PORSCHE PANAMERA UNVEILED

Porsche’s new Panamera is coming to town. Not this year, but within the next 18 months. Great news is that Mzansi is getting the Panamera too. The Porsche Panamera is a four-door coupe in similar layout as the Mercedes-Benz CLS, in that it has four doors but only sits four. This means where normally a middle seat lies, there is storage space. So it will compete with the CLS, along the new Audi A7 which is to be seen in 2010, as well as BMW’s own four-door coupe, based on the CS Concept car. Aston Martin is also planning a four-door coupe called the Rapide.

The Panamera will be powered by a variety of engines, V6 and V8s with power figures starting from about 225kW up to around 380kW for the V8 Turbo version. A Turbo S is also possible and could hit the 450kW mark. Porsche says it is preparing a hybrid as well, but no diesel at this point.

A 6-speed manual gearbox is standard, while Porsche’s new 7-speed double-clutch is optional. The double-clutch, called PDK, is similar to other such systems currently in place, such as Volkswagen Group’s 6-speed DSG and BMW’s 7-speed M-DCT.