Porsche’s new big-booted Panamera is here

Porschephiles, welcome a new niche into your fold. Say hello to the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, a five-door Panamera estate inspired by the opinion-shifting SportTurismo concept from 2012. And dare we say it, is this a good-looking Panamera? 

Based on the new, more visually pleasing and incredibly capable Panamera, in essence, the Sport Turismo is one of those just with a bigger boot grafted on the back. At 5,049 mm long, 1,428 mm high and 1,937 mm wide, it’s exactly the same size as the current Panamera. Which, in case you forgot, is 35mm longer, 5mm wider and 5mm taller than the old car. Big, then. 

As you may know, a bigger boot means more space in the back (duh). But there's not as much as that curvy rump and muscular D-pillar would have you believe. In total, there's 520-litres of storage space (425 litres in the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Sport Turismo due to its electric gubbins) which is still more than enough for the weekly shop, but only 20 litres more than the standard car. However, when stuffed full to the gunwales with the rear seats folded down, the benefit over the fastback Panamera is 50 litres. Flatten everything to the floor and this increases to 1,390 litres (1,295 litres for the E-Hybrid), so perfect if you have to get things (preferably clean things) to the tip in a hurry. 

Inside you’ve got all the new Porsche loveliness (physical rev counter framed by twin 7-inch LCD instrument screens, a whopping 12.3-inch main touchscreen, and touch-sensitive zones for the climate and adaptive driving controls grouped onto the transmission tunnel) that we've come to love plus wood. Lovely, lovely wood. How Jaaaaaag. 

The Sport Turismo is also the first Panamera to feature three rear seats. Well, two and a half. The two outer most are individual seats and a central third seat makes for what Porsche classes as a '4+1'. Your most disliked friend/child goes into the +1, obvs. But, as an option, you can spec it as a four-seater. Even so, we’re assured that new raised roof line of the Sport Turismo garners greater headroom than standard. Perfect if your profession is transporting NBA players around very quickly for a living.

Like the normal Panamera, the Sport Turismo gets the same MSB underpinnings as per the Bentley Flying Spur and future Continental GT, and all cars get Porsche’s PTM, all-wheel drive system while S models receive adaptive air suspension. But you also may remember that the new Panamera Turbo has a rear wing that retracts like Iron Man’s flick knife. Well, the Sport Turismo also has a natty spoiler – this time all the way up there on the roof. It’s adaptive, with its pitch set in one of three stages depending on how you’re driving or the mode you’re in. We’re told this can generate an additional 50kg of downforce on the rear axle.

In total, five new engines are available in many flavours of induction and fuelling. Starting the range is the 330bhp V6, then there's the 462bhp E-Hybrid, a faster 440bhp S, 422bhp 4SDiesel, and the mighty 550bhp turbo at the top of the tree. Prices start at £73k and rise up to £117k for the Turbo but the £83k the E-Hybrid is the one closest to the concept car that foreshadowed this production version and will do 56g/km and 112mpg while also recording 0-62mph in 4.6sec and a 173mph top speed.

Unfortunately, there’s currently no Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo. Probably because there’s not enough room for all the badging on the back. But a big-booted Porsche with a 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 and e-motor, 670bhp, 627lb ft and a claimed top speed of 192mph is what we want to see. So go on Porsche. You’ve just cut one more niche. So why not go for another?