Of course it is hard not to drive a car close to its limits, especially one which is as accomplished as the Cayenne. I do distinctly remember the howls of protests, some years ago, from may quarters when Porsche decided to firm up a deal with VW to develop an SUV. Heck, the closest it had come to a tractor was when it had indeed made a tractor some 50 years ago and many surely knew that they were veering away from the spirit that so defined the marque. In fact even its looks polarized thought and there were many who were prepared to bet that it would all end in tears. But not for nothing is Porsche the colossus that is, in terms of retaining its spirit and character while being bold enough to make a kind of automobile it had never done ever. An interesting bit is that before it joined hands with VW to develop the SUV, Porsche had initiated talks with none other than Mercedes-Benz to help it develop a high performance version of the M-class but talks had been called off after quite a bit of progress had been made. Porsche's brand new facility at Leipzig has been kept humming round the clock for Cayenne numbers have surpassed everyone's wildest expectations, especially in the US and Europe, except perhaps that of its CEO, the brilliant Wendelin Wiedeking who stated that sales were in line with the company's projections.

So what makes up the Cayenne? Simple, the Porsche brilliance in making the best possible vehicle for the application pervades all thought. The only bit it shares with VW's Touareg is the body shell (made at VW's plant in Bratislava) plus the V6 for the base model) but from then on it is all Porsche. The stiff structure gets all its Porsche mod cons at Leipzig including the outer sheet skin and suspension which is totally different compared to its VW counterpart. In fact trying to compare the Touareg and the Cayenne would be unfair even though the VW version with its V10 TDI oil burner engine is a great piece of kit in its own right. Suspension is sub-frame mounted double wishbones all around with clever thought in the configuration to make for increased ride height as well as ground clearance so as to afford genuine off-roadability. The Cayenne S comes with conventional steel springs as OE but there is also the pricier air suspension option which is standard fitment on the top of the line Cayenne Turbo model. This piece of kit is great because not only does it have a self-levelling feature based on load and ensures optimum ground clearance on almost any sort of terrain. Then there is the ride height control which is both manually adjustable and also comes on song on its own accord when the revs rise and the speedo needle starts hitting the high notes. This latter bit is a great boon when hammering down long stretches of autobahn: at 125kmph the suspension lowers the ride height by 25mm and as the loud pedal is pressed further with speed rising to around the 210kmph mark, there is a further 11mm drop in the road height making the Cayenne stick to the road with amazing stability and that lack of roll in the corners which I mentioned earlier. This is backed up by the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) which ensures the permanent all- wheel drive balances power delivery to front and rear wheels for optimum traction. And to keep to the straight and the narrow, the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) programme brings into play the brakes, the centre diff or the EMS to make the car hold on to its intended line through the twisties. It was uncanny for such a large car to behave like a high performance sports car but then that is the beauty of the Cayenne. Even though the car ran on super wide low pro rubber (18-inch 255/55s), there was no deterioration in ride quality and in fact if you want to score brownie points ferrying the mother-in-law, just bring into play the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) which cuts down on pitch and roll massively by individually altering damping force on all four wheels. There is also a choice of three damper settings: Comfort, Normal and Sport and if it is the mother-in-law you want to keep in a good mood Comfort should do the trick and if you want to send some sort of message to a recalcitrant acquaintance you have been forced to give a lift, even trying Sport will not meet with the desired results! That's how idiot proof the Weissach boffins have made the Cayenne, so as to allow it to be driven fast without compromising stability and safety. The Cayenne comes with internally vented discs - a Porsche specialty - which pack in aluminium six-pot calipers on the front and four-pot units at the rear. Thanks to not just the brakes but all the techno-wizardry, the Cayenne gets all the help it can in the handling, stability and steering departments to enable it to remain in control when the anchors are thrown even at high 200kmph plus speeds.

