2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo Executive review, test drive

Porsche has jumped on the long-wheelbase bandwagon in India with the Panamera Turbo Executive. We drive this stretched sports sedan.

Published on Mar 22, 2017 03:15:00 PM

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2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo Executive review, test drive

Sublime driving experience makes you forget you’re in a long-wheelbase sedan.

Lots of legroom in the rear and lots of toys to play with too.

Porsche’s tradition of a five-dial instrument cluster continues in the Panamera but four of them are digital, except for the large, central tachometer which continues, in time-honoured fashion, to be analogue. You can’t change everything, can you?

Engine options with the Turbo Executive comprise the base 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6, a mighty 4.0-litre V8 diesel and the top-of-the-range (for now) Turbo which gets a brand-new, compact 4.0-litre V8 petrol, with twin turbos nestling inside the vee, developing 550hp. The Panamera Executive has been launched in India with the Turbo, and that's the version I drove in South Africa outside Cape Town.

First impressions are that it doesn’t sound particularly potent and I was expecting a more glorious soundtrack from this V8. There’s a nice burble at idle and low speeds but engine note doesn’t crescendo dramatically as the revs rise. The rather muted engine note also dulls the sensation of speed, which makes the Turbo Executive deceptively quick. And quick it is.

Stomp the throttle pedal and the Panamera rockets off in a way that belies its 2,100kg kerb weight. With maximum torque at a colossal 770Nm developed at 1,960rpm, there’s instant response in any gear, at any revs, and at any speed. My day with the Panamera was spent revelling in its performance, enjoying short bursts of ludicrous speed quickly tempered with sanity and powerful six-pot caliper brakes. The eight-speed, dual-clutch (PDK) transmission can read your mind and works so intuitively, especially in Sport+ mode, that I never felt the need to use it manually, except for the fun of playing with the paddles.

Looking for a good location to take some pictures, I stumbled upon a deserted country road with a delightful set of corners. The idea of the photo shoot was quickly forgotten as I found the perfect playground replete with long sweeping corners, crests, and the odd switchback. The colossal grip, the rock-solid stability, and minimal steering corrections removed the drama through the corners. Four-wheel steering, torque vectoring and the adjustable air suspension makes the Panamera feel like it’s on rails. The flawless dynamics, however, don’t mask the size of the car and on a really narrow road, you just need to be aware of where the edges of this 5.2m-long car are.

Indian customers will be pleasantly surprised with the impressive ride quality the Panamera’s air suspension delivers. There’s an underlying firmness to the ride no doubt, even in Normal mode, but the way it rounded off sharp edges and some broken bits of tarmac, which I chanced upon, bode well for a certain level of comfort on Indian roads. The only thing to watch out for in this is what every sportscar is allergic to – speed breakers.

Priced at Rs 2.06 crore (ex-showroom, Maharashtra), the Panamera Turbo Executive may be too expensive and hard-core for most luxury car buyers in India. But for the true (and rich) enthusiast, there is simply no sports sedan that is as spacious and rewarding to drive.