Porsche’s Macan isn’t the first ute armed with 911-caliber horsepower, but it is the first attempt to jam five conflicting skills—speed, agility, comfort, utility, and off-road nerve—into one handy package. The name Macan, an Indonesian word for “tiger” that Porsche pronounces “Ma-CAHN,” says it all. This cat has claws and cunning that will scar the SUV world.
The Macan’s guidance system is tight on-center and frank on turn-in. Even without much road dialogue through the electrically assisted system, the steering manages to bolster the driver’s confidence. The brakes provide a firm pedal with stopping power strictly proportional to applied pressure. Likewise, the springs, the anti-roll bars, and the dampers check body rock and roll. The king is secure on his sport-seat throne, thanks to ideal orthopedic support and unyielding rib and thigh bolsters. This is truly the SUV for those who swore they’d never be caught driving one.
To make its point that the Macan is a worthy addition to the 80-plus SUVs already available in the U.S., Porsche provided opportunities to explore two additional legs of the versatility stool. Twenty minutes after hot laps at Leipzig’s off-road course, we teetered over ammo bunkers used by the Soviet Army. Then we buzzed the base Macan S past 150 mph on the perfectly paved autobahns surrounding Porsche’s eastern-German manufacturing campus. The one test not offered was a visit to a big-box store to gauge cargo space.
Purists howled when Porsche broke its sports-car mold with the Cayenne SUV a dozen years ago, and they surely will whine over another family member with too many doors, pounds, and inches of wheelbase. Consider this Zuffenhausen’s strategy to keep the sports-car assembly lines humming by offering an SUV done properly to a world craving the things.
Porsche spent three years simmering Audi Q5 SUV and 911 sports-car genes in its crockpot to get the Macan just right. What emerged carries on the Q’s layout and 110.5-inch wheelbase but little else. The Macan is longer, wider, and much lower than Audi’s small ute. The resulting proportions—think Ford Edge with a 3.6-inch haircut—and a racy greenhouse drive the Macan to an unexplored corner of the SUV map. Both sport and utility live under this roof, but there’s never a doubt which of the traits rules.
Porsche invested $677 million in Macan manufacturing facilities and bolted in new engines, four-wheel-drive systems, and suspension hardware. More than two-thirds of the donor Q5’s parts have been replaced or altered. An aluminum hood arcs from windshield to grille and from tire to tire to eliminate unseemly seams. Staggered-size wheels and tires and swollen rear haunches give the Macan that tail-heavy 911 look. The conversation piece, what design chief Michael Mauer calls a sideblade—a term you may recall also being applied to the Audi R8’s trademark styling feature—is a cavity hollowed out of the door surfaces to lower visual height.
Two power and trim levels—S and Turbo—stretch the window stickers from $50,895 ($300 more than a base Cayenne!) to well over $100,000 with options. If that’s beyond your budget, fret not, because a more affordable four-cylinder Macan is likely later this year. A V-6 turbo-diesel model arrives in 2015.
The 3.0-liter and 3.6-liter direct-injected V-6 engines descend from the Panamera’s V-8. Lopping off two cylinders, installing split-pin crankshafts, and adding balance shafts yield 90-degree V-6s that purr with fresh-kill contentment. Only the top Macan sports the hallowed Turbo badge, but both engines are boosted by twin flank-mounted turbochargers. The S V-6 peaks with 340 horsepower at 6500 rpm. The Turbo’s version uses a longer stroke and 17.4 psi of boost (versus the 3.0-liter engine’s 14.5 psi) to pound out 400 horsepower at 6000 rpm. Both engines yowl to 6700 rpm and then nap at red lights to conserve fuel.
