Recently, Porsche offered a test drive in their latest sporty SUV, the Cayenne GTS. It has a lemon-green paint job, giving it a place in between the Cayenne Turbo and Cayenne S. According to the specifications of the car, it’s not as quick as the Turbo; however, it is said to be much quicker around the corners.
Due to the limited time to test drive the car, normal testing rituals weren’t able to be performed; however, there isn’t much that you wouldn’t enjoy about the Cayenne GTS. Once you can see beyond it’s bold paint job, it’s looks fairly nice with it’s wheel arches and painted lower sills, 21 inch Turbo wheels and blacked out trim bits, nearly all of which are fairly optional.
Of course, the only thing that’s worth complaining about is the price of the car’s features, which added a total of Dhs 106,000 on top of the already Dhs 336,000 for the base car price. Some of the added options of the Cayenne GTS include auto dimming mirrors, some interior trim bits, panoramic glass roof, adaptive cruise control, rear camera with sensors, blind spot monitor, body colored key fob with a leather pouch, “PDCC” adaptive suspension, ceramic breaks, torque vectoring system as well as a “sport chrono package” that makes the exhaust louder by just pushing a button and incorporates a useless lap timer onto the dash.
This car is very spacious with enough room for 5 full sized adults, like with all of the Cayennes; however, there are some elements that are clearly overdone. These include the warped door panels, the lack of storage space (due to the rising center console), and the dash contains excessive amount of chrome-lined buttons.
Although the GTS is not a sports car, it does possess an impression which makes it seem as if it was. The car does lack a turbo in it’s 4.8 liter V8, but you can’t complain with 420 horsepower and 515 Nm of torque. It’s provides you with more kick than necessary. Initially you won’t find the acceleration to be all that impressing; however, by pressing the “Sport” option mode you tighten the response of the throttle and open the exhaust. This car does burn a lot more though, with the estimate of about 17.1 liters/100 km.
The handling of the car is great. Similar to a BMW X6, the heavyweight will falter in the corners while the ESP kicks in a little early to handle the under steer, but on quick lane changes and larger corners it handles similar to a sedan.
At the end of the test drive, there’s not much sense to be made of the Porsche Cayenne GTS. It’s very similar to the cheaper Cayenne S model.
