SPY PICS: Panamera in Namibia

Porsche has shipped its CLS rival to the African country of Namibia for hot weather testing. Our sartorial spy photographers at Carparazzi threw off their anoraks and doffed safari suits for the long haul to their destination, which shares its southern border with South Africa. The car has already been seen in spy pics (more here) while the car was in France.

Information to hand from Carparazzi reveals that the Panamera will be launched at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show with a range of engines, starting with a 3.5-litre V6 sourced from Volkswagen. Porsche will slot the in-house direct-injection V8 into the Panamera, in both naturally aspirated (350bhp) and turbocharged (560bhp) versions. There is also a rumour that the Panamera could be endowed with the 700bhp V10 engine from the Porsche GT.

Porsche is believed to be forecasting sales of 20,000 for the Panamera and that would take the company's total production beyond the 100,000-unit per annum threshold.

-- with Carparazzi