This is the Porsche Panamera with mid-life freshenings, sampled here in its most potent turbocharged form with 513bhp rather than the 493bhp of the outgoing model. This rework sees Porsche’s saloon resculpted at the rear end, receiving new bumpers front and rear as well as some suspension changes designed to smooth out its ride and quell road noise.
The big news elsewhere in the range is the launch of a plug-in hybrid version, and the arrival of a new Porsche-designed bi-turbo V6. But it’s the almost preposterously potent Turbo that we’re dealing with here.
This is a car of galactic performance, its 516lb ft of torque and seven gears allowing you to bound down the road at time-crushing pace, and with little more than a flex of your right foot. It dismisses 62mph in just 4.2 seconds, storms to 100mph 8.9sec and 124mph in 13.8sec. That’s mighty performance in anyone’s book. And a finger-jab will access it still more completely; sport or sport plus needing the attentions of your index digit if you’re to penetrate deeper and more swiftly into this Porsche’s torque reserves.
These modes sharpen the accelerator and encourage the seven-speed transmission to extract power from higher up the rev range, besides girding the chassis for speedier assaults on the fast-arriving horizon.