Road-Tripping In a Panamera Sport Turismo

By Stuart Johnston

The Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo is only due to be launched here officially in January 2018. But, said The Man From Porsche, there was a distinct possibility I could grab hold of this R2,5-million estate car on a mid-November Friday afternoon, haul it down to Buhala Lodge on the banks of the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga, watch hippos gargling and grunting from the game-viewing deck, then  cruise back to Randburg on the Sunday afternoon, after maybe making a little detour into the Kruger Park -  two months before the on-sale date!

Heh heh. I told The Man From Porsche, ja,  hmmm, I’d get back to him.

What I didn’t tell him, when I confirmed my slavering, unequivocal willingness the next day, was that I had moved metaphorical mountains, not to mention a 20 kg bag of dog pellets;  re-shuffled appointments, nagged the receptionists at Buhala Lodge repeatedly about Wi-Fi connectivity,  foreshortened a track experience at Kyalami, arranged for house sitters, overhauled the Kreepy Krauly, changed the bed linen and….

The first estate

You don’t want to know all this. You want to know what the new Porsche, the very first Porsche estate car, is like!

Well, the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo is the coolest of cool. This is the very first Porsche estate car, or station wagon, as we like to call these two-box shapes here in sometimes sunny South Africa. And such a styling job has the Porsche team done on this car, that it looks as if the Panamera was always destined to be an estate car – sleek, low, and mean without any hint of the dreaded bling factor that some manufacturers feel is a prerequisite for sales in cash-rich emerging markets.

The sedan version of the second-generation Porsche Panamera  went on sale here a couple of months ago, and it is all new, despite looking very similar to the first-gen Panamera. I used to say that the original Panamera  (2010-2016 MY) was one of the dowdiest Porsches you could buy, but once you’d driven it, you realised that it was one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet.

Well, the new lightweight Panamera  drives and rides even better! And it has addressed many of those styling issues, mainly by adding some styling lines and curvature between the wheel arches and some sexier sill extensions.  Now, with the extended roof line on the Turismo model, topped off by a neat little spoiler, it has the grace to match its otherworldly pace, not to mention its shear excellence in virtually every department of  automotive engineering.

520 litres of luggage space

Ah, this Panamera certainly has pace, especially in the model we were driving. The Man From Porsche casually mentioned that this was the top-of-the-line Turbo model, as he briefed us on the extra luggage space (up to 520 litres with all seats in place). The Turbo model is endowed with a Bi-Turbo V8 that produces 404 kW and 770 Nm of torque. This enables a 0-100 km/h time of 3,8 seconds and a top speed of 304 km/h. Supercar figures for this estate, oh yes.

So, it was case of can’t wait as we headed out of Porsche Centre on a Friday with the weather looking threatening, and luckily only bogged down in heavy traffic on the N3 and then the N12 for a relatively short interval. Gave us time to explore the nifty pop-down cup-holders which look and feel as if they were designed for the NASA space shuttle. You could pop this Panamera onto two wheels and still not spill your drink

Pop a Panamera onto two wheels?

But popping a Panamera onto two wheels is not likely to happen. On previous experience of this car at giggle-inducing  speeds, its biggest asset is its high-speed stability, both in  straight-ahead trajectory and through long, fast sweepers. Its long wheelbase (2950 mm) all-wheel-drive, and impeccably-crafted suspension system make this a car you  guide, rather than drive. What’s more, with its latest-generation air suspension (standard fit on this model), the mix of ride suppleness and body-roll control has to be experienced to be believed.

That V8 engine up ahead has technology that you only begin to appreciate once the kilometres roll by. I was amazed, clicking on the trip meter, to realise that we were averaging 9,8 litres/100 km in a 404 kW car! Sure, we were cruising at pretty much the National Speed limit, but part of the fun of a car like this is its immense overtaking ability. You hang back to see if the road is clear,  squirt it, and you clear cars ahead in milliseconds, let alone seconds. Were it legal to do so, I could tell you that grunting  from 100-to200 km/h in delicious overtaking bursts is one of the reasons to be alive in a Panamera Sport Turismo.

Amazing cruise consumption

That amazing consumption is due to technology that cuts four the cylinders off from operation while in cruise mode. Another is the fact that at 120 km/h it is virtually ticking over at around 1 500 rpm in eighth gear. And, alzo, Schultz, that top gear has a free-wheel mode that lets you coast with the engine out of gear, when you back off from an overtaking burst.

The Porsche control centre in the cabin is particularly handy, as it enables simple switch gear on the console  to control things you need to change on the move, such as ventilation, backed up by finer individual settings tabled within the 12,6 inch centre screen. We particularly enjoyed the standard-fit BOSE audio system, which (yay) had a CD shuttle slotted into the glove box. For some reason we activated a mute button inadvertently on this at one point of our road trip, but on the return journey, it defaulted to the all-is-well mode, and we were able to enjoy Detroit rocker Bob Seger telling us about how strung-out he was on the road, near Omaha.

In between gobbling up stretches of N4 with contemptuous ease, we took in a quick sojourn into the heart of the Kruger Park, at the behest of She Who Must Be Obeyed. I was stressing about the lack of ground clearance when she suggested we raise the suspension (she’d had a lot more time on the trip down to Buhala to peruse all the  personalised setting options on the touchscreen-operated  Porsche Communication management system).

More ground clearance for the Kruger

An extra 20 mm of ground clearance imparted the confidence to tackle a particularly muddied game reserve road (we had no choice actually, complex U-turns in the Park on minor roads are frowned upon). Okay, so this estate car can handle a bit of rough road at 40 km/h, but unless you want to spy out warthogs at tail-height level, I have to confess that the Panamera is no great shakes compared to, say, a Cayenne, in the game viewing department. Still, the Park wardens were impressed, and when I told the one dude it could do 300 km/h he said, yes, that is what he expected from a Porsche. I was preaching to the converted.

On the return trip I managed to reduce my overall consumption down to 9,6 litres/100, and still, I should point out that my average speed was 118 km/h. If it is relative frugality, absolute confidence in stability, ear-lobe pegging performance,   space for five people (yes, the rear seat is a bench on the Sport Turismo!) and space for four largish travel bags that you are after,  this is the car for you. Providing, of course, you have an extra R2 572 000 at your disposal.

By the way, that price puts it right  in line with the top Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series models.

*Note. The Porsche Panamera range is entered in the 2018 SAGMJ  Car of the Year competition,  in which AutoTrader is the official  media partner.