The new Porsche Panamera GTS

Here’s a little taster of some cute tech that’s coming in the new 911 (and come back to TG.com on Friday for our first views on that).

It’s called the Sound Symposer: a cockpit button that allows you to turn it up to 11 on demand and, obviously, back down again to a nice quiet seven when you get bored of shouting.

We can tell you about it now, as it also features on this new take on the GTS, a boosted and black eye-liner version of the Panamera on sale next year. The GTS is meant to be the purist’s Panamera (and yes, such a thing does exist: the Panamera is an amazing piece of kit, even at that size). It uses the un-blown 4.8-litre V8 with a bunch of tweaks to take outputs to 430bhp: 70bhp shy of the Turbo, but one hopes a little more responsive.

So, Sound Symposer. It takes noise from between the air intake and the first throttle valve and plays that actual noise into the cabin via a little membrane in the A-pillar. No phoney synthesised sounds here, just the real rush. It’s all in the name of helping the driver understand the dynamic environment (which Google Translate tells us means ‘just how bleedin’ on it’ he is), while allowing the car to pass drive-by noise tests. And it gets a big ‘like’ from us.

That aside, it’s Porsche business as usual with the new Panamera: bits and bobs from across the range and options book all thrown in. With exclusive Carmine Red and an exclusively all black interior, the GTS joins the range next February starting at £90,049.

See more pictures of the Porsche Panamera GTS

In fact, the Panamera range could soon be as complex to understand as the infinite variety 911s. Also in are the Turbo’s nose, 19 inch wheels and red brake callipers, and its tail spoiler’s extra attitude. The air suspension option is standard here, but is slammed by 10mm to give the attitude to go with the looks.

PASM (active suspension management) and PDCC (dynamic chassis control) and PTVPlus (torque vectoring) are all included and do their thing (adjusting ride, keeping the body flat in corners and the torque to all the right wheels).

Oh, and there’s Chrono Plus as well, which, fundamentally turns everything up to 11 when the mood catches you...