The Panamera will be the fourth full model line from Zuffenhausen-joining the 911, the Boxster/Cayman, and the Cayenne. Porsche is referring to it as a four-door coupe, as Mercedes-Benz does with its CLS. Like Carrera, the Panamera name refers to La Carrera Panamericana, the long-distance race in Mexico, in which Porsche competed successfully in the 1950s.
Those who are troubled by the idea of a four-door Porsche still have a while to get used to it, since the car won't go on sale until the 2009 model year. So far, Porsche has released only a sketch.
The Panamera will offer a choice of front-mounted engines driving the rear wheels. Direct-injection V-8s displacing up to 5.0 liters and producing as much as 500 hp in turbocharged form will be highly evolved derivations of those powering today's Cayenne. The Carrera GT's V-10 also will appear in a limited-edition halo model. Porsche will build the Panamera at its Leipzig, Germany, plant, where the Cayenne and the Carrera GT are assembled, and hopes to sell at least 20,000 a year. Pricing will be in line with uplevel models of the Mercedes-Benz S-class.
Marque purists are already howling, just as they did when the Cayenne was announced. But the Cayenne has been a sales success, although it may still be too early to gauge that model's long-term effect on Porsche's image. It's also worth noting that whereas the Cayenne was developed in partnership with Volkswagen, the Panamera will be a 100 percent Porsche effort.
Whether this is right for Porsche or wrong, we expect that the Cayenne's superb powertrains in a smaller, lighter, more nimble vehicle are almost certain to be a sensational drive.