More for it's gadgetry than its performance, although it did make a surprisingly refined and comfortable little cruiser and probably still does.
The rear view is improved, too
Now everyone's at it and the novelty is wearing a bit thin, but even so I was disappointed not to be moved by the new Porsche Cayenne hybrid. As a luxury SUV with purported green credentials it's a solid (no, make that vigorous) performer, and will sell like hot cakes to company directors with Corporate Social Responsibility PR agendas and badge-conscious school-running 'yummy mummies'. And it's a Porsche, so of course it feels quick and handles tautly for a two-and-a-bit ton leviathan. But the flies in the ointment are a blown 3.0 Audi V6 petrol engine that sounds a little over-strained when harried, quite a lot of indistinct 'white noises' at higher (than allowed in the UK) motorway speeds and... well, to put it crudely, a lack of anything much likely to give performance car fans wood. Each to their own though, and for a more traditional audience Porsche has evolved the new Cayenne Turbo. The little blue pills can stay in the jar...
Still stonkingly fast through the twisties as well as away from the traffic lights, the latest Turbo benefits just as much as the new hybrid and diesel models from a series of improvements designed to keep the Cayenne at the head of the luxury SUV pack. These include a new 8-speed Tiptronic S auto box, torque-vectoring and tweaks to the 4x4 and stability systems, revised steering and a 185kg fat reduction plan.
The new model looks nicer as well (surely?) inside and out, to the point of having morphed into something altogether attractive. Or perhaps familiarity has made the porky Porsche concept easier to swallow. Either way, I didn't feel as much of a pariah as I expected to on the roads around Goodwood at the UK media launch of the full Cayenne range this week, even though the Turbo's 4.8-litre 500hp twin turbocharged V8 made it disarmingly easy to offend the genteel motorists of West Sussex. (Sorry to the grey-haired lady in the Honda Civic if you're reading this. But of course you won't be... chortle, smirk, etc.)
It's a fact that you'll be hard-pressed to drive a Cayenne Turbo without acting the road-hog, there's just too much fun to be had. Floor the throttle in any of its 8 gears (and with so many to call on it's rare that you'll know which one you're actually using) and the car leaps towards the horizon like a thing possessed. Stick it in sport mode for a bit of extra throttle response (why not, eh?) and the magnificent combination of limpet-like grip, extreme grunt and (crucially) a visually advantageous driving position mean you'll be picking-off grannies in their Jap-boxes on your favourite B-road while the so-called hot-hatch merchants are forced to fume and curse in 'Nana's wake. Yes, you will, because you won't be able to help yourself.
If you think that all sounds a bit juvenile you're right, which is probably why Porsche offered us the Goodwood circuit instead of local B-roads to better get to grips with the Cayenne Turbo's cartoon-land capabilities.
Suffice to say that the widely reported 'shock and awe' aspect of the original model's performance on the track is undiminished, and actively enhanced by a 'pointier' front end with steering upgrades and the newly available torque vectoring option that helps the car dig-in around medium and low (relatively) speed corners.
The Cayenne Turbo also gets air-sprung suspension as standard, and with active suspension management also included and optional Dynamic Chassis Control (active anti-roll stabilisers) it's hard to imagine a system that would deal more effectively with the loads imposed when hurling this 2170kg monster down the road. On the smooth, flowing Goodwood tarmac it always felt neat and composed, while out on the Sussex B-roads the ride offers a luxurious suppleness too. Regular Turbos get iron brake discs, but if you want to push the boat out a set of ceramic discs will set you back almost £6k. Perhaps that's an unnecessary luxury for road use, but they were brilliant at the track offering greatly improved response and precision (what do you mean, nobody would ever track a Cayenne..?) and I'd tick the box if my accountant thought I could afford it.
Talking of boxes, the new Cayenne Turbo ticks a lot of them. It's prestigious, supremely fast, and indecently good fun while offering the sort of practicality that most performance cars could never even dream of. Oh, and Porsche says that thanks mainly to the new 'box and weight savings, fuel consumption is 23 percent better than the old version at 24.6mpg combined. So go on, treat yourself, and help save the planet.
Cayenne Range Overview
The new generation Cayenne is priced as follows:
Cayenne £41,404
Cayenne Diesel £44,178
Cayenne S £53,693
Cayenne S Hybrid £57,610
Cayenne Turbo £81,589
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Power |
Torque |
0-62mph |
Top speed |
Combined mpg |
CO2 g/km |
Cayenne |
300hp |
400Nm |
7.8secs |
143mph |
28.5mpg |
236 |
3.6-litre V6 petrol |
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Active all-wheel drive |
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Cayenne |
240hp |
550Nm |
7.8secs |
135mph |
38.2mpg |
195 |
3.0-litre V6 Diesel |
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Permanent 4x4 |
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CayenneS |
400hp |
500Nm |
5.9secs |
160mph |
26.9mpg |
245 |
4.8-litre V8 petrol |
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Active all-wheel drive |
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CayenneS Hybrid |
380hp |
580Nm |
6.5secs |
150mph |
34.4mpg |
193 |
3.0-litre V6 supercharged petrol |
333hp |
440Nm |
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& electric motor |
47hp |
300Nm |
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Permanent 4x4 |
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CayenneTurbo |
500hp |
700Nm |
4.7secs |
172mph |
24.6mpg |
270 |
4.8-litre V8 petrol |
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Active all-wheel drive |
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