A Spiced-Up New World; Should Porsche be building an SUV? Shut up and get in.(Cayenne sports-utlity vehicle)

Byline: MATT DAVIS

Porsche execs have listened patiently to all of our and your comments regarding the matter of their Swabian wunderfirma building an SUV. They know what we've all had to say. And they've built the SUV anyway. The execs even claim not to mind a bit that the Volkswagen Touareg sister project exploded onto everyone's conscience almost a month before the Cayenne.

Because now it's their turn.

Just beyond the Stuttgart airport on autobahn A8 heading east, our handler from Porsche announced, ``This is the free zone now and you can go fast.'' And, boy, did we ever. The top speed of the Cayenne Turbo with its fresh 4.5-liter 450-hp twin-turbo V8 engine is humbly stated as being 165 mph. Thanks to a clear fast lane, a slight downhill and no wind, we saw an indicated 170 mph and held it for a while. A little bit of wind noise over the tops of the A-pillars, zero from the huge side-view mirrors. Someone remind us that this is an SUV.

Just before setting out on our exclusive pre-launch drive, Cayenne project manager Egon Verse and others assured us that at any speed on dry, smooth pavement we could conceivably handle the steering wheel with just the thumb and forefinger of one hand. Though we can't recommend your doing so in any vehicle, we did and it's possible and safe.

So it goes like greased lightning in this Turbo trim. What about on the curves, climbs and descents of the soggy, forested hills southeast of town? Before we started out, Porsche design chief and accomplished racer Harm Lagaay smiled-there was a lot of smiling that day-and told us, ``It's even better off the autobahn in the hills and turns. In such conditions it drives like a sports car.'' And again, we tried it as such at limits that might have had any other SUV trimming trees, and he's more or less right.

How do you explain such Carrera 4S-like stability, comfort and responsiveness in a tall, 5192-pound serious off-road package? Though the full-time four-wheel-drive system for the Cayenne-called Porsche Traction Management-is the same as on the Touareg (including an ultra-low reduction gear to aid creeping in the gunk), the latter drives with a 50/50 torque split between the front and rear on normal roads while the Cayenne uses a 38/62 front/rear split. Both can send 100 percent of traction to any single wheel if needed. This coupled with the Porsche Stability Management system originally seen on the Carrera 4S would explain the sheer confidence we felt after just a few minutes of playtime behind the wheel. There was never a moment of doubt and the PSM's monitoring of the situation via the throttle and ABS was barely noticeable as we held our smooth line through the tight spots-exactly what we'd like when we're at the helm of any Porsche.