Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo revealed

We were happy to see that the styling of the new Panamera was much better than the car it replaced. The old Panamera was a fast Porsche but its design received mixed responses, more negative than positive. The new Panamera Sport Turismo shooting brake though takes the Panamera’s desirability to a whole new level. It in fact looks like this should have been the main Panamera and the sedan an offshoot of it.

The big design change at the baqck increases storage space to 1388litres and increased headroom gives the option of a three abreast seating position for the rear passengers to the two individual seats in the sedan.  As for the engines, four will be offered. The base Sport Turismo gets a turbo V6 with 326 horsepower. Above that sits the E-Hybrid with a twin turbo V6 that couples with an electric motor to push out  456bhp. The 2.9-litre with two turbos makes 435bhp in the S variant, followed by the diesel  S trim Sport Turismo making 416bhp. The Turbo top-of-the-line variant makes a mighty 542bhp from its 4-litre twin-turbo V8. All variants will come with all-wheel drive only.

Porsche always gives conservative sprint times so you can expect the Panamera Sport Turismo to be a quick car. Even the base trim is said to do the 0-100kmph sprint in under 5 seconds while the Turbo will do a supercar-rivalling run of 3.4 seconds. Like the party trick of the extendable boot spoiler in the sedan, the shooting brake gets it on the roof. It stays at a negative 7 degree angle at normal speeds and lifts up to a plus 1 degree angle at 170kmph. In Sport and Sport Plus, it is deployed at 90kmph. If you open the sunroof, this wing will take a 26 degree angle to reduce wind noise.