Carrera GT

As I write this article, I’m thinking about how I can make a trip to a privately owned racetrack in Alabama to drive the new Porsche Cayenne sound like work. From a salesman’s perspective I can, only because this new vehicle will cost more than what I paid for my first house! Bob Dexter, Dick Baker and I headed south to Birmingham, Alabama to drive the new Porsche Cayenne SUV on a 2.3 mile road track and off-road course.

Before I talk about the vehicle, I have to plug Barber Motor Sports raceway and the incredible experience they provided. This privately-owned track is the masterpiece of George Barber, a retired dairy farmer, who sunk 62 million into one of the most technical and beautiful tracks in the world. If you get a chance, check it out at www.barnermotorsports.com . Check out his collection of 800 vintage motorcycles and the 144,000 sq. ft. museum he’s building to show them!

The Cayenne Turbo is a 450hp, all-wheel-drive SUV that handles like a 911, tows like a Yukon and has the off-road abilities of a Range Rover. All for a sultry $100,000. What a bargain! However the real story is the Cayenne-S which is the normally aspirated version producing 340 hp and 315 ft-lbs torque. This is the vehicle that we concentrated on and most impressed us all. Yes, the Turbo is absolutely amazing but for $100-grand it had better be! The S is very impressive and even in its basic form has more power and towing abilities than its competition.

photo courtesy Porsche USA

My group started the day on the technical off-road course, which was enhanced by the fact it poured the night before. A picture says a thousand words, so I’ll save you the words...just stop by my office at Morong Falmouth and I’ll show you the pictures! The next venue was an off-road adventure through the marsh and woods. I know what you’re thinking...who is going to take their Porsche SUV off road? Well, if they do, they will be surprised. This SUV will sling mud with the best of them!

After lunch, we went to the track and did some hot laps in both the Cayenne Turbo and S, and now the blood was definitely flowing. There is an adrenaline rush that occurs when you are driving a 5200-pound SUV around a road course track at speeds approaching the triple digits. It was at this point that I fully understood why Porsche was building this new vehicle! Ten minutes later we were herded into the Turbo and away we went with professional drivers at the wheel. Nothing is quite like being a passenger in a 5200-lb. SUV going around a hairpin corner in a four wheel slide and seeing the tachometer crossing the 6000 rpm mark. Time for a change of the skivvies!

Later we did the usual technical course and competitive vehicle drives. Just when I thought we were done, Porsche had a surprise for us. They loaded a 911 coupe onto a trailer, hitched it up to a Cayenne S and took us down the track for a professional demonstration. With four of us in the Cayenne, the Cayenne itself, and the 911 on the trailer, we were a total of more than 11,000 pounds! The driver then took us through an emergency lane change at nearly 70 mph, landed on the brakes, did a u-turn and did the emergency maneuver all over again. Amazing!

As you can tell, the experience was priceless and now we have the arduous task of selling $60k-100k SUVs. We will kicked off our dealership launch on the 15th of March with an invitational viewing across the street on the Portland Athletic Club’s basketball court.

I should mention that the Volkswagen Touareg will follow in May and the price point will be from $35k to 45K. I see these two vehicles attracting new customers that we would not have sold to before.