|
But getting back to the sport button, and boy, did it leave a smile on our faces wider than a kid with his face dug in a triple flavoured ice-cream cone. It just transforms the Cayenne into a hard-core SUV that makes it a supercar slayer. Despite weighing in at 2,170 kg, the Cayenne Turbo started to handle more and more like its 911 brethren. It can’t hide its weight, but because you have massive grip from its 265 section tyres and the way the weight balance shifts, that even at 90 per cent of its limit, it feels very well tied in. We however didn’t get enough corners to test the car’s handling, but when the road opened up and we were told there weren’t any speed cameras for the next couple of kilometres, we just let it rip. And rip apart perceptions it did. Before we knew it, the exhaust note had turned from aggressive to a spine chilling one that would, with a deep bass note, go phurr-phhurrrrr-phurrrrrrrr. You really could hear the turbo spool with clarity and hear the wastegate whoosh get lost in that fine exhaust drama.
To heighten the drama, we quickly swapped places with another group who were waiting to hand over their Cayenne S’ to us. It might sound a bit down on power at first, but the Cayenne S is equally devastating a tool. Heading along our new off-road track, the Cayenne S made it amply clear that the new Cayenne has taken its off-road ability a notch up. You get optional lockable diffs (front, centre and rear) and the Porsche Active Suspension Management system (PASM) that makes going over the rough stuff so much easier. Switching off the stability management system (PSM), the Cayenne became a willing puppy in the semi-arid desert. With its crisp throttle response and steering, the new Cayenne has become more responsive when the going gets tough. To prevent the vehicle from getting bogged down while coming down sand dunes, we set the suspension on sport to reduce suspension travel. Even when we got stuck (which we did... thrice!), all we needed to do was stay clean with the throttle travel and just watch the Cayenne use its grunt to move out of the impediment. To top it off, it becomes even more capable in the hands of regular dune bashers, like the ones from Porsche’s test-drive team, who really showed how capable the Cayenne is off-road as it is on-road.
Those are generally called all-rounders, which the new Cayenne is. Though it might not be practical enough (just five seats and a hefty price tag that ranges from Rs 63.3 lakh to Rs 1.24 cr for the Turbo), you can’t but help wonder that Porsche have really raised the bar pretty high. To crib about the new Cayenne would be to nitpick, because for what it is, Porsche would be safe in the knowledge that the new Cayenne could very well become the super SUV to beat in India.
|