The one and only gearbox is a crisp-shifting, paddle-controlled seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. The four-wheel driveline is shared with the Cayenne and powers the rear wheels all the time and routes torque to the open front differential when necessary through a computer-controlled multiplate clutch housed in the tail of the transmission. Traction and handling are enhanced by Porsche’s alphabet soup of helpers—ABD, PTM, PSM—which momentarily brake one or two wheels to check tire slippage and spin-outs. An electronically controlled rear limited-slip differential is optional. Porsche’s traditional Sport Chrono package adds launch control, more-aggressive powertrain and chassis algorithms, and analog and digital dash-top timers for hot lapping and acceleration sprints.
There are three suspension systems: coil springs with conventional shocks, coils with electronically adjustable shocks, and a height-adjustable air-spring suspension that includes adjustable shocks. The top-dog setup, optional in both S and Turbo, provides a 0.6-inch-lower high-speed cruising height with 1.6-inch higher-than-normal ride for, well, touring former Soviet military installations. The bountiful options list offers eight different wheels ranging between 19 and 21 inches in diameter. In addition to the extra power, the Turbo gets LED-illuminated grille blades, rectangular exhaust tips, adjustable dampers, leather-trimmed sport seats, and a 3-D–view nav system.
Our second hot lap of the autobahn, conveniently unencumbered by speed limits, revealed the spiritual difference between the S and Turbo Macans. The S is quick, entertaining, and primed for a run to the redline. Porsche says the run to 60 mph takes 5.2 seconds, which probably understates the case. The Turbo is overkill. Nail the accelerator, the nose rises, and visions of 911 Turbos dance in your head. Although we didn’t verify the 164-mph top-speed claim, we did accelerate from 100 to an easy 160 mph in what seemed like two deep breaths. The factory claims a 0-to-60 sprint is possible in 4.6 seconds, or a couple of 10ths quicker with launch control. (For reference, the AWD 911 Carrera S with the PDK automatic hits 60 in four flat.) The larger engine fills its pipes with big-cat growl, accenting upshifts with an occasional snarl or snap. There’s a full repertoire of purrs and chuckles during the overrun. Those who spend the extra $22,400 for the Turbo won’t be cheated.
The interior features the now Porsche-standard sloping center console that first appeared in the Carrera GT. That epic model had only a few knobs to fiddle with; the Macan’s nervous system looks more complicated than a Learjet’s. There’s a switch for every function, more than 30 on the center panel and a few more overhead and on the steering wheel shared with the heroic 918 supercar. That doesn’t count the infotainment controls sited below a seven-inch touch screen. Clearly, Porsche hasn’t received the industry-wide memo on control simplification.
The path to the rear seat is slightly impeded by a thick sill, but there’s ample room within for two grown-ups or three kids. A three-piece backrest folds to convert passenger positions to freight space. The racy hatch angle and the sleek roof curvature whack more than a third of the Audi Q5’s cargo volume (from 29 to 18 cubic feet), the price of aping the 911’s profile. Sacrificing the back seat yields 53 cubic feet of space and a flat, nearly level load floor.
Described by Porsche as “the sports car of the SUV segment”, the Porsche Macan arrives with a heavy weight of expectation
While the Cayenne is based on the same platform as the Audi Q7, the Porsche Macan shares its underpinnings with the Audi Q5. It's not a simple swap, though, as Porsche has tweaked all the important bits to ensure the Macan has sporty character you'd expect from a Porsche.
In fact, Porsche is so confident in the end result it’s achieved with the Macan that it’s promoting the car 'the only sports car in its segment.'
At launch, Porsche Macan buyers will be able to pick from a Macan S, a Macan S Diesel and a Macan Turbo. Both the S models cost the same, with the petrol-powered version boasting a 335bhp 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 and the diesel getting a 254bhp 3.0-litre V6. At the top of the range sits a 3.6-litre twin-turbo V6 with 394bhp in the Turbo model.
Each model provides seriously impressive acceleration and traction, helped by the standard seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic gearbox and rear-biased four-wheel-drive system.
Handling is predictably sharp and the ride noticeably firmer than much of the competition, unless you go for the excellent optional air suspension, while buyers are asked to pick between a variety of performance boosting options such as torque vectoring and adaptive dampers.
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