New car news

30 March 2011 - 12:00

Porsche reveals new Panamera Turbo S

It's faster than an Aston Martin Rapide, a Mercedes S65 AMG, the Maserati Quattroporte, and even the old BMW M5. TopGear.commers, meet the new Porsche Panamera Turbo S.

The top-of-the-range Turbo S gets a tweaked version of the twin-turbo 4.8-litre V8 via improved turbochargers with titanium-aluminium turbine wheels (reducing inertia) and a modified ECU.

This bumps power up to 410kW and torque to 750Nm (it'll get up to 800Nm with the 'overboost' mode engaged), which is handy if there's a boring song on the radio or humans begin to annoy you, or you fancy outrunning a volcano or reversing the spin of the Earth. Because should your right foot weld itself to the floor, the Turbo S will hit 100km/h from rest in just 3.8 seconds. That's faster than a Porsche GT3 RS. Flat out, you'll touch 307km/h.

See more pics of the new Turbo S

As with every modern performance car on offer today, the Porsche comes with a range of electronic minders keeping you on the straight and slidey. The Turbo S gets Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control, Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (applying a variable torque split to the rear wheels in combo with a LSD) and the Sport Chrono Package Turbo that tunes suspension and engine controls.

The Turbo S gets 20in wheels with an increased rear track, new side skirts, a four-way adaptive rear spoiler, two-tone leather upholstery and, of course, the entire back catalogue of Porsche's options list.

Prices start at $440,200 and it will hit local shores in October. And yes, it is stupendously fast. Which should go some way to distracting you from the Porsche Panamera’s key weakness. Yes, you know what that weakness is...