Porsche Panamera! Official pictures and selected specifications, info released

The much anticipated and much oh-jeez-what-have-they-done-to-Porsche feared Porsche Panamera has officially broken cover. After month of spy photos and videos, Porsche has released official photographs of the Panamera, its four-door, four-seat gran tourismo that will arrive in the U.S. in nine months—or as we count (leaving out Thumbkin number two), will be August, 2009. European deliveries will begin the spring of ’09.

 

The photos show the Panamera as unmistakably a Porsche, especially through the bumper and up over the hood sloping up between the taller front fenders and characteristic Porsche headlamp cluster. There is no conventional grille, rather a wide air intake along the lower edge of the bumper, flanked by two more inlets at either end which we take as brake ducts. One justifiably might ask whether the engine is located at the front or rear. It is a Porsche, after all, and with no grille…. Relax, the engine is up front.

 

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The taillamps resemble those of the Cayman/Boxster, though the profile of the greenhouse is unique at Porsche, and definitely coupe-like. The rear window, that Porsche says “tapers like an arrow to the rear” and “characteristic of sports car,” is clearly surrounded by a seam that extends down to the top of the numberplate. The Porsche Panamera is not a four door, but rather a five-door hatchback. The Panamera even has folding rear seats.

 

Not to worry, however. Porsche assures that all four occupants “are able to experience a cockpit-like atmosphere from all four seats. All occupants enjoy supreme comfort in both the front seats and the two contoured rear seats.”

Porsche says that the Panamera is both lower and wider than other models in its segment—not a very big club—and the specs confirm that claim:

 

 

A choice of engines from V-6 to turbocharged V-8 with power outputs from 300 to 500 horsepower will be offered. The Panamera’s top engine in the Turbo will be the 4.8-liter turbocharged direct-injection V-8, as used in the Porsche Cayenne. Those who wait will doubtless have the option of a later release of a Panamera Turbo S with 550 horsepower, as with the Cayenne Turbo S.

 

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Porsche will offer two transmissions in the Panamera, a convention six-speed manual transmission or Porsche’s seven-speed Doppelkupplungsgetriebe—or Double-Clutch—Gearbox.

 

In addition to rear-wheel drive standard on lesser Panameras, the Turbo will come standard with all-wheel drive, which will be available as an option on other models. And so your Porsche can be green no matter what color you paint it, a hybrid drive Panamera is in the works.

 

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Purists will want to know that the Porsche Panamera will be built in Porsche’s Leipzig facility; a new 237,000 square foot “production hall” and a logistics center are being constructed. The Panamera’s engines will be built at Porsche’s main facility in Zuffenhausen with painted body shells produced by Volkswagen’s Hanover plant. Final assembly will be performed at the Leipzig plant. Porsche says that seventy percent of the car’s components are made in Germany.

 

Porsche’s target annual sales is 20,000 units. That’s a significant increase for Porsche, which reported one year sales of 98,652 for the fiscal year ending July 31.

 

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Purist cried foul when the Cayenne SUV was introduced and no doubt many will over the Panamera as well. Of course, when the 911 replaced the 356, you should have heard them then.