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Porsche Panamera caught on the Nurburgring

By Georg Kacher

30 October 2006 09:30

Porsche Panamera: the lowdown

Porsche’s four-seat sports coupe – the Panamera – has hit the Nurburgring for dynamic testing. Zuffenhausen’s answer to the Mercedes-Benz CLS AMG, the four-door coupe will run V8 and V10 engines. The prototype has appeared some 28 months before its expected world premiere, with deliveries likely in summer 2009. Expect prices from between £50,000 to £60,000. Work is underway on extending the Leipzig plant – home of the Cayenne and the Carrera GT – for Panamera production, which will be complete by the end of 2008. The initial annual production output is likely to be 20,000 units.

How will it look?

Don’t be too horrified by the green hornet prototype, with its stretched Phaeton-esque rear doors. The real thing will look a lot sexier, as this official design sketch shows. Its big wheels and long wheelbase feature on the prototype, even if there’s no evidence of a sleek coupé-like greenhouse yet. The Panamera is the work of Porsche’s new design boss Michael Mauer, formerly of Mercedes and Saab.