Every now and then a new car comes along and redefines a term many have become accustomed to. The new Porsche Panamera 4S Diesel does that with the term ‘diesel sport-luxury sedan’, making waves in more ways than one.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Porsche
About 350 km north-east of Stuttgart, a Panamera is on Porsche’s assembly line in Leipzig. The new model raised a lot of eyebrows owing to its evolved design, especially because of the drama of the rear-wing seen in the Turbo model. However, this isn’t about the wing. It isn’t even about the mad V8 twin-turbo diesel here. It’s about how much the Panamera has evolved from what it was. What it was intended to be was a four-door 911. Have they succeeded? To some extent, yes. However, people complained that it was ‘too ugly’ and ‘not Porsche’ enough. Let’s be factual, though. Looks are entirely subjective, and, as a car, it was a complete package and sure packed a wallop — even the base diesel V6.
That’s the past. This is the present, and a bit of the foreseeable future, too. The all-new Panamera 4S Diesel gets a stonking new bi-turbo V8 displacing 4.0-litres and making well over 100 PS/litre and significantly more than 200 Nm/litre. Everything is new. The body is reworked to be lighter, at 2,050 kg, the electronics are more advanced, as is the suspension, using dynamic 4D chassis control, active roll control and pneumatic damping, and the Bosch common-rail direct injection uses pressures as high as 2,500 bar. The eight-speed PDK automatic drives an optimised four-wheel-drive system, complete with torque vectoring.
The interior receives an equal dollop of updates, with the Porsche Advanced Cockpit cutting-edge infotainment interface, top-quality sporty seats with multiple adjustment possibilities — those many? Optional, doubtless — but every bit just adding to the aura of precision and performance that Porsche were undoubtedly going for. The sum of its parts? Greater. Even with those optional carbon-ceramic brakes. Which brings me to its dynamics.
