Tested! The Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT Is a Sleeper Lamborghini
Back in 2003, sports car drivers had to get used to the idea of yielding to faster-moving Porsche Cayennes coming up from behind them. The age of the performance SUV was upon us. Over the ensuing decade and a half, Porsche and others have refined the formula, creating a new class of super SUVs that'll now surprise not just sports cars on a good back road but also the rare supercar. The new 2022 Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT takes that formula to the next level.
What Makes the Cayenne Turbo GT Tick?
At first glance, the Cayenne Turbo GT doesn't appear all that different than the Cayenne Turbo Coupe. Meaner-looking, sure, thanks to wider air intakes in the nose, black accents, a carbon-fiber roof, and not one but two spoilers (the lower one is active, to boot)—but overall not all that different. Look even closer, and perhaps you'll notice that the Cayenne Turbo GT sits about three-quarters of an inch lower than the Cayenne Turbo. It's a sleeper of sorts.
Under the skin, things get even more interesting. For starters, the Cayenne Turbo's familiar 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 gets reworked, now breathing out of a titanium exhaust system. Power rises from 541 hp and 567 lb-ft in the standard Cayenne Turbo to a healthy 631 hp and 626 lb-ft of torque in the Cayenne Turbo GT—that's just 10 horsepower and 1 lb-ft shy of the Lamborghini Urus, which shares its platform and engine with the Porsche. Helping put that power down is a quicker-shifting eight-speed automatic and a water-cooled torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system that's beefier than the air-cooled unit on lesser Cayennes. Stiffer air springs, pizza-sized carbon-ceramic brakes, and a more aggressive four-wheel steering system round out the Turbo GT package.
How Fast Is the Cayenne Turbo GT?
The combo is good enough to make the Cayenne Turbo GT the second-quickest SUV MotorTrend has ever tested-with the competition so close we need to resort to a second decimal place to split the difference. The Porsche rips from 0 to 60 mph in 3.02 seconds and on through the quarter mile in 11.32 seconds at 120.93 mph. That just trails the last Urus we tested. It's 2.97-second 0-60 run, combined with its 11.31-second at 120.06 mph quarter-mile performance was enough to make it the quickest SUV we've ever tested.
Still, the Porsche makes up some ground in braking and handling. The Cayenne Turbo GT stops from 60 mph in 105 feet (2 feet shorter than the Lamborghini), and it runs the figure eight in 23.2 seconds at 0.88 g average. That not only bests the Urus' 23.5 second at 0.87 g performance but also shames quite a few sport sedans (like the BMW M3 Competition xDrive and Cadillac CT4 and CT5-V Blackwing) and sports cars (including Porsche's own 911 Targa 4S and 718 Boxster and Cayman GTS 4.0).
Out in the real world, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT is more than just quick—it's incredibly fun, too. Despite the 5,000 pounds the engine is lugging around, the fastback SUV feels light on its feet and properly fast. The V-8 makes gobs of power, and the eight-speed auto acts like Porsche's famed PDK dual-clutch, backing up the V-8 bark with perfectly timed shifts each and every time. The fast, precise steering rack is "Porsche perfect with amazing feedback," road test editor Chris Walton says, and it combines with the retuned all-wheel-drive system and big brakes to allow you to dive hard into corners and rocket hard out of them as the torque vectoring and four-wheel steering system combine to laugh in the face of physics.
Is there room for improvement? Sure. The stiffer suspension is, well, stiffer, on real-world pavement and can be borderline harsh. Some on staff also found the Cayenne to be so competent that it verged on boring. The Cayenne Turbo GT, in other words, feels a lot like an Urus for introverts—it's nowhere near as loud and showy as the related Lambo is.
It's nowhere near as expensive, either.
How Much Is a Cayenne Turbo GT?
We wouldn't go so far as to call the 2022 Cayenne Turbo GT (which starts at $182,150 and as tested for $208,850) affordable, but it's a shockingly good value for a super SUV. Consider its only true competitor on the performance spectrum, the Urus—it starts at nearly $220,000. The Bentley Bentayga Speed, meanwhile, starts at about $240,000 and lost to a "regular" Cayenne Turbo in our last comparison test. The Aston Martin DBX is about $180,000 to start but is slower than a Cayenne Turbo. The DBX S might be able to hang with the Turbo GT, but it's likely to start north of $200,000. Meanwhile, neither BMW's M division nor Mercedes-AMG offers a vehicle (not the M6 Competition or the GLE 63 Black Edition) that can dance with this Porsche.
The Verdict
Although the jury's out on whether the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT is better to drive than the Lamborghini Urus, fact is it may not matter. The Cayenne Turbo GT is one of the purest, most engaging, and most fun-to-drive SUVs to hit the road. Odds are as the super SUV segment evolves and grows, this will be remembered as one of the vehicles that first defined the segment.
