The New Comfort Zone

Porsche’s second-generation Panamera is larger yet somehow sleeker than ever before, and hits the right notes in every department.

- Liao Xiangjun

The narrow mountain carriageways around Taiwan’s tranquil Sun Moon Lake are the last roads you want to be speeding on, while in a hefty two-tonne car. Flanked by verdant overgrowth and fairly steep drop-offs, the twisty single-lane corridors double back so often that it feels like navigating a sine graph, with little visibility of what’s coming around the recurring bends.

But conventional physics is moot when one’s behind the wheel of Porsche’s largest sports sedan yet, the 2017 Panamera. Measuring more than 5m long and nearly 2m across, with four doors and four full seats, the behemoth is far nimbler than it has any right to be, taking on the corners and 180s with the acuity of a vehicle a few weight classes lighter. Soon the convoluted road becomes the conduit to a joyride, during which my phone screen fractures in my pocket from all the abrupt turns. I’d do it again.

Only now is it apparent why I’ve been shipped to a rather touristy destination (so named for the shape of its east and west banks), a whole four hours away from Taoyuan International Airport. It’s the perfect arena for showcasing the sedan’s manoeuvrability. This smartly addresses the question foremost in most prospective buyers’ minds: Can Porsche’s newest four-door retain the marque’s characteristic sportiness?

A BEAUTIFUL BEHIND 

That query was a huge sticking point for the first 2009 Panamera. Its rounded fastback rear (that’s when the roof flows into the tail end in one continuous curve) was awkwardly proportioned, resulting in an irregular teardrop figure that became a lightning rod for criticism.