Greatest Porsche vehicles ever: Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia

Like it or detest it, Porsche’s choice so as to add an SUV to its line-up was a business masterstroke that allowed the model to proceed to construct the form of fanatic’s vehicles it’s so well-known for. For that alone, it’s important, however when the Cayenne arrived in 2002, Porsche’s claims that it will be a ‘sports activities automobile’ had been met with a level of derision from the automotive press. That was till they drove it. To say that the Cayenne modified the concept of how pleasurable an SUV could possibly be to drive is an understatement, and it has grow to be higher with each iteration. 

Even Porsche’s model ambassador, legendary race and rally driver Walter Röhrl, who’s a card-carrying lightweight and high-performance fanatic, admits that Porsche constructed a particular automobile with the primary Cayenne, and that it’s solely gone on to get higher with each new mannequin sequence. We’re championing the primary, and it’s represented right here by the Cayenne S Transsyberia, which, in typical Porsche style, was constructed to compete within the 10,000km Transsyberia rally raid, an occasion that required the off-road entrants to be totally road-legal. 

Porsche solely modestly modified the manufacturing Cayenne S to create its particular competitors mannequin, retaining the 4.8-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine with its customary 385bhp output. It might drive by means of the usual Tiptronic S computerized gearbox, too, though the German producer did decrease the final-drive ratio on the off-road specials. 

Cherry-picking parts from the manufacturing automobile’s choices record, the Cayenne S Transsyberia additionally benefited from a locking rear differential and revised settings for the air suspension. Underbody safety, sturdy off-road tyres, and a snorkel, in addition to improved sealing across the doorways, allowed the Cayenne S Transsyberia to wade by means of water as much as 75cm deep. 

It’s extra a case of what was eliminated than added to this Cayenne particular, with a great deal of the inside trim left again within the manufacturing unit. This not solely compensated for the extra weight of among the off-road-specific tools, but in addition meant there was room for further security and communication tools, in addition to a pair of spare wheels and tyres the place the rear seats would often go. 

Porsche by no means enters competitors evenly, and with 25 of the 34 groups coming into the Transsyberia rally doing so in Porsche Cayennes, it got here as little shock that one in all them took the general win. To show that consequence wasn’t a fluke, many groups went again over the next years, with the Cayenne making the occasion its personal. 

The combination of chequer-plate flooring, light-weight door playing cards and multi-point seatbelts feels a bit incongruous within the Cayenne, with the racer’s austerity at odds with the in any other case production-standard dashboard. It feels fast on the hillclimb, and it’s unimaginable to not reduce a nook to off-road it throughout the sprint up the hill, the cabin resonating with the sound of its highly effective V8 forward. 

Positive, there might be many among the many lots who discover sporting SUVs derisory, however when Porsche builds an SUV, it does so to its personal ideas. Underlining it was the suitable factor to do is the truth that it took fewer than 20 years for Porsche to construct and promote one million of them – a feat it took 54 years to attain with the 911.