The Porsche Macan Turbo with Performance package — to give it its full title — takes the existing Macan Turbo as its starting point but then dials up the power and the performance several notches.
The 3.6-liter twin-turbocharged V6 nestling under its compact hood now outputs 440hp; that’s a 40hp increase, and 600Nm of torque (a 50Nm improvement) in order to get the SUV off the line and on to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds, then on to a 272km/h top speed if the owner is lucky enough to be driving on the Autobahn where speed limits don’t apply.
However, where restrictions are in place, that extra torque means that there’s still fun to be had. For instance, it can now accelerate from 80km/h to 100km/h (highway overtaking speeds) in just 2.9 seconds. That’s seriously impressive for what is a high-sided vehicle (1.62 meters tall) that weighs 2000kg.
To handle the extra performance, Porsche has upgraded the brakes and chassis and lowered the ride height. It’s also thrown in the Sport Chrono Package that will be familiar to 911 drivers. So there’s a stopwatch for timing laps and an extra driving mode — Sport Plus — that opens the exhaust, opens the taps on the engine and tightens up the dampers, suspension and paddle-shifted gear changes so that the driver can access everything the car has to give.
It’s impossible to exaggerate how important the Macan has become for Porsche’s bottom line since its launch in 2014. It’s well on its way to 1 million sales, and demand for the compact, premium sports SUV is such that owners are finding they can sell theirs on at a premium above the asking price as those that want one aren’t prepared to wait for Porsche to build one.
However, Porsche is not the only German car company that knows about how to make a mud plugger both premium and powerful and so to stop customers decamping to a BMW, Audi or Mercedes showroom, Porsche has added this new model to the lineup, before its competitors have a chance to catch up.
The Macan Turbo Performance Package will cost from €91,000 in Europe when it goes on sale following its official debut at the Paris motorshow, which opens to the public on October 1.
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