9:26 pm, February 24, 2009
LOOK! A Cayenne… OFF ROAD! Manufacturers will often have you believe their 4x4s can tackle the tough stuff, but today Porsche proved it.
At the Porsche Performance Centre at Silverstone I had the chance to put the new Cayenne diesel through its paces – and it was seriously impressive.
The Porsche facility at Silverstone is proper good – combining a mini museum with health, conferencing and lunching services.
Oh, and not to mention a cracking off-road course and brilliant handling circuit for the exclusive use of Porsche.
They didn’t ease us into this off-roading malarkey, though. It wasn’t long after getting behind the wheel that I was staring down the business end of a 1:1 descent, feeling rather nervous indeed.
Thankfully we had expert guidance, but as you will see from the video below it was still pretty scary. That hill doesn’t look that steep on camera, but I honestly couldn’t have walked up it if I had tried.
It was nice to see the Cayenne coping with the rough stuff. It was great fun and that new diesel engine is impressive both on and off road.
It’s a corking unit; smooth, powerful and ever so quiet. In fact, despite being a bit of a cliché, you can’t actually tell you’re in a diesel most of the time.
The powerplant produces 240bhp and a whopping 550Nm of torque courtesy of two turbochargers that practically eliminate lag.
I also got the chance to try out the new Cayman and Cayman S models on the track.
Check out the road test of that car and videos of Porsche driving instructor Mark Burkinshaw putting it through its paces by clicking here.
James
