For millennia, sailors have named their ships after the women of their hearts — mothers, sisters, sweethearts, wives — and cultivated bonds with those vessels so deep they could easily be called kinship. So if you find yourself behind the wheel of a Porsche Panamera, murmuring sweet nothings to the dashboard console, don’t be alarmed — you’re simply obeying an impulse that has existed for centuries between men and the vehicles they love.
Most companies, competing to hold on to elusive consumer bases, strive to engineer products that exceed expectations. But when you have a chrome-plated reputation like Porsche’s, customers tend to expect nothing less than perfection. Executive was invited to travel to Dubai last month to test drive Porsche’s newest release.
The strongly contoured air intakes, wheel arches and sleek bonnet, the powerful shoulders over the rear wheels and the sweep of the roofline, quintessentially Porsche, leave little doubt as to the car’s manufacturer. And yet the size is striking to anyone familiar with previous models: The Panamera is a four door and is significantly wider (1,931 mm) than the 911. It is clear from the first glance that with this addition to its line, Porsche is cruising new ground.
Like a private jet on wheels
The Panamera represents a new phase in Porsche’s development, breaking with past precedents to incorporate a new four-seat interior. Some critics may question whether the sedan-like model can retain the sports car feel that the company has cultivated for decades, but from behind the wheel, the larger body makes little impression: it is evident that the Panamera is still geared 100 percent towards speed.
Seated in one of the two rear seats, one has total control of one’s environment — the Panamera’s interior is divided into four environments, each autonomously adjustable via a central console running through the vehicle’s interior — with all the luxuries of a private jet at one’s disposal. If a limousine could top out at 285 kilometers per hour (kmph), the passenger’s ride might feel a little like this.
At the controls of the Panamera Turbo, the 500 horsepower engine’s low rumble is like a dialogue between man and machine. Speed is an implicit promise: pushed to its limits, the Panamera can reach 100 kmph in a neck-snapping 4.2 seconds. But a vehicle of Porsche’s quality deserves to be coaxed before it’s unleashed. A touch of the foot to the gas pedal and the car glides forward, graceful as a panther — and nearly as quiet. The car responds like a well-tuned Stradivarius as it navigates through the streets of Dubai and slips onto the highway.
A car that can read minds
Driving a Porsche is, as it must be, a single-minded experience. There is no need to give thought to — or even mention — such extraneous details as stereo volume or climate control, both regulated automatically. One could expound at length on the top-of-the-line comfort features: the seven-inch, color-touch screen fitted with both CDR-31 audio system and Porsche Communication Management, including navigation module, the high-end Burmeister surround system… but these are ultimately cosmetic. It is the driving experience that makes a Porsche a Porsche, and the Panamera is no exception. With an eight-cylinder engine and bi-turbo technology, the Panamera Turbo has the muscle to burn almost any smaller two-door sports car audacious enough to issue a challenge.
On the highway, the car takes flight, with traffic cameras popping like swarms of paparazzi as it sails past at a top speed of 303 kmph. Out of the city and into the desert, the sun burning overhead, the separation between car and driver gradually vanishes. Both are learning to read the other, two personalities meshing into one as the road spins away behind; and on a level deeper than flesh or steel, they already share a basic DNA — a visceral, integral need for speed. It’s an impulse that predates man, stretching back to when rapid flight was a basic principle of survival. Then it was a necessity. With the Panamera, it’s a pleasure.
