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DRIVEN: Panamera Proves Its Porsche Credentials
Race-track performance shows how well German sports-car builder can tune two-ton luxury sedan.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted October 02, 2009   Elkhart Lake, WIS
Panamera, Porsche's first four-door sedan, boasts power and performance to uphold the revered marque. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Like many people, I was skeptical. Porsche, maker of the iconic rear-engine 911 sports car and some of the greatest and most-revered race cars in modern history, was at it again.

Porsche was reaching into uncharted territory, building a big, front-engine luxury sedan that would run counter to its legacy of nimble, edgy performance cars.

Of course, they’d done it before by creating the beefy Cayenne SUV, which offended Porsche purists to the core. Cayenne turned out very well indeed and sells in relatively high numbers, but many of those Porsche enthusiasts are still shaking their heads.

Now while Porsche is struggling in the wake of financial blunders and about to be taken over by mass-market Volkswagen, along comes the four-door Panamera and what seems like another giant step away from the sports-car mission.

Panamera's rear treatment remains the most controversial styling element. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
The 2010 Panamera has received loads of advanced media attention, with much controversy over styling. Mostly, it’s Panamera’s rear treatment that’s the subject of derision, with critics finding the hatchback style too blunt and awkward.

In widely circulated photographs, Panamera looks like a weirdly stretched version of the 911. But pictures don’t do it justice.

After spending a couple of days with a gaggle of Panameras during Porsche’s introduction to North American journalists, I started seeing the beauty and logic of the design. For one thing, the gorgeous interior has plenty of space for four regulation-size humans, along with lots of fragrant leather, wood, accessible technology and innovative design.

It helped the styling case that Panamera’s racetrack performance was absolutely remarkable, pretty well upholding Porsche’s lofty standards for power and handling. The German automaker calls it a sports car with full-size seating for four, and it’s hard to disagree.

And leave it to Porsche to have the sheer guts for introducing the two-ton luxury car at a racetrack – Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin – which is one of the fastest and most challenging courses in the country. Oh yeah, loads of fun.

What Porsche demonstrated at Road America was that their new prodigy has the right stuff to wear the golden shield on its sloping snout. No matter that it’s large and heavy and has ample seating in the rear, Panamera was able to hustle around the four-mile road course at very high speeds even with less-than professional drivers at the wheel.

And in the hands of the real-deal race-car drivers at the track, such as racing great Hurley Haywood, Dave Donohue and Porsche team member Patrick Long – who had shepherded me around the track – any one of the three models of Panamera flat-out flew down the long straights and around the challenging turns.

“This car can be driven like a race car all day,” Long said as he casually blistered the asphalt.

So maybe the Porsche purists won’t mind their marque’s second departure from sports-car purity.

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Bob Golfen

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