Porsche Cayenne GTS and Turbo S 2015 Review

The big news with the latest Cayenne GTS is that, like the 'upgraded' Cayenne S, it ditches the old naturally-aspirated 4.8-litre V8 in favour of a twin-turbo 3.6-litre V6. But before you embark on a tirade about being short-changed to the tune of two cylinders and 1.2 litres, you should register the fact that the new motor is discernibly gruntier, as well as being more fuel-efficient.

Power rises from 309kW to 324kW, while torque jumps from 515Nm to 600Nm. But what makes the latter figure particularly telling is that peak twist is on tap from 1600rpm, and stays table-flat until 5000rpm. This makes for rapid real-world performance, but more on this later.

As before, drive is relayed to all four wheels through an eight-speed ZF automatic, with torque distributed to front and rear axles (in a 40:60 ratio under normal conditions) via a new electronically-controlled multi-plate clutch.

The GTS also sits 24mm lower than lesser Cayennes on its standard steel springs, or 20mm lower with the optional air suspension. It gets PASM adaptive dampers as standard, along with the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) system.

Also included at no cost is a sports exhaust system and beefed-up 390mm front and 358mm rear brakes with red callipers borrowed from the Turbo model.

Visually, the GTS is recognisable by its delectable set of blacked-out RS Spyder 20-inch wheels, larger air intakes at the front and Turbo-style headlights and LED fog lights. In addition, all exterior trim (including the badges and tailpipes) is painted gloss-black for a sportier, stealthier look.

The media launch event was staged in Skelleftea, the southern outpost of Swedish Lapland, but for our wave weather played the spoiler. Not bad weather in the traditional sense, just unusually warm conditions. Where it was -14 the previous week, today it was a balmy four degrees, turning the soft, powdery snow into slush and ice.

This made for super-slippery conditions in which it was hardly fitting to unleash the full dynamic repertoire of the Cayenne GTS.

For what it’s worth, Porsche claims the vehicle can lap the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife in 8:13 (on par with a previous-gen BMW M5), while the 0-100km/h split has been trimmed from the oldie’s 5.7 to 5.2 seconds (5.1 with the optional Sport Chrono package). And although largely academic, top whack is quoted at 262km/h.

Slithering away from the icy hotel carpark, it’s clear we won’t be putting any of these claims to the test, but the GTS does impress with its surefootedness and agility in the treacherous conditions, particularly for a 2.1-tonne vehicle that stands 1.7 metres tall.

The 3.6-litre twin-turbo V6 serves up masses of effortless oomph, and it sounds much better than the Cayenne S, which has a less potent version of the same motor. That said, it’s nowhere near as fruity sounding as the old atmo V8 GTS.

As before, the eight-speed ZF auto slurs through the ratios quickly and imperceptibly. For all intents and purposes, it’s as effective as a dual-clutch sequential ‘box.

The current-generation Cayenne is now almost five years old and, as a result, it does feel dated in certain areas, such as the cabin. The centre console is a button/switch bonanza, whereas most rivals have now adopted much cleaner, less cluttered layouts.

That said, it’s still a pleasant place to be as the eight-way power-adjustable leather/Alcantara seats are nicely sculpted to hug your torso, and our test car’s pews look particularly good in black trim with contrasting red stitching and GTS lettering on the head restraints.

As is the norm with contemporary Porsches, the driver is faced with five clustered dials – the tachometer gets pride of place in the centre, naturally – and a beautifully crafted steering wheel with a trio of brushed aluminium spokes.

A 45-minute drive through farmland and pine forests eventually brings us to Skelleftea Drive Centre, where we are briefed on the main exercises for today – the core elements comprising a tight handling course, a drift circle and a straight-line sprint from standstill to 100km/h and then back down to rest.

We start off with the handling course and it’s clear a paltry 100kW would have been sufficient today as the surface of the course is akin to a skating rink. Even though the Porsche support crew has fitted the vehicles with spiked tyres, grip levels are so low that merely keeping the car pointing in the right direction requires a silken touch on the steering, brakes and throttle – and speeds not far above jogging pace.

We then move on to the drift circle, where the objective is to keep the car moving in a nice circular drift, which proves far easier said than done today. A week ago, with snow rather than ice under-wheel, it may have been simpler, but on this day it demands a level of touch and precision that none of us are able to muster up.

All of this is very entertaining, but doesn’t prove particularly enlightening about the vehicle, so we grab the keys to a Turbo S and head for the country roads in the general vicinity of the Skelleftea Drive Centre.

Even in these adverse conditions, it’s clearly apparent the Cayenne flagship is a formidably quick device. Punching out a walloping 419kW and 800Nm from its 4.8-litre twin-turbo V8, it leaps to 100km/h in 4.1 seconds and tops out at a supercar-threatening 284km/h.

What’s more, it laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a searing 7:59. These are staggering stats when you take into account that this is a 2235kg behemoth.

Befitting its top-dog status, the Turbo S comes loaded with all the fruit imaginable, including self-levelling air suspension, 21-inch rims and Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB) – 420mm discs with 10-piston callipers at the front and 370mm discs with four-piston callipers at the rear.

Also standard is the usual raft of chassis-management systems – including Porsche Traction Management (PTM), Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) and Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+).

It only takes a couple of kilometres to discern the Turbo S’s immense clout, but it’s still hard to fathom the eye-watering premium it commands over the GTS we had stepped out of earlier.

Yes, the Turbo S is ultimately the faster vehicle – although not so much in the icy conditions of today, where the slightly lighter, more agile GTS is more in its element – and it comes stuffed with a far greater quota of bells, whistles and luxury features, but almost double the money? Come on…

The GTS still stacks up as a reasonable buy for a vehicle of this genre, although you can have a more potent and similarly dynamically capable BMW X6 xDrive50i (330kW/650Nm) for less cash ($151,600, plus ORCs).

Also in the same ballpark is the Range Rover Sport Supercharged (375kW/625Nm), priced from $161,600. There's also the upcoming Range Rover Sport SVR, which ups the ante to 405kW/680Nm and will hit 100km/h in 4.7 seconds from May.

The GTS comfortably eclipses the existing Rangie Sport flagship in terms of on-road dynamics, but the latter offers genuine off-road capability. But who buys one of these to go off-road anyway?

As for the Turbo S, it’s an exercise in pure excess. It outpunches pretty much every other SUV out there – only the BMW X6M (423kW/750Nm) is in the same league – and will no doubt find a following among the select few for whom price is no object.