Porsche Teases Super Sedan Fans with New Pics of Panamera Four-Door

Panamera Photos

Guess what? The Panamera looks just like a Porsche! At least the front half does. (Photo: Porsche)

Artists' renderings like this have been floating around cyberspace for years. (Photo: Artist's Rendering)

The Panamera promises a sleek profile. (Photo: Porsche)

Porsche wants to make sure we realize the Panamera's design doesn't break too much with tradition. (Photo: Porsche)

News Flash! The Panamera, Porsche’s long anticipated four-door, looks like a Porsche. If you were thinking that the iconic brand was going to revisit its 924, 944 and 928 past, an era of design experimentation that started in the ‘70s and extended right through to the early ‘90s, Stuttgart has made its intentions very clear by revealing this teaser photo that shows a car with visual cues inspired by the latest 911.

Especially noticeable are the LED turn signal indicators integrated into the front brake vents, just like the 911 Turbo, while the oval headlight clusters are laid back more aggressively than the 911, similarly to the new Boxster and Cayman models, as well as the new Cayenne. A racy set of contemporary Porsche rims bearing the brands famed crest look appropriate, and of course it’s painted in Germany’s national motorsport shade, silver.

One of the problems the new Panamera solves is one that’s not often talked about, making better use of Porsche’s lineup of V8 engines. Currently, only the Cayenne uses the naturally aspirated V8, in its various levels of tune, and the all-powerful turbocharged V8, not to mention the VW-sourced V6, so the addition of another front-engine model to make use of its non-boxer engines is a real boon for the company. And according to Auto Express, the Panamera will feature a full array of engine choices, starting with that entry-level 3.5-liter V6, followed up by the naturally aspirated, direct-injection V8 at an expected 350-horsepower and topped off by the twin-turbo V8 with up to 560-horsepower. What’s more, Porsche’s new hybrid drivetrain is also likely, after it becomes available in the Cayenne. All that and an expected 15.9 cubic feet of cargo space in its rear trunk, the Panamera promises a lot more practicality than Porsche sports car buyers are used to living with.

Other than these few details, nothing else about this Mercedes-Benz CLS fighter is known for sure, although numerous unofficial renderings showing other aspects of the design have been floating around cyberspace for years now. For more of the real thing, Porsche will follow the current marketing trend of slowly rolling out the model with select information and carefully constructed teaser images like these ones released at prime moments to build momentum before its official launch, possibly in Geneva next year. As a bit of a twist, mind you, rather than just using newswire services to send these images out to media outlets, Porsche has created the Panamera Online Magazine as the stage for these Panamera teasers.

A new microsite, found at www.porsche.com/microsite/panamera/, shows a short flash film asking us to accept or reject its new four-door, in preparation for a backlash from Porsche purists in similar proportion to when it introduced the Cayenne. Disgruntled Porschephiles won’t likely put up much of a fuss now that the Cayenne has proven itself within the Porsche community, and broken the ice as far as grand departures from tradition are concerned. The microsite opens up to the Panamera Online Magazine, a real feast for the senses that Porsche fans will be sure to enjoy.

The Panamera, now given the suffix Gran Turismo, will be shown in full next spring, at which time we’ll be able to see how close the artists’ renderings are to the production model, which incidentally will be built in Leipzig, Germany, alongside the Cayenne SUV.

And if you’re thinking that Porsche is merely copying Maserati in adding the Gran Turismo name to its first-ever four-door, that’s not exactly correct. While the Italian sport-luxury marque has adopted the name for its new coupe, the name is really the long version of GT, an alpha designation that Porsche has used for decades.

Once available, Porsche hopes to sell 20,000 Panamera Gran Turismos annually, and use the expected sales success to nudge the brand over the 100,000 units per year threshold for the first time.