Everything about the GT Package is big. For starters, notice how I’ve swerved writing the full name out again. It’s quite a mouthful, so ‘GT Package’ it is from now on in this review. Then there’s the small matter of 739hp. Or 190mph and 2,495kg. In fact, the only small number is the 0-62mph time: just 3.6 seconds. Price? £154,000, before options. See, I told you.
So, yes, it’s a quite spectacular vehicle by any measure, this ultimate performance Cayenne, which sort of takes the place left by the old Cayenne Turbo GT in the recently face-lifted range and is available on the Coupé model only. This time, Porsche has held back from going with a full ‘GT’ name, describing the sporting additions very definitely as a ‘package’, although this is still a standalone model and not an option box to tick. The Turbo GT lives on in some other markets.
Remember that previous Turbo GT? It was the unexpected car that comes along every so often, where the temptation is to pigeonhole it as one thing, only to grab – in this case – its Alcantara-trimmed steering wheel and be blown away by its depth of ability. Putting the ‘GT’ badge on the back of a Cayenne seemed like sacrilege, right up until the point you turned into a demanding left-hander. Yes, with 640hp and 627lb/ft of torque, it was an SUV so urgent in a straight line that only a Lamborghini Urus can replicate it in my experience, but nothing in the SUV class has ever gone around a corner like the previous Cayenne Turbo GT. It was a simply sensational drive; a car that appeared to laugh in the face of physics.
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With that as a backdrop, it’s important to note some significant changes with this new car. Unlike the 2,220kg Turbo GT, the GT Package tips the scales at 2,450kg thanks to the addition of the battery pack and associated e-motor tech, although it’s a good 100kg lighter than the regular Turbo E-Hybrid Coupé. You might have noticed that it’s three-tenths slower than the old car too, but also a good deal more powerful. The question is: how does it feel on the road?
The first impression of the GT Package is one of silence because it boots up in electric mode and, distracted as I am by other things, I fail to even notice for the first few miles that it’s not calling on the V8. Serene, hushed progress is not what you might buy this car for, but being a Porsche E-Hybrid model brings with it considerable advantages. On a ‘combined’ cycle, you can expect around 44 miles from the 25.9kWh battery alone. Think about that for a moment, in particular the small, local and uninteresting but nevertheless important journeys you might undertake in a car such as this. Imagine you can charge it at home (something that takes a maximum of 2.2 hours with a 11KW wallbox), so every trip starts with the battery that’s mounted under the boot floor (and does compromise load space somewhat) full and ready to go. Suddenly, the hybrid aspect starts to make a lot of sense indeed, but you’ll be on good terms with your local petrol station if you use the V8 with enthusiasm.
Of course, the headlines come from not just the battery’s effort alone, but what happens when you combine it with the latest iteration of Porsche’s mighty 4-litre, twin turbo V8. The Porsche engineers had to work extremely hard to keep the V8 a living entity in a world of ever-tightening emissions regulations, confiding to the author on a recent development drive that it was no longer able to reach the extreme power levels of the old Turbo S models without using some form of electrification.
In raw numbers, the e-motor supplies an additional 176hp to the V8’s 599hp, making for a total of 739hp and 701lb/ft of torque. Click the rotary drive switch on the steering wheel (or use the car’s menu system) and selecting Hybrid mode now brings the interplay of the two power sources into action – electric for low speed, both together for more serious acceleration or speed, and coasting too.
All of this carries on in the background, but there’s no disguising the stirring of the V8 and, with a sense of inevitability that I wish wasn’t so predictable, the immediate star of the show is indeed the internal combustion engine. It has a wonderfully extravagant, luxurious, sinister rumble at low revs, so much so that the eight-speed transmission’s willingness to change down a gear at the slightest incline or request by the throttle seems a shame and I find myself forcing it to stay in ‘top’ with the paddles just so I can get an earful of that precious soundtrack.
It’s not as if the ‘regular Turbo E-Hybrid Coupé isn’t already a very special machine, but the GT package brings plenty of what made the old Turbo GT so effective. The two chamber/twin valve dampers have been retuned, as has the Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) Plus rear differential and the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) stability and traction control, while the Coupé’s standard panoramic roof is swapped out for one made from carbon fibre, a material shared by the rear diffuser. The GT Package sits 10mm lower than the standard car and, if you’ve ticked the rear axle steering option (£1,335) and the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) anti-roll bars (£2,546), then they have a unique calibration as well. The front wheels are also an inch wider and there’s a dose of additional negative camber for good measure.
This Arctic Grey Porsche GB press car has both those key mechanical options along with much else besides, inflating the price to £167,082. Nevertheless, you won’t mistake a GT Package for the regular car. In addition to the carbon parts, there are black elements to the front end and wheel arch extensions, along with carbon end plates on the rear roof spoiler and those fat, centrally mounted titanium tailpipes. With enormous yellow callipers like a giant’s hands grabbing its carbon ceramic discs, there’s no missing a GT Package from the kerbside.
There’s no mistaking it on the move, either. Switch into Sport, or the even more focused Sport Plus, and the GT Package has a way of shrinking time and space that seems highly improbable for such a blunt-ended, weighty object. Performance credentials are very much intact.
As for the corners, it can do things cars of this type shouldn’t be able to. What you do get is progressive and precise steering that feels as though it should come from a GT department sports car, not a Cayenne, and a distinctly un-SUV driving experience. Pushed hard, the GT Package feels like a rear-wheel-drive sports car on stilts, using the rear axle to resist understeer and offering a level of agility that constantly amazes. It can cover ground at a scorching rate.
While you’re doing so, you’ll be snug in a cabin that majors on Alcantara fabric and the latest technology. The heads-up display (£1,001) is particularly impressive, the now-mandatory driver assistance tech a bind to switch off every time you turn on the car, but that’s hardly Porsche’s fault. Despite the more sporting focus of the GT Package, you can still compress many miles in one from behind the wheel, relaxing in a driving position that feels imperious on the road.
Looking at the GT Package from a purely personal viewpoint, and at a conceptual level too for that matter, I struggle with the idea of a ‘coupé’ SUV that only seats four and has a compromised luggage area in the name of style. Having said that, I can also appreciate who this vehicle might be aimed at and I think they’ll be very impressed with it indeed. For me, the regular Cayenne makes the most sense and, while a ‘GT Package’ on that car would be a giggle, it’s the ultimate powertrain here that’s the star of the show in my view – and one that, in a regular Cayenne, must be a very compelling proposition indeed.