Porsche Panamera to share powertrain and factory

[BMWDave]

Porsche's Four-Door Panamera to Share Factory and Powertrain Wwith Cayenne
Date Posted 07-18-2005

STUTTGART, Germany ? Porsche has held off making an official announcement about its fifth model line ? a four-door coupe to be called Panamera ? until the Frankfurt show in September. But tidbits keep leaking out in Europe.

German news magazine Der Spiegel has revealed details of the car, claiming the body of the front-engine, rear-drive coupe-sedan will be built by MagnaSteyr in Austria. The magazine reported the body shells would be trucked to the factory in Leipzig, Germany, where Porsche's successful Cayenne luxury SUV is assembled.

The Panamera is expected to use the same engines and transmissions as the Cayenne, plus other compatible systems, including all-wheel drive on its top-range versions. The new car will be powered by the Cayenne's 4.5-liter V8 in both normally aspirated and turbocharged forms, with the flagship version using a "softened" edition of the midengine Carrera GT's 5.7-liter, 40-valve V10.

A concept is likely to be shown at Frankfurt in September, with the full-production version ready to go on sale in 2007.

What this means to you: Porsche's bold choice of a new model should pay off; the luxury sedan-coupe concept, as pioneered by the Mercedes CLS, is already proving popular.