JEDDAH: Glitz, a pole-dancing youth and mirrors accompanied the launch of the new Porsche Panamera in Jeddah at the Hilton on Monday. The lavish launch drew a crowd of 1,500 invited guests to see the four-door Gran-Turismo iteration from the 60-year-old family owned German sports car company.
George Wills, Porsche’s operations manager for the MENA region, introduced the all-new design to the audience. He said that despite the recession, Porsche Middle East sales grew at a year-on-year rate of the percent.
“It is not often that a manufacturer has the opportunity to develop a completely new vehicle from scratch,” said Wills. “In developing this four-seater Gran-Turismo, our technicians, engineers and designers invested all the accumulated know-how and passion of the past 60 years.”
One lesson learned from 50 years ago, when designer Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dreamt up the four-door T7, was that the characteristic front end had to accompany a fastback rear end. The “cut and paste” T7 is a museum piece; the Panamera, although sacrificing some of the 911’s svelte exterior lines to the demands of interior capacity for four people, gets there.
The Panamera incorporates the hallmark Porsche features: rear engine, low roof and hood, and raised fenders forming a continuous curved look. The characteristic low air intakes, as opposed to an upper radiator intake, remain and give the front of the car an all Porsche look.
The “head and shoulders” look of the rear aspect of the car, formed by the wide fenders, reverse tapering windscreen and a cabin distinctly narrower than the body of the car, again are characteristics that the Panamera retain even though it is a full four-seater.
The design parameters from the start of the development of the Panamera were that it had to look, feel and drive like a Porsche but have a degree of practical utility that the Carrera range does not offer. Echoing the origins of the design, the Panamera retains left-hand placement of the ignition key, central location of the tachometer and instruments in the driver’s eye-line, and the rising central instrument console from the Carrera GT.
It is a big car; 3mm wider than a Cayenne and conceals a 4.8-litre V8 and turbo version capable of pushing the car along at 270 kph plus. It is also a genuine four-seater, with generous head and legroom.
Sport and comfort modes from the suspension (air suspension an option) and a retractable air spoiler keep the Panamera solidly on the road. Power from the 4.8 litre V8 (400 hp) or V8 (500 hp) twin turbo is delivered through an optional twin-clutch seven-speed PDK transmission or a standard six-speed manual box.
After many years, Porsche have built a genuine GT vehicle that has all the characteristics that make it recognisably of the family and neatly fills a long-term gap in the range.
