I’ve never sat in the back of a Porsche before, partly because I have normally sized and shaped legs and partly because I pig-headedly refuse to accept the existence of the Cayenne/Mardi Gras float with a 911 on top aberration. (Apparently it’s an SUV that Porsche built to satisfy a strange urge it had at the time, one you might recognise as “greed”.)
I’ve seen people try it, though, and some of them still walk like they’ve been ringing the bells at Notre Dame for a living. Getting a ride in a Porsche can be a life-marking moment, of course, and people will go to extraordinary lengths to achieve it, even sitting in what Porsche humorously refers to as a 911’s back seats.
But today all that changed, as I was strapped into the back of the Panamera, a four-door, four-seat Porsche that’s like nothing that has come before it, except that, in its Turbo iteration, it can hit 100km/h from rest in four seconds exactly. That they’ve done before.
Due to a 27-hour journey to get to the launch in jolly Germany, our hosts decided we shouldn’t actually be allowed to drive on their wondrous speed-limitless roads on the first day, so we were chauffered some 180km in the back seats, which turned out to be a lot more pleasant than past experience would suggest.
In typical Porsche fashion, the Panamera has turned being a backseat driver into a jofyul experience. For a start, you sit in exactly the same, buckety, sporty seats as the driver and his girlfriend/wife/mistress. You even get your own centre console between your adjustable/heatable/ventilated seats, which is covered in all kinds of buttons for you to play with, as well as a light coating of carbon fibre.
It’s purely a trick of the mind, but the feeling that you’re sitting in the front turns being in the back upside down, if you see what I mean. It’s actually a fun place to be, with surprisingly amazing headroom and plenty of leg room. In short, it’s a lot bigger in there than it looks.
Ah, yes, how it looks. Well, the Panamera does look, er, challenging in photos and in the flesh.
From behind, particularly when moving, it looks like a fat, wide 911. From front on, it looks like a 911 with a Ferrari bonnet, and from a three-quarter view it looks like a slightly quirky 911. It’s only from directly side on that the whole design falls flatter than a Starlight Foundation joke. It’s just too long, too much, too otiose.
It is, in fact, a bit ugly. Not Cayenne ugly – indeed, if it was I would have to take a similar aesthetic stand and refuse to set posterior inside one, even having flown this far – but not Cayman pretty, either.
It seems the job of making a giant, four-door 911 posed design questions that even Stuttgart’s finest couldn’t answer. And yet, that one angle aside, it’s a bit of a triumph. Then there’s the way it goes, which, from the back seat, is best described as terrifying. The way it accelerated, quite legally I should point out, from 200km/h to 250km/h – only to be overtaken by a motorbike that must have been pushing 300km/h – made me whoop like an American golf fan.
Tomorrow, we get to find out what it’s like to drive, but if you want to know you’ll have to buy next month’s magazine.
For now, though, take a look at a Panamera in a lift, then tell us what you think of the look of it? The idea of it? Is it a winner, or a Pandemica of ugliness?
Its a definate winner…no two ways about it! Name another car that looks as goo with 4 doors?
Maserati Quattroporte
have a look at the Aston Martin Rapide and then say that there isn’t a car that looks as good with 4 doors…
Hell even the Maserati Quatroporte looks better than the Panamera…
Porsche built a 4-door 911 that looks like a 4-door 911
Mazza Quattroporte
or the Lambo Estoque
The Estoque does knock them all into the weeds.
for sure its a very good car,but it will end up with the p76 ,esprits,nsx,dino,even the new monaro,subaru vortex,and the other one off cars,…great car that nobody buys…..
mmmm…Estoque. The panamera is really horrid. Its just a squashed cayenne (ie. NOT GOOD). ’specially if they make a hybrid model *shudders*
The hybrid model is coming, and even this one has stop/start tech.
lets sum up the four door supercars shall we:
the porsche looks like a midget cayenne which looks like a giant beetle (so its shit like every other porsche)
the rapide would be a sin against aston to build
the quattroporte and the estoque are the only ones that can pull it of and if i see anyone driving anyone of the others then i condemn them to hell
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
there is nothing wrong with the cayenne,it just has the wrong wheels and tyres,throw a set of 16″steel rims and coopers all terrain tyres on it and it will be a whole new world for the cayenne,and porsche will double the sales.so if porche slaps a baby on board sticker on this thing,it will sell like blow up dolls at the top gear christmas party.Yes i would like a job at porsche marketing dept.
Maserati/lambo “obviouslly” But thats it! So having the Panamera coming on to the scene is a blessing from the gode of motoring. The Porsche might not be to everyones taste and its not a glorified 4 door 911, as i recall it strapped the Nurburgring in a simmilar time to a 911(that cant be bad for a 4 door)…
The upcoming Porche Panamera is a great Limo. It will do well.
sound good like to see the car on top gear for myself then i could tell you what i would prefere but i gota say i’d have that new massarati gt thing that is awsome not only that it has a ferrari engine and built in italy which bodes well for it thou this porshe sounds abosolutly gratz
I can’t say I like the look of it. No doubt Porsche fans will thou.
