Really, this is the fault of the 997-era 911 Carrera GTS. If it wasn't so good, if it wasn't such a fitting swansong to a memorable generation of 911, perhaps Porsche wouldn't have continued with the GTS badge. Perhaps it wouldn't have been seen on everything from Panamera to Macan to the Porsche Design watch range (probably), and there wouldn't have been the possibility of a Cayenne Coupe GTS. Best look away now if the twitches have started again...
Unusually for a Porsche GTS, a model that tends to sit below the upper echelons with a few cherry-picked options and copious Alcantara, it's rumoured that the GTS will be based on the flagship Turbo Cayenne Coupe. More than that, the suggestion is that the GTS is not merely on the 'ring for sign-off, but rather to target the SUV lap record. Once held by the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio with a 7:51 it was surpassed in 2018 by Mercedes, with its GLC63 S recording 7:54; which sounds silly, but the AMG's is a Nurburgring official time so we'll use that as a guide from now on. Then at the end of last year Audi demolished Mercedes, the RS Q8 swiping more than 10 seconds off its record to claim the fastest SUV title with a 7:42.253.
Now, the Cayenne Coupe and RS Q8 are based on the same MLBevo platform (which also underpins the Urus), but the most potent non-hybrid Porsche is 50hp behind the Audi record holder. It would have to be assumed, therefore, that any Cayenne record breaker - be that a Turbo, or a GTS, or whatever - would need at least 600hp to surpass that Audi. Or be based on the 680hp Hybrid which seems unlikely given the weight penalty. Current estimate is for somewhere around 650hp, or the same as a 911 Turbo...
Anyway, that's to be discovered at a later date. For now we know (because they can be seen) that this Cayenne Coupe has mammoth front brake calipers, centre-exit exhausts (where they tend to exit at the side), a carbon roof, the sort of roll cage to embarrass many a track project (for test purposes, presumably) and the kind of bug-splattered patina that only comes with hour after hour of fast driving. Given all that, and given Porsche already has two mind-blowing laps on that official leaderboard (6:44.7 for the 911 GT2 RS MR, and 5:19.5 for the 919), who'd bet against them targeting a third?
There's some logic to the idea, then, even if it would mean creating a different kind of Porsche GTS than we're used to. Our super sleuth at the Nordschleife is filming the Cayenne Coupe as we speak - expect to see it going extremely quickly around that track sooner rather than later. Oh yes, and a few numbers to ponder when considering a car aiming to be the fastest SUV around the 'ring by beating 7:42. When Walter Rohrl lapped a 997.1 GT3, it did 7:42; sportauto timed a 997.2 GT3 a few years later at 7:40, and Porsche themselves only got a 997 Turbo around in 7:38. Strange times indeed...
Images: S.Baldauf/S.B.Medien
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