Porsche has fashioned a new sports machine that comfortably seats four adults and hauls lots of luggage, but we're not referring, yet, to the Panamera Gran Turismo sedan. It won't reach showrooms until 2009, but, to the chagrin of purists who still mourn the day Porsche began building trucks, the Panamera's promised combination of performance and luxurious utility is available, right now, with the 2008 Cayenne GTS, our seat-of-the-pants choice as the best-handling SUV on the planet.
Powered by a freer-breathing, 405-horsepower version of the 385-horsepower, 4.8-liter V-8 offered in the Cayenne S, the $69,300 GTS slots neatly between the S and the 500-horsepower Cayenne Turbo in engine output and price, but its dynamic prowess makes the GTS more than just a marketing exercise. The GTS also gets down the road, paved or otherwise, with genuine Porsche spiritedness. The factory claims (conservatively, we think) 0-to-62-mph dashes of 6.5 seconds with the six-speed Tiptronic S gearbox and 6.1 seconds when equipped with the new six-speed manual (and its shorter final drive), and both models will reach 100 mph in around 15 seconds, but this more than sufficient acceleration isn't even the GTS's core strength.
The GTS instead stands out from the crowd of five Cayenne models by its handling, as we discovered on the narrow, winding roads along Portugal's rugged western coastline. It's the first Cayenne to echo Porsche sports-car practice by matching its amazing Active Suspension Management system with steel springs instead of with air suspension - but not on GTS models sold in America because of federal ride-height regulations concerning the Cayenne's classification as a light truck. U.S. models instead will get, as with the other Cayennes in the lineup, PASM combined with air suspension.
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