I definitly think that Lambourghini 4 Dour I saw on Topgear UK is a cracker…..
Is there an Aston Martin version
Would you say the Mazda R8 was a four door? Not exactly in the same league as the above mentioned cars, but I think it did the whole four door thing quite clever.
its as ugly as sin
JANE
Just Another Nine Eleven
To the world at large another hyper irrelevant rich wank.
And to FBholden dude yes the RX8 is a 4 door
suicide doors are still doors.
supercars meh who cares.
And while Im on me soapbox…
Corbz can you have a meeting with ya writers…
agenda
Every time a new (read: they polished this n took something away from that) Porsche 911/997 whateverthehelltheyrecall ingitthisweek comes out:
They agree volunteerily to DITCH any discussion of how bloody great Porsches’ engineers must be cuz theyve finally tamed the great monster rear engine oversteer bogy.
It was boring 20 years ago. Its just regurgitated bullshit now.
Think about it. How long has Porsche been playing with rear engined cars? Since.. since… since GROSS GOT since the bloody company was founded is when. Whats that? over 50 years??
Yeaaaa I reckon they bloody SHOULD have a feel for it by now eh? Lets face it – they should by now have an ENORMOUS file called ‘what doesnt work to kill lift off oversteer’. you guys make em sound like the 2nd coming of someone or other when all theyve done is develop n develop n develop.
Go revisit a Renault 8 Gordini, the 1135 model with a sensible set of slightly fatter tyres. Tell me that little sucker doesnt handle like a beauty. Ok not dealing with same power etc but jesus wept… its a shopping trolley that makes a fair sorta statement.
I learnt my driving in rear engined renaults. Ive had one that had a 1600 with about 150HP.
Simple lesson learnt early: lift off? Sure but do it BEFORE the corner dickhead. Brake straight n accelerate through.
It isnt power on oversteer that kills in a rear engined car its lift off.
here endeth etc
yeah man i think porshe should come out with a new desgin of car to but rear engine drive cars is there thing so it is unlikely to change most people who buy them are to old to care about giving it to them so the car is unlikley to kill anyone just curious how big a caliber rifle is 505mm any way never even heard of one that big expet for a sniper rifle i got a suggestion the porshe dealer should throw in some advanced driving corse lessons with the car so the old fart knows how to drive it
505 is the last of the real Peugeots demon….
I have a Peugeot 505SLi, and Ford Focus cl 08 upgrade woo umm hoo
nothing to do with a 505mm. thinking however…
105mm is 6 inch
so
the Jap battleship Yamato had 18 inch main rifles. So thatd be 315mm bores in todays terms
505 would be near 30 inches or so. Hard to imagine, youd run into all sorts of issues regarding weight of the barrel (it would have to be VERY thick steel to stay straight , and rather long too)…
I would like to further comment on my rant previous
How long has ford been making the Falcon in Australia?
early 60s eh
XP Falcon was an evil little pig of a thing to drive wasnt it.
Big torquey engine up front, fuggall traction at rear where the driving wheels live.
Fg Falcon, 2009, big torquey engine up front, rear wheels driven. Drives pretty bloody nice dont they?
about 3 times the power (I cant remember how much the XP had off hand but i reckon 70KW at a guess wouldnt be far off).
But look!!
its a front engined rear drive 3 box design!!!
Fords engineers should be congratulated for persisting with such a layout with its inherently dangerous power oversteer, and plough understeer (nose heavy) generating layout!!!
You say potato
I say potato.
The 911 handles because modern tyres are better, modern dampers are better, the chassis is much stiffer, engines are smoother and much less peaky in their delivery than early ones.
My Renault 10 handled better than standard because it had: a Gordini twin shock rear end, 6 inch wide tyres, De Carbon dampers, thicker sway bars, and a roll cage (much stiffer). I also had 2 spare wheels in the boot (up front der) for 2 reasons, crude crumple zone, and better weight distribution.
I remember Porsche sticking iron bars in the behind the front bumper in the 80s AS A FACTORY development, to try to kill some oversteer.
Besides,
It isnt the oversteer thats the worry
its the fact that a rear engined car will understeer like a PIG on steroids, THEN snap into oversteer. If you drive it like a front engined car. So dont.
and that new thing is still bloody ugly.
I think the 944 looked pretty bloody good though
thanks for that info 505 it is true you lern somthing new everyday i saw a porshe cayman the other day and had alook inside i tell you it was tiny no ordinary man would feel comftable inside one i also had a look at a evo x much bigger inside if i was going to buy a sports car i would have the evo it looks better and you have room to move