Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT: Alpha Tier

The crest on the racetrack near the city of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland is tough. It is more of a ramp than a hill. In contrast, the increase in the airfield section on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife is a better bump. We hit the right bend in front of it pretty well and shoot up the hill with a lot of speed and take off. Aviators say hello to the sun, except that the vehicle is not a fragile aircraft, but a 2.2-ton power SUV. The Cayenne Turbo GT shoots through the air on a ballistic trajectory and lands after a few meters, full and clean, on all four wheels. A deflection, that’s it. It almost seems as if the long jump was part of the specifications for the development of the most powerful Porsche SUV. The acoustics do their part: this spectacle is accompanied by a constantly hissing bypass valve of the turbocharger.

The wild chase continues around the Viking roller coaster, which is a mixture of the Nordschleife, Spa Francorchamps and go-kart track with tight curves. And what the Cayenne Turbo GT conjures up on the Nordic asphalt is even more impressive than the flight insert. If you really take it courageously, it is quite normal for such a heavy and long-legged vehicle to slide grumpily over the front axle when turning and cornering. The engineers in Zuffenhausen drove this agility-inhibiting bad habit out of the SUV.

The decisive factor in this Quickstep joy is the interaction between a revised front axle, tires with a lot of grip and a refined all-wheel drive. The technicians changed the negative camber of the front wheels by 0.45 degrees, stiffened the three-chamber air suspension of the chassis by up to 15 percent (in normal driving mode it is ten percent) compared to the Cayenne Turbo Coupé and thus reduced the tendency to pitch. In addition, the body dips 17 millimeters lower over the asphalt. So that these tricks don’t fizzle out ineffectively, the all-wheel drive also had to be worked on, which is also designed as a hang-on variant in the Cayenne Turbo GT, which is typical for Porsche. Which also matches the axle load distribution of 57 percent at the front to 43 percent at the rear. However, this all-wheel drive is the first in which Porsche actively cools the multi-plate clutch. “This means we can use the front axle more often and also use more torque from the apex of the curve than with the Cayenne GTS,” explains chassis technician Kai Bremsat. If you keep in mind how agile the GTS variant of the SUV is, then you know what the Turbo GT conjures up on the track.

“The Cayenne GT Turbo is the enhancement of the properties of the Cayenne GTS” confirms engine expert Dr. Denis Rancak. That brings us to the drive, in which the technicians have also invested a lot of brainpower. The heart of the Porsche Cayenne is the V8 biturbo with 471 KW / 640 PS and a maximum torque of a mighty 850 Newton meters, which is available between 2,300 and 4,500 rpm. However, this unit is not fired by a charger with variable turbine geometry, but by a twin-scroll turbocharger. “It fits the concept best,” explains Denis Rancak. In order to counteract the inertia of the larger blades, which are responsible for the performance, the throttle valves remain open at all times and thus maintain a boost pressure that is there as soon as the driver calls it up.

The technical spectacle is complemented by an eight-speed automatic with shortened shift times and special 22-inch Pirelli P Zero Corsa ultra-high-performance tires with dimensions 285/35 at the front and 315/30 at the rear, which are factory-fitted and, according to Porsche, should work well even in the rain. They have to, because under ideal conditions the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT reaches the 100 km / h mark after 3.3 seconds and is the only model in the series that is 300 km / h. So that the power comes to the road, the spoiler lip of the roof wing is 25 millimeters longer than the “conventional” turbo and thus generates up to 40 kilograms more downforce.

When it comes to sportiness, the Porsche Cayenne is impressive, if not to say outstanding. But what about suitability for everyday use? Here, too, the athlete in SUV clothing does really well. Of course, the chassis is firmer than the standard model, but it doesn’t become uncomfortable even on bad roads in normal driving mode, the drive train also takes a step back and is no longer as directly attached to the accelerator, which enables relaxed gliding. Porsche specifies an average fuel consumption of 14.1 l / 100 km (according to the WLTP cycle). All that remains is the price of the Cayenne Turbo GT, which will be available from dealers from mid-September. It starts at 196,078 euros, our test car costs 210,120 euros.