Porsche Cayenne Turbo in the test

D he home stretch is 194 km for the Porsche Cayenne Turbo /h rolled down and the north curve captured with 129 things. Now he rushes towards the ant bend - that right bend in which the right front wheel ideally first claps the curb on the inside of the bend, so that the car then moves in an arc onto the straight ahead. In order to play out the power, as the saying goes.

It has enough power, the turbo with its 550 hp and 770 Newton meters, which is distributed between the axles by an electrohydraulically controlled multi-plate clutch. But what use is so much power if the front wheels are attracted to the outer curbs, scrubbing against them instead of stoically following the predetermined steering angle as soon as you roll into the curve? Normally you open the steering and wait until the front axle engages again. That costs lap time. It is different in the Cayenne. You just step on the accelerator as soon as you understeer.

This action triggers a silent alarm in the control department, which builds a switch for the driver in a fraction of a second through which they are brought back to the ideal line with all fours. The roll stabilization prevents the aluminum-steel body from tilting too much about its longitudinal axis. The rear wheels, which still worked in opposite directions when turning in to reduce the radius, point in the same direction as the front wheels from 80 km /h onwards, in order to stabilize and work on the lateral dynamics. The electronics brakes the right rear wheel, it locks the rear axle, with the effect of excessive torque on the left rear wheel. You yourself only notice the result: the rear swings out and the rear wheels lock onto the switch. Suddenly the Cayenne reconnects with the ideal line like cold smoke with clothes. Just like that, completely natural. It is this one moment that makes you incredulous that so aptly describes the Cayenne's handling. You inevitably ask yourself: Am I sitting here in a sports car?

Cayenne Turbo: Anyone can do it quickly

An oxymoron: This is a combination of words which actually contradict each other in their sense. Admittedly, I first had to google it. Examples are the silent alarm. Or the old boy. Or transferred to our test: the SUV suitable for the race track. A car that is 4.93 meters long, 1.98 meters wide and weighs 2,257 kilograms is cornering oneForcing the race track is like trying to squeeze a 16-year-old into a romper suit. The Cayenne is now 16 years old. He has never been more athletic than in his third generation. Never such a calm dynamic as now. Another oxymoron. You don't have to be a steering wheel virtuoso to drive quickly and safely with the turbo in Hockenheim. You don't sweat in the cockpit - despite the climate being switched off and an air temperature of 27 degrees.

Dino Eisele

Top contact: four-liter displacement, eight combustion chambers and two loaders working in the hot field. Boost pressure: up to two bar. Turbo lag? Virtually none.

80 km /h, you chug the B 27 there, from Stuttgart in the direction of Ludwigsburg, past a Renault Trafic on the left whose driver you could greet at eye level. Seventh gear, the crankshaft rotates around 1,200 times a minute, booming silence in the interior: Up there, a four-liter V8 inhales double-digit Super Plus - even if you stroke the accelerator - and you can barely hear the engine. But only the radio and the rolling noise of the 21-inch wheels.

0–100 km /h: playfully easy

In the city, the three-chamber filter Air suspension, which in this case goes to a low spring rate, and the active dampers remove all potholes, bumps and manhole covers. The front passenger can browse the menus on the 12.3-inch touchpad without wiggling their fingers. The only point of criticism that I would like to express about the interior: The center console with the recessed buttons could be angled a bit more upwards. That would make it easier to see the buttons behind the large gear selector for the automatic.

Dino Eisele

For more punch: Sport Chrono package for 1,094.80 euros with Rotary wheel and Sport Response button on the steering wheel.

Back to the sporty: turn the little wheel on the steering wheel twice until 'Sport Plus' engages and lights up red, depress the brake, that Hit the gas pedal, which calls the launch control on the plan. Full throttle, the engine speed regulates itself at 3,000 rpm, the small display to the right of the central rev counter reports a boost pressure of 1.4 bar, release the brake: Simply crazy, how easy it is to open the Cayenne Turbo from a standing start in 3.8 seconds Country road speed zooms in and how it breaks the 200 mark after 14.4 seconds.

What the 2.3-ton truck does on the brakes is even more impressive. The cold carbon-fiber-reinforced ceramic brake discs with a diameter of 440 millimeters at the front and 410 millimeters at the rear, into which ten-piston calipers bite at the front and four-piston calipers at the rear, stop the Cayenne after 32.1 meters - supported by the roof spoiler, which folds up and increases the frontal area. The tenth emergency stop is also there. The ABS controls sensitively along the slip limit, the wheels draw a clean black line. 34.0 meters: a warm braking value achieved by sports cars that are 600 to 700 kilos lighter, such as the BMW M4 GTS, Aston Martin Vantage GT8 and Porsche 911 Carrera GTS 997. Let me put it this way: The Cayenne is a beast on the brakes.

Dino Eisele

Can do terrain: The Cayenne varies the ground clearance between 162 and 245 millimeters depending on the mode.

Old versus new: Clearly faster than the Turbo S

At 80 km /h the Turbo approaches the walls at the crossbar, with 125 things it hops into the Motodrom, with 80 km /h h he dances through the Sachskurve, and with 96 and 104 things he masters the target passages. Technically clean, he forces himself through sharp turns like a slalom runner, although his stature is onestrong downhill skier. The steering works precisely, the power interruption of the eight-speed automatic is as small as the turbo lag. It takes 1.7 seconds from the old, 570 hp Turbo S. Quite simply: bittersweet.