Putting the Sport back in Sport Utility
Is it possible to make something perfect, even more perfect?
Logic dictates that improvement would imply the correction of a previous shortcoming. The 2024 Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT throws logic out the window in several ways, and gets in perfect-er for this model year and trim level.
It amps up the sports car flavour to 11 without compromising the elements that make the Cayenne the top SUV choice.
In another paradox, the Turbo GT is visually subtle, but yet not so. A surface look around the coupé body style and interior doesn’t the scream fastest production SUV around the Nürburgring, which it is. A closer gaze says otherwise.
Carbonfibre can be found in liberal usage around the exterior and cabin. The massive yellow calipers gripping the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes behind the enormous 22-inch wheel package, and extra carbonfibre aero-bits give only a hint to the true performance.
Inside, even the eight-way powered sports seats deliver the comfort expected from the Cayenne. The cabin contains every conceivable convenience features one could ever want, under new digital interfaces that make the SUV look more starship than motor vehicle. All continued in a refined space covered in quality materials that reference terms such as deviated stitching. It’s only the large swaths of Alcantara that, like the exterior elements, provide some clue to the true potential of the Turbo GT.
Even with the price tag there is no reason to feel short-changed as the extra zeroes have been spent beefing up the Cayenne where it matters, under the skin. It sits 15mm lower on special Pirelli tyres. There’s a host of electronic systems to keep the Cayenne right side up during its ballistic bursts of acceleration, from Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control, to Torque Vectoring Plus, to rear-axle steer. The heart of the Turbo GT is its 4-litre biturbo V8, further strengthened to output 650bhp.
Launch control instantly wipes away sticker shock. The titanium exhaust crackles and pops, tearing forward as if the horizon had been flung towards the vehicle by Jupiter himself. Porsche says 62 mph will come up 3.3 seconds later. Should one keep their foot down the Cayenne will accelerate past speeds that would make a commercial airliner airborne. The quoted terminal velocity is 189mph and it can be achieved with ease. The Porsche has power everywhere, low, mid, and top end, as it invisibly chooses the right gear for freight train forward momentum all the time in the SPORT+ mode.
Surely there’s a shortcoming? No. Encounter a curvy road and the Porsche continues to defy logic. Upon approach the Cayenne can brake, scrubbing off speed repeatedly and as precisely instructed instilling an unwavering confidence in the left pedal. It can then turn with unimaginable grip for a vehicle of its size and class, clip the apex with the exactness of a Mohel at a B’rit Milah, then without missing a step rifle through its revised eight-speed transmission to achieve corner entry velocity.
One would then imagine the Cayenne to be some rough hooligan of a machine given its immense performance envelope. The expectations are not reality. At no point does the Turbo GT possess the harshness of a race car. It’s as incredibly precise as it is comfortable. In the real world the Turbo GT can devour a near 480-mile roundtrip dash faster than its stated GPS arrival time, and then cruise stress-free in traffic. Not many vehicles can achieve this, much less an SUV.
Former TopGear presenter James May once blamed the Nürburgring for ruining cars, making them too stiff and uncomfortable for real roads. The Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT proves otherwise. This is the no compromise vehicle for the person who must have speed, luxury, and practicality in one package. The Turbo GT does everything the standard Cayenne does, just faster.