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Driving Impressions
The Porsche Cayenne is the rally car of big, heavy SUVs. It drives like a big sports car. Measured against other SUVs, it's hot. Measured against sports cars, it's quick and it's fast. Handling and stopping are impressive given its mass, but there's no denying that mass. And therefore, the Cayenne not an alternative to a Carrera. For true sports car performance, there is no substitute for the Porsche 911. But among SUVs, the Cayenne hauls. It is a Porsche.The Porsche of SUVs is what those familiar with the brand probably expect from the Cayenne. If you pay close attention, you can feel most of the mechanical components working, each doing its own job, yet it all blends together in a smooth, synchronous whole. The Cayenne is fast, satisfying and, even in the things it does least efficiently, utterly competent. It stops with more energy and precision that any SUV we can name. The deep rumble of the exhaust is a reminder you're driving a Porsche. Even at idle, the burble of low-restriction mufflers, the cams and the suck of intake air remind us of the late, great Porsche 928, a V8-powered GT that swallowed chunks of pavement at an alarming rate. This is not your typical SUV, though it can perform the duties of one. Off-road capabilities are considerable. Though Porsche is best-known for Le Mans and other endurance sports car racing, Cayenne invokes images of the Paris-Dakar Porsche 959s, another area where Porsche triumphed. We drove a 2008 Cayenne S hard on a gravel road, a 2.0-mile special stage at Continental Tire's Uvalde Proving Grounds west of San Antonio and were impressed with the predictable handling. Hurling the Cayenne deep into gravel corners well past grip limits was met by the system catching the car mid-corner, allowing us to accelerate hard out of the turn and shoot down another short straightaway before diving into the next turn. With so much technology helping us control the car we would have had to work at it to bite the ditch. In short, the Cayenne works phenomenally well on dirt and gravel roads and make its driver look like a hero. We've also had the opportunity to drive a Cayenne through a muddy off-road course in Spain. This was not a boulder-laden wilderness trail like the Rubicon, but included axle-deep mud and long, steep, low-grip grades. Up, down and across, the Cayenne performed flawlessly. In most cases the onboard electronics did the heavy lifting, and the driver had to simply, lightly, modulate the throttle or brake in low range. When introduced, Cayenne's back country performance impressed even the jaded, and it supported Porsche's assertion that it has more off-road capability than the BMW X5 or Mercedes M-Class, which we've driven in similar conditions. Cayenne has a maximum ground clearance of 8.5 inches, or 10.6 inches with the optional air suspension. It can ford 19 inches of water, nearly 22 inches in the off-road mode with air suspension. The Advanced Off Road Package adds skid plates to protect the underbody and a locking rear differential. We drove a Turbo with these options on the desert sands of Dubai and were astounded by the vehicle's prowess in difficult conditions. Cayenne's permanent all-wheel-drive system, with its variable-rate center differential managed by multiple clutch plates, is similar to that used on all-wheel-drive versions of the Porsche 911. Cayenne enhances this setup with a low-range set of gears along with a locking center differential for creeping over rugged terrain. Porsche's latest stability and traction-control electronics have been modified for 2008 for improved off-road capability. The all-wheel-drive system can vary the amount of engine power distributed to the front and rear wheels, sending more or less power in one direction depending on available traction and other conditions. The Cayenne has a default power split of 38 percent front, 62 percent rear. It's biased much more
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