Porsche Panamera 2013-2017 GTS

Panamera 2013-2017 GTS Review

Porsche, the ultra luxury carmaker brings an ultra luxurious four seater sports car in India at the starting price of Rs. 1.19 crore( ex-showroom, Delhi). For the Indian market, the company has introduced five models- Panamera Turbo, Panamera GTS , Panamera 4 and Panamera with V6 petrol, and Panamera diesel. The Porsche Panamera GTS variant, powered with naturally aspirated 4.8-liter V8 engine, has been priced at Rs. 1.60 crore(ex-showroom, Delhi). The new Panamera is basically a second generation car, which has been designed with ultimate looks, and most importantly it has been tuned to produce better fuel economy. Exhibiting sportier dynamics and ensuring top notch driving pleasure, the Panamera GTS delivers fuel economy of 9.34kmpl. In all, the new Panamera is a perfect combination of luxury, comfort, and amazing driving experience, all bound in one single car. The new Panamera sports a list of standard features across all its variant that includes, electric sun roof, Bose sound system, ParkAssist with reverse camera, Porsche Communication Management plus and Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM). In addition to these, there are more such top features added to the GTS variant.

Exteriors :

With the new range of sports models, the proportions and the overall body structure is quite typical of any Porsche. The luxury carmaker has always believed in the evolution of design, and with the Panamera series, it has delivered a more precise and sharper range of sports car. The exterior character is defined with prominent contours, tighter lines and some newly designed body elements also plays the role.The prominent set of visible elements added on the outsides include, enlarged air intakes in the front, and the creases are projecting upwards and slightly above the bonnet that moves till the rear end of the car. This simply adds more muscle to the rear end, while the tapered roof line nicely merges again to the end part. Talking about the rear design, lines are more sharpened, the rear screen is wider and flatter, and the LED tail lamps are made narrower to give a more crispy and precise look. The Bi-Xenon headlamps are automatically adjustable, and particularly the GTS model features four black finish daytime running LED spotlights embedded in the headlamps itself.

Interiors :

When it comes to the interiors of all-new Panamera, the high degree of comfort levels is what company has maximum worked upon. The sporty drive now comes with full comfort, and an amazing driving pleasure at the offering. The four seater sports car, features highly ergonomic cabin that has five circular instruments at the display and a perfect set of controls placed to enable direct access. Particularly for the GTS model, the company has used leather and Alcantara material for the seats, armrests of the center console and rooflining. The 'GTS' logo has been placed at the rev counter, on headrests and door sills to make this variant distinguishable from the rest. The SportDesign steering wheel comes as standard in all models. To enhance the sporty ambiance, the Carmine Red or GT silver has been used on the seat belts, the fine stitching on the dashboard, door waist rails , seats, armrests on the center console, while the 'GTS' logo has also been embroidered on all four seats with the same color.

Engine and Performance :

The Panamera GTS is powered with naturally aspirated 4.8-liter V8 engine that belts out maximum power output of 434bhp at 6700rpm and top torque of 520Nm at 3500rpm . The engine is coupled with newly formulated 7 speed Porsche Doppelkupplung(PDK) gearbox, this ensures rapid gear shifts and also takes care of uninterrupted flow of power. The PDK mechanism allows this car to be fuel efficient and also adds to the comfort level of the car. For the GTS model, PDK has been made even more sportier i.e. the gearshift programmes (SPORT, Normal or SPORT PLUS) enables gear changes to sporty and extremely sporty options. The variant has been claimed with the fuel economy of 9.3 kmpl, and such refined engine specs allows the top speed of 288kmph, while it crosses the 100kmph benchmark within 4.4 seconds . This is one such sports car, which surprisingly comes with the better fuel economy when compared to other brands of the same segment.

Braking and Handling :

When its a sports car delivering a whooping top speed of 288kmph, the braking mechanism also has to be of top notch quality, and Porsche has equipped this car with six-piston aluminium monobloc fixed brake calipers at the front and four piston units at the rear end. There are brake calipers that are colored in red, and the disc brakes which have slots enhances the overall braking performance, these are highly efficient even under extreme conditions. The company has given an optional braking system of Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) , and in case of GTS model the ceramic brake discs of diameter 410mm at front and 350mm at the rear could be fitted. Porsche Stability Management (PSM) is another mechanism that continuously monitors the speed, direction of the car and lateral acceleration specifically at very high speeds. The front suspension features a large chassis mounts that offers great comfort and a effortless handling of it. There is an extensive list of features that could be added to the car like, full LED headlamps that has Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus and a 1000W Burnmester Surround Sound System. Basically, the new Panamera comes with an exclusive program through which it can be highly customized in the way the customer wants.

Safety Features :

The GTS model features Bi-Xenon headlights with black finish, and also has daytime running lights with four LED spotlights in each head lamp. The Porsche Dynamic Light System (PDLS) is another feature which is added to this variant. Apart from full-size driver and front passenger airbags, there is Porsche Side Impact Protection System (POSIP) and knee airbags for driver and front passenger. Side airbags for the rear portion can also be added on the request, otherwise the same for the front occupants has been provided. Other standard features include, three-point seat belts on all seats, belt height adjustment, energy absorbing steering column and pretensioner seat belts at both front and rear.

Comfort Features :

The Panamera GTS has been bestowed with highly rated comfort features that includes roofline upholstered in Alcantara, smooth-finish leather, variety of storage options in doors and center console, cupholders in the rear compartment, adaptive sports seats that provides utter comfort and firmly holds the body. Apart from these, there is park assist that helps parking this vehicle in tighter parking space, also the steering is multifunctional that has got various audio, telephonic and navigation controls on it.

Pros : Superb styling, advanced features.

Cons : Minimal changes done as expected from the second gen car.