Looks good! More details?2022 Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo GT Specifications BASE PRICE $182,150 PRICE AS TESTED $208,850 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD, 4-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINE 4.0L Twin-turbo direct-injected DOHC 32-valve 90-degree V-8 POWER (SAE NET) 631 hp @ 6,000 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 626 lb-ft @ 2,300 rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 4,967 lb (58/42%) WHEELBASE 113.9 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 194.6 x 78.0 x 64.4 in 0-60 MPH 3.0 sec QUARTER MILE 11.3 sec @ 121.0 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 105 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 1.07 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 23.2 sec @ 0.88 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 14/19/16 mpg EPA RANGE (COMB) 450 miles ON SALE Winter, 2022 Show AllYou may also like
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Of course, that number will vary, as we found out during our time behind the wheel. But thanks in part to its 7.2-kilowatt onboard charger, if you have a 240-volt Level 2 wall box installed in your garage, Hyundai says you can charge the battery in as little as two hours, so filling it up with electrons at home is relatively quick. Regenerative braking also helps put power back into the battery.As far as the powertrain goes, the company's 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four with 180 hp and 195 lb-ft of torque is the 2022 Hyundai Tucson plug-in hybrid's gas-powered heart. Add in the power from its 66.9-kW permanent-magnet synchronous motor mounted at the rear axle, and those numbers rise to an estimated 261 horses and 258 lb-ft all in, which is the most any version of the Tucson offers. Power is routed to a six-speed automatic transmission, and all Tucson plug-ins come with Hyundai's HTRAC on-demand (mechanical) all-wheel-drive system as standard equipment.How Well Does the Tucson Plug-In Perform?What does that mean for its overall performance? We took the 2022 Hyundai Tucson plug-in hybrid to the test track to find out. With the battery at 95 percent charge, it launched under EV power at first and then the engine kicked in later in the run, which we clocked at 7.1 seconds from 0 to 60 mph and 15.3 seconds at 92.2 mph through the quarter mile. That's far better than the 2022 Tucson HTRAC we tested with the 2.5-liter inline-four (9.3 seconds), though it was a fair bit off of one of its primary competitors, the 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in, which we recorded at an impressive 5.5 seconds to 60 mph. But it did outperform its other main bogey, the 2021 Ford Escape plug-in, which reached the 60-mph mark in 7.7 seconds during our testing.Stopping power of the 2022 Hyundai Tucson PHEV is more than acceptable for a 4,179-pound crossover, with 124 feet required to haul down from 60 mph to 0. That distance essentially splits the difference between the lighter Ford (123 feet) and the heavier Toyota (127 feet). The brakes performed well despite a steeper than normal initial push before they began to bite.But the Tucson plug-in's dynamic performance really brought out the kudos from the MotorTrend test team. Road test director Chris Walton had this to say about the Hyundai midsize crossover after his time wringing it out at the track: "Wow, a much sportier experience than I had anticipated. I found it easy to trail brake into the skidpad, and lateral acceleration registered 0.83 g average. In Sport mode, the steering feels unnecessarily heavy; I prefer the feel of it in other modes. 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On the plus side, you should be able to take advantage of government tax breaks to offset the upcharge.Lots of Good Stuff for the PriceThe good news is that the extra scratch you pay for the Tucson PHEV Limited nets you an impressive-looking package in the cabin with a highly functional 10.3-inch instrument panel featuring screens designed to help you better understand how well you're doing in terms of efficiency, complemented by a 10.3-inch infotainment screen and upscale leather seating. It's also loaded to the gills with safety technology, an advanced stop-and-go adaptive cruise control system, and Hyundai's Smart Park, to name a few.When underway, the Tucson plug-in pulls away from stoplights stealthily yet with authority when you desire a quick pace, and if you want to play a bit, there's a Sport mode with paddles to wind through the six gears. At freeway speeds it happily moves along, and when the road gets rough and rugged, the Tucson plug-in hybrid is more than adept at soaking up imperfections and keeping impact harshness at bay. In essence, it's what you'd expect a family-friendly crossover to deliver in the ride and handling departments.But this vehicle is at its best when you take it easy and use it for what it's meant to do, which is to maximize your opportunities to increase efficiency. Because in the end, plug-in hybrids like the 2022 Hyundai Tucson PHEV are all about using those precious electric-only miles to your advantage.Looks good! 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The next-generation Honda Civic Type R is on the way. If you've kept up with the latest buzz, then you've seen the red, black. and white camouflaged prototypes several times now. The eagerly awaited hatchback will debut this year as a 2023 model and once again is offered with a manual transmission—an option fast disappearing from the Civic family here in America. But while we continue to wait for the hot hatch's official unveiling, Honda has released footage of the Type R-still under that red, white, and black wrap-zipping through the Suzuka Circuit in Japan. This is essentially video of the same car captured in still photography last month at the same track.When the 2023 Honda Civic Type R finally arrives, it should feature a more powerful 2.0 turbo-four, somewhere in the ballpark of 315 to 335 hp. In keeping with its track duties and sportier appearance, the front-drive hatchback will come fitted with red-painted Brembo brake calipers as the previous model. As for the inside, it appears that Honda is installing an updated version of the cloth bucket seats in the intense Flamin' Hot Cheetos color.The teaser video gives us a sense of the all-new Type R's feral capabilities. Listen to that turbocharged sound—okay, at least in this clip, it doesn't sound like much, but the drone-y engine at least seems quick. We can't wait to try out the grip provided by those sticky Michelin Pilot 4S tires or the pull of that turbo I-4 for ourselves, as we expect the less manic-looking hatchback to push performance limits even harder than the predecessor while upping its already surprising maturity even further.
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