Porsche is preparing to present to the world, at the Beijing Motor Show, this month, one of the most appealing versions of its controversial SUV, the Cayenne GTS.
Everyone is free to believe whatever they want. Porsche thinks what I do and believes with all its strength that it can make an SUV with truly sporting aspirations. As we know, this mission has only one drawback: it's called physics!
It's just that nothing works in favor of the Stuttgart house. An SUV is everything that a sports car shouldn't be: it's tall, it's heavy and it's gigantic like a ballroom. The starting point doesn't look promising at all… In terms of engineering it's as complicated a task as trying to transform a brick into a delicate, light and graceful object. In addition, as we know, physics and its friends "gravity", "centrifugal forces" and "inertia" also join the party to turn any SUV that gets in front of it, into an object that from a dynamic point of view is so dispatched like an old elephant.
Everything I just said is true. But it is no less true that Porsche already has decades of stubbornness in its curriculum, when it comes to going against the general principles of physics. I remind you that the Porsche 911, from a conceptual point of view, has the engine located in the wrong place: behind the rear axle. But it works… and so will this Cayenne GTS. And as its predecessor already worked. But what was good seems to have gotten even better now.
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| It looks fast and it's fast… very fast! |
Equipped with the latest technologies at the service of the automotive industry, the Cayenne GTS bets everything on the dynamic field. With lower suspensions and stiffer springs, aided by electrical assistance, the GTS is not afraid to tackle a mountain road at lively paces. Whatever comes next, as the brand has already got us used to, it will be epic.
To help this “mammoth with waist-belt” dance, it counts with a powerful 4.8L atmospheric V8 – as demanded by the most purists – that develops an expressive 414hp of maximum power. More than enough numbers to, in collaboration with the Tiptronic S eight-speed gearbox, propel this SUV to speeds above 260km/h, and fulfill the sprint from 0-100km/h in 5.7seconds. Mission Accomplished? It seems so. When we believe almost anything is possible… even making an SUV with a good behavior in committed driving.
Text: Guilherme Ferreira da Costa