Porsche Macan S
A deal of the Macan’s ongoing success as the most popular Porsche in the UK must, surely, be attributed to the fact that the company has had plenty of time to hone the handling of a fundamentally practical SUV since the arrival of the then plug-ugly Cayenne in 2003.
And, that’s undoubtedly the reason why, despite its aged Audi Q5 underpinnings, the first, 2014 Macan was pretty much spot on straight out of the box. Since then, mercifully, very little has changed.
This latest overhaul is designed to extend the petrol Porsche’s life to overlap with the next Macan, which will be all-electric. Indeed, the current car’s elderly platform won’t even tolerate hybridisation, so, with the highly successful Macan Diesel expelled from the range at the last update, we’re talking petrol all the way.
The Macan Turbo is also a thing of the past, but with both this S and the top-of-the-range GTS now powered by Audi-sourced twin-turbo V6s, it actually isn’t; especially since the latter offers performance parity with the defunct Turbo. Clear?
Perhaps the job of is easier because the Macan is more compact, but it has always worn its couture with considerably more elan that the clothes hippo Cayenne; the latter only beginning to look comfortable in its own skin when it started taking styling lesson from the former. Exterior tweaks to this latest Macan may be minimal, but they continue to ensure there’s still a good waft of fresh air between the siblings in the ocular desirability stakes.
On board, the cabin puts rivals to shame. Build quality, material finishes, seats, driving position and analogue driver’s dials remain impervious to criticism. The new 12.9-inch touchscreen requires a little acclimatisation, but proves superior once sussed.
Most immediately noticeable, though, is the glass centre console treatment already visited upon the likes of Cayenne and Panamera; the tactile but dated Vertu mobile phone-style phalanx of switches -which always suffered from a surfeit of blanked-off buttons in lesser grade models- now replaced by an exercise in backlit haptic tapping that (fingerprints notwithstanding) actually works surprisingly well.
Everything else is pretty much where you left it, including a 500 litre loadspace which -seats flopped forward- will reinforce the ‘U’ in SUV by tripling in size. No bad thing at all.
Under the bonnet lurks the lesser of the range’s two twin-turbo V6s, but that’s OK because this S variant is well over 10 grand less than the range-topping GTS yet will still deliver 0-62 mph in less than five seconds and over 160 mph with the Wilton fully flattened.
Besides, it isn’t outright pace that makes the Macan stand out in the pack, more its ability to destroy the long and winding road with an imperious disdain for the laws of physics. Details are scant as to how exactly Porsche has further tweaked the undercarriage for this latest iteration; mainly suspension calibration and new tyre designs, is all we’re told.
But there was never much to complain about in the context of cornering, so thank heaven for that rare instance of an if-it-works-don’t-fix-it engineering attitude. Adaptive air suspension is just one of the fitted options adding over £16,000 to the list price of the car I drove, and it gangs up with extremely trick, torque vectoring all-wheel drive to deliver a beguiling combination of admirable ride pliancy, outstanding body control and corner crushing agility.
Every Porsche travels from 60-0 mph faster than it travels from 0-60, which tells you pretty much all you need to know about the brakes, the steering is everything you could wish for and more in an SUV installation, and instances when you crave for more oomph from under the bonnet are rare indeed, especially when directing operations through the helm-mounted paddle shifters.
Nice to know, then, that when the snooze button on the other half’s oestrogen alarm clock finally breaks and the patter of tiny faeces consigns the Cayman to the circular filing try, there is at least one proper SUV out there you can sign up for without shuddering.