Porsche has designed an all-new 90-degree V8 engine, forsaking its flat-six boxer tradition as in its sports cars. I think that this was a step in the right direction and also indicative of Porsche's move into newer areas of endeavour. This 4511cc mill features twin overhead cams operating four valves per cylinder and in naturally aspirated form it pumps out 340bhp at 6000rpm and produces 420Nm of torque which is made seamlessly from as low as 2500rpm and remaining flat and thick all the way to 5500rpm! This gut wrenching torque is ably handled by the Bosch Motronic ME 7.1.1 system and Porsche's patented VarioCam valve timing gear which offers the Cayenne driver the ease to potter along in fifth at near crawling speeds at one end of the spectrum while at the other end it could be foot to the floor and blazing away to double ton plus speeds. The Cayenne S with the Tiptronic 'box can do zero to 100kmph in just 7.2 seconds and power its way to a 242kmph top whack. Not bad going at all for a car with a 3060kg GVW!

The going gets even better when the same engine benefits from the famous Porsche turbo treatment. With twin turbos lighting up the works, power is bumped to 450bhp at 6000rpm while max torque produced is a whopper at 620Nm, all this again available to the man behind the wheel from as low as 2250rpm and holding strong and firm all the way to 4750rpm. If you thought the Cayenne S packed a mean wallop; the Cayenne Turbo makes you rethink big time: zero to 100kmph comes up in just 5.6 seconds before it thunders through its six-speed Tiptronic 'box all the way to a 266kmph top speed. There are no superlatives needed to describe such performance which is in the realm of Ferraris and 911s. Makes it the best calling card for this genuine all terrain scorcher. Not only was the power awesome but it was also laid down on tarmac superbly, not much being wasted in wheelspin. The other redeeming factor was Porsche has built in that typical exhaust audio which is a melodious mix of bark and rasp which sets the pulses racing from the moment you get behind the wheel and hit the starter.

A word about the Tiptronic S transmission system is called for. It can be used either in automatic mode or in manual mode which in the case of the latter can be by means of buttons on the steering wheel columns or by the conventional floor mounted gear stick. The indents on the buttons help to go through the ‘box without taking the hands off the steering wheel though I much preferred the stick shift. In the automatic mode, the Tiptronic can chose from a set of different gear shift patterns, monitoring driving styles and terrain being travelled on to offer the optimum pattern for the moment. There is also the built-in option of a kickdown facility, useful when you come up on a 911 and want to show the Cayenne is also a Porsche. The use of an all-wheel drive system with a lockable central diff has been mentioned earlier but what is not is the fact that the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) system also incorporates a two-speed transfer gearbox (with low range gearing for use on the rough and the untamed), an automatic brake differential (ABD) and anti-slip regulation (ASR) to always ensure near optimum stability under full forward thrust.

It is an irony that the Porsche Cayenne in India will be lapped up by fat cats who would much prefer to be cocooned on the rear seats and not get to experience the dynamic delights it packs in abundance. However there is much by way of creature comforts in the Cayenne's cabin to delight every other occupant. For one the cabin is tastefully finished, the Cayenne S having an all-black leather trim with subtle accents in aluminium while the Cayenne Turbo gets a light tan leather all round. Even with black surfacing all around, the cabin is surprisingly cheery. A sunroof comes as standard while the seats are as if they were designed by a chiropractor. The climate control system was superb as I can vouch for, drying my sweat soaked self within minutes (after having dug ourselves out of the desert).

The dashboard is typically Porsche and pretty similar to that of the 911 - elegantly simple with no flash. The driving position is great, credit this to the electrically adjustable driver's seat, the right reach for the steering wheel and the well placed foot controls - seems the ergonomics came straight off from years of making some of the finest sports car interiors. The Bose audio system has ben crafted so well that even with the windows rolled up one can hear the engine singing imperceptibly on full chat, sheer music inside and out. And of course Porsche hasn't forgotten the full complement of safety gear including front and side airbags. And what sports car ever gave you 540 litres of luggage space in normal configuration, a volume which could be jacked up all the way to 1770 litres with the rear seats folded out of the way?

The Cayenne defies Porsche convention as defined by those who know the marque and its sports cars. By the same yardstick it is right in sync with Porsche ingenuity, trouble being that the sports cars have had such a long reign that thinking anything other than 911 or Boxster or Carrera GT is the only way to associate with the Weissach marque. The Cayenne's brilliance has also been added to this eclectic mix for it is indeed a car in the highest Porsche traditions. Check it out for yourself next month in Mumbai and Delhi when Porsche launches its first India distributors.

Adil Jal Darukhanawala