You mustn’t judge a car before you’ve driven it, except that it’s impossible not to. And would you look at this thing? Bulbous and oversized, it tries far too hard with its flat grey paintwork and gold wheels, plus that sloping roofline that serves no purpose other than to make it look more like the sporting car it so desperately wants to be.
I knew the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT wasn’t my cup of tea the moment I saw it. Like you I appreciate lithe, agile machines that weigh very little, not these two-tonne behemoths that sit up high on their springs and list in corners like a torpedoed battleship. So it was with a sense of duty not anticipation that I tested the Turbo GT last week, finding within a mile or two that it was absolutely fabulous to drive. I still haven’t calmed down.
This isn’t the most powerful Cayenne yet, but Porsche says it is the fastest. The Turbo S E-Hybrid with 671bhp has the Turbo GT covered in terms of horsepower (although there’s only 40bhp in it), but without the extra weight of a hybrid system, this model is lighter by 270kg and therefore quicker both in a straight line and through corners. It lapped the Nürburgring in 7min 38.9secs, setting a new official record not only for pointlessness, but also for SUVs on the ’Ring.
