Thowback – 2013 Porsche

Porsche Panamera Turbo

In Kuching, one of the most popular luxury fast cars is the Porsche Panamera. I can say I can spot at least one Panamera without fail in a week. Most of them are brown and personally I find that to be of an odd color for a sporty fast car. I was fortunate enough to get into the Panamera twice. One was last time when my friend took me for a spin in his white Panamera and it what really stunned me was for a considerably big car it can really fly! I mean we hit around 170kmph in just seconds. I know there are supercars that can do way faster but what an incredible acceleration for a big car with quite a big boot, four seats, a big engine and a roomy cockpit. I was at one point “OH MY GOD!” and holding tight in my seat with adrenaline rush when my friend was accelerating hard and manually shifting the smooth dual-clutch gears. That was indeed fun and that fun ended up with a speeding ticket. I guess we were going so fast that we didn’t spot the police behind the bush with the annoying speed camera with a 70kmph limit on a nice stretch. The stock Panamera is said to be very quiet even though it has a big powerful engine but my friend nailed that problem thanks to a custom exhaustand so that is a good thing.

The second time where I got to actually have a detailed look was last year around August where I was having a barbeque party at my friends house and her Dad happened to own another Panamera, which is another brown. So my friend was kind enough to lend me the keys to have a look and take some photos of the big but immensely fast German car. When I first saw it on the Internet the pictures and the prints the car looks really low and sleek, it looks amazing, however when I got to actually meet it face to face it is actually big and quite bulky. If I’m honest it is not one of the best looking four door cars since Porsche announced this car is designed to be like the 911s. The front looks fine but the back somehow looks very round like the end of a loaf of a French loaf. I mean there are many other cars that you can buy that looks better, sportier and even more elegant than this car for example like what they showed in Top Gear of the Aston Martin Rapide and the beautiful Maserati Quattropotte.

However, the Panamera is overall cheaper and in my case less expensive than the Aston Martin and the Maserati. It is also proven faster and more powerful than the two. The main thing I like about the Panamera is that it is actually a proper Porsche which when you first look at the design of the exterior it has the distinguish Porsche looks. Inside, it is very well made and sophisticated. It is easy to access in or out of the car; you just have to mind your head especially the back doors because of the curve structure. I guess the main problem I was not used to when I was sitting on the front seats were the numerous buttons on the center console. For any normal car we have the air conditioning, radio and some safety feature buttons which are friendly and distinguish to operate, but the Porsche I did get quite a few question marks in my head what some of the buttons do. I guess if you are going to own one do read the manual first before driving it.

Overall, the Panamera is a good everyday car if you’re the one who loves driving fast and if you would like some room to move about. As a plus, this car has a big boot so it means if you are the shopping type you can plenty of space to put your shopping bags or your groceries. It’s around 15 cubic feet of space there! On normal mode, the Porsche really is comfortable thanks to the adaptive suspensions. Hopefully the next time when I do get to test a Panamera I’ll definitely post something about it.

P.S. Please stay tuned as I have a surprise mostly about supercars this coming two months. I’ll try post them as soon as possible. Cheers and Happy Saturday!