Had we all been right about the Porsche Cayenne when it arrived in 2003, we wouldn’t be here now talking about the second generation. As the company’s first real departure from sports cars, it flew in the face of everything we knew about Porsche — it was large, it was heavy and it had real back seats. It should have been as popular as day-old sushi at a rodeo, but lo and behold, it actually filled a genuine void in the premium utility segment, which was still hotter than hell in the early days of this century. With each passing year, Porsche has brought it closer and closer to the ideal example of an off-road sports car, and now it actually seems like a natural fit for an enthusiast’s garage, parked deservedly alongside the 911 Turbo. Even the most stubborn of old-school Porsche-philes have finally accepted that the Cayenne serves a real purpose, even if that might simply be to make profits to fund the development of better sports cars. Honestly, without the Cayenne, do you think the amazing new Boxster Spyder would have seen the light of day?

So here we are, almost eight years on, and the second-generation Cayenne is just as important — and relevant — as the original when it first bowed. Hindsight being 20:20, it’s easy to look back on the original as a good concept with room for improvement. Porsche knows this too, and with the 2011 model the company started with a clean sheet to bring the popular model closer to its ideal. The result is a vehicle that is roomier yet lighter, quicker yet more efficient, larger and yet more Porsche-like in its looks.

First impressions of the new Cayenne are that it looks considerably smaller; in fact, the opposite is true. It sits on a wheelbase 1.6 inches longer than before, and the overall length has grown by 1.9 inches. The Porsche design wizards have played with the details to create a shape that is more coupe-like, lending the impression of a much smaller vehicle. The hood now features a more defined “V” shape like the rest of the family, and the headlights seem to rise more prominently at the front. The taillights have been slimmed down, getting rid of the big-butt view from behind. The front bumper has softer curves, again falling more inline with the sports car lineup. Perhaps the biggest contributor to the slimmed-down appearance is the greenhouse profile; not only does it trace a more 911-like outline, but the B- and C-pillar trims are now black to help blend in with the side graphic, as opposed to the vertical silver slabs that broke up the flow on the original.

The styling of the 2011 Cayenne feels more appropriate to its place in today’s market as a result of two factors. First, Porsche seems to have come to terms with what the Cayenne is; the new model is now less truck-like in its attitude and appearance. Second, the Panamera sedan serves as a perfect bridge between the sports cars and the Cayenne. The whole lineup is just more cohesive now.

Speaking of the Panamera, there’s no doubt where the new Cayenne’s interior was conceived. The new dash and center stack are variants on the Panamera’s theme, with the massive flight deck for a center console. It’s a bit slimmer for the narrower Cayenne, but the functionality is essentially the same; that’s to say that it looks intimidating at first, but is actually quite easy to use once you realize all the functions are pretty well grouped. Material quality has taken a major leap forward for the new model, with some of the exaggerated textures of the old model left in the past. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the whole of the cabin feels like any other contemporary Porsche model.

Rear passengers will appreciate the additional wheelbase, which accounts for more rear legroom. The rear seats now feature adjustability in both the fore/aft positioning and the recline angle. Of course, the added configurability of the rear seats pays dividends on the other side, resulting in a more flexible cargo space as well.


Despite all this new space, Porsche engineers have managed to pull 400 pounds of dead weight from the new Cayenne when compared to similar models in the previous generation. This was accomplished through incremental changes throughout the vehicle, ranging from lighter chassis components to stronger body stampings that require less material. A base-model Cayenne now tips the scales at a scant (for this class) 4398 pounds; BMW’s X5 weighs in just under 5000 pounds, and a Range Rover Sport adds yet another ten percent, coming in just under 5500 pounds.

When the new 2011 Cayenne range starts rolling through dealers next month, the format will be fairly familiar — a V6 model ($46,700) will anchor the lineup (arriving in the fall), followed by a naturally-aspirated V8 S model ($63,700), with a twin-turbocharged V8 Cayenne Turbo ($104,800) topping the lineup. We expect there will be other variants, including perhaps second comings of the GTS and Turbo S, but surprisingly the first new deviation will be the Cayenne S Hybrid ($67,700). Available this fall alongside the V6 Cayenne, Porsche’s first production hybrid vehicle will use a 3.0-liter supercharged V6 paired with an electric motor to boost output to V8 levels while retaining the fuel efficiency of a V6.

The Cayenne's base V6 is the 3.6-liter from the previous model, but with a bump in output to 300 hp and 295 lb-ft. It can be paired with either a six-speed manual transmission or the new eight-speed automatic that offers even greater efficiency, thanks in part to its standard start-stop technology first seen in the Panamera. The V8 in the Cayenne S is an all-aluminum 4.8-liter, just as before, but with the addition of direct injection. Horsepower is up from 385 hp to 400 now, with 369 lb-ft on tap. Only the eight-speed auto’box is available for now. Turbo models get a 500-hp, 516-lb-ft version of the twin-turbo 4.8-liter, also with direct injection and paired exclusively to the automatic gearbox.


The Cayenne S Hybrid pulls out all the stops with an all-aluminum 3.0-liter V6 sporting direct injection and a supercharger parked in the valley between the cylinder heads. It is connected to the eight-speed automatic via an electric motor that also acts as the starter motor and torque-converter/clutch. The gas engine puts out 333 horses on its own, and can accept a 47-hp boost from the electric motor for a total output of 380 horsepower. Torque, already an advantage with a supercharged engine, comes in at 324 lb-ft without the aid of the electric motor, which can add up to 295 lb-ft on its own. Total combined torque is limited to a whopping 427 lb-ft at just 1000 rpm.

We had a chance to drive the new Cayenne in both iterations of the V8 as well as the hybrid (we’ll drive the base V6 in late June) at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, which happens to be home to the Porsche Sport Driving School. Cayennes have always been part and parcel of the program at the school — students drive the full range of Porsche vehicles from the Boxster on up to the 911 Turbo — so it seems as natural a place as any to experience for the first time the newest incarnation of the sporty SUV. It just so happens the fairly technical 2.4-mile road course, with its seventeen turns and eighty feet of elevation change, is a pretty ideal place to witness the differences between old and new at the vehicles’ limits.

On all variants, the four-hundred-pound weight loss is immediately felt. Between the stiffer body shell and the diet, the new Cayenne actually feels like a car from the driver’s seat; just as it looks smaller, it also drives smaller. There’s a newfound sense of overall balance that was missing from the old model, which always felt its weight. With less mass to push around, acceleration is sharp in whatever direction you need it — forward, stopping, or laterally.


The eight-speed Tiptronic automatic may be a sore point for some who prefer to shift their own gears, but the quick-shifting box delivers better performance and improved economy. Porsche reckons the new automatic alone should account for a nearly twenty percent improvement in fuel economy in the real world. And enthusiasts shouldn’t feel slighted at all; the Tiptronic responds on a hairtrigger to the driver’s requests in Sport mode, and it can still be shifted manually by paddles or by bumping the shift knob.

More serious drivers will appreciate the availability of Porsche’s Ceramic Composite Brake setup paired with the torque-vectoring rear differential. This combination makes for serious fun on either the open road or a closed circuit. The big yellow brakes deliver fade-free performance corner after corner (although the brake fluid will eventually absorb some of their heat), allowing adventurous drivers to discover new limits. The torque-vectoring rear diff applies additional torque to the inside rear wheel under full throttle acceleration as the steering wheel is being unwound, adding a rear-steering effect to pull through tight bends without the understeer so often associated with large, heavy vehicles at track speeds.

Porsche expects up to fifteen percent of new Cayennes will be sold as S Hybrid models, and those drivers will give up nothing in driving excitement to gain significant efficiency improvements. The driving experience is nearly identical to that of the Cayenne S, with only a slight lag in power delivery at the low end. The transition from full electric drive to conventional gasoline power to full-on electric boost mode would be imperceptible if not for the dashboard display delivering a play-by-play. Most owners may not even care what part of the drivetrain is working at any given moment; it just drives like any other Cayenne. Those interested in cruising on the 288-volt NiMH battery can engage the E-Power mode, which forces the car into electric-only motivation for as long as the system can withstand it (up to a couple miles at speeds near 35 mph, depending on conditions and load).

In an age where large luxury SUVs are social pariah, Porsche has managed to morph the second-generation Cayenne into more of an everyday Porsche. It has “more” in all the right places, and “less” where it didn’t need it to begin with. Better still, it finally looks like one of the family.

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