Top Gear USA - First Season

Ferrara: Now on "Top Gear," the fastest way to Las Vegas...