- Porsche is turning up the wick on its combustion-powered Panamera.
- The luxury sedan is getting Porsche’s hardcore “Turbo GT” treatment.
- Huge carbon brake discs and GT3 RS-style fender cutouts are visible.
Porsche has already shown that the words “Turbo GT” mean business when attached to the back of a Cayenne or Taycan. And based on what we can see in these latest spy shots, the same badge is about to find its way onto the Panamera sedan for the first time.
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Photos from the Nurburgring show a mean-looking black Panamera wearing all of the right Turbo GT cues and more. It’s got the gaping air intakes, carbon brakes the size of a big-game-night pizza, and a massive fixed rear wing in place of the regular pop-up one.
What Are We Looking At?
Neither the GTS nor the Turbo S E-Hybrid looks anywhere near as serious about big speeds. But there’s one extra detail that really makes this new performance Panamera look the part, and it’s one we’ve only ever seen on Porsche’s gnarliest two-seat sports cars.
Take a close look at the front fenders, and you might just spot a saw-tooth vent located directly over the front wheel. Look familiar?
It’s the same kind of vent fitted to the 718 GT4 RS and 911 GT3 RS, and is used to aid the escape of high-pressure air that gets caught in the wheel wells and causes front-end lift. That kind of hardware doesn’t belong on a luxury cruiser; it’s the stuff of track weapons.
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Could It Be Plugged In?
Porsche hasn’t confirmed anything yet, let alone what’s under the skin, but what’s interesting about this prototype is that it has a left-hand fuel filler flap. Current ICE Panameras have the flap on the right, and only Hybrids get a matching flap – covering a charging port – on the left.
A big, heavy hybrid doesn’t seem like the obvious starting point for a track-focused Panamera, and Porsche stuck to straight combustion power for the 650 hp (659 PS) Cayenne Turbo GT even though the Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid makes 729 hp (739 PS).
But then it has proved with the Taycan Turbo GT that heavyweights really can handle, and the BMW M5, Audi RS6, and AMG E-Class are all either switching to hybrid power or are already there.
For the record, the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid makes 771 hp (782 PS), and Lamborghini’s Urus SE plug-in, which uses the same core twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V8, pumps out 789 hp (800 PS), so we could be looking at one really rapid Porsche limo when the covers come off, probably some time early next year.
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