Porsche Panamera news - Rent-a-mera - 2009

Tuning houses are infamous for getting their hands on fast German metal within milliseconds of the first cars rolling off the production line. But now the rental companies are getting in on the act.

Avis has announced that the Porsche Panamera will be available to hire from its German outlets from next week.

That's swift work: the Panamera is barely on forecourts, yet you'll be able to storm the autobahns in a 4S for the eminently reasonable price of 189 euros per day - which we're fairly sure is about a quarter of what we paid for a 1.0-litre Peugeot 107 last time we hired a car in Germany.

If you're planning, say, a long weekend in which you race a letter from one end of the country to the other, prices rise to 567 euros for a Friday to Monday rental.

Buoyed by this happy news, Top Gear is planning to take Mrs Top Gear and the two junior Top Gears for a cheery family getaway at a quiet resort in the German forests. It's called the Nurburgring. 

Now watch a web-exclusive outtake from the Royal Mail vs Panamera race in Series 13: