Porsche Panamera S (2009) CAR review

After months of teaser shots, passenger rides and tantalising details, we’ve finally driven the most anticipated car of the year, the Porsche Panamera. We tested the five-door gran turismo in base-model S trim, meaning rear-wheel drive and a naturally aspirated 4.8-litre V8 – based on the same unit you’ll find in the Cayenne S and GTS – that churns out 394bhp and 369lb ft.

Go on then, how does the Porsche Panamera drive?

It’s a highly impressive car. The ride is Mercedes S-class smooth in the softest of three suspension settings; the seven-speed dual-clutch PDK gearbox manages to be both silky smooth at car park speeds and engagingly direct – with no loss of refinement – at faster speeds; and the V8 is a peach. For the most part you’ll barely hear the engine, but accelerate hard and a dramatic V8 hammering seeps into the cabin as the power builds with a lovely, creamy linearity to the 6500rpm redline.

What’s it like in the back?

The Panamera is strictly a four-seater, with a layout the Porsche PRs called ‘four front seats’. Access is easy despite the very low seating position, and the ambience is lounge-like with comfortable seats and high quality materials – leather, suedey rooflining, aluminium and wood trim. The scalloped rooflining also meant that I ­– at six feet two inches – had a solid inch of headroom when practising my best posture, and a whole lot more at a slouch.

However, legroom was only adequate when I sat behind myself, my knees just rubbing the seat backs. The view was also of the seat backs – an S-class would feel roomier and less claustrophobic­ – and the boot, too, is simply adequate rather than capacious. The figures (445 litres is more 3-series Coupe than S-class) back this up, though the hatch and relatively high floor do make loading your matching leather luggage easy.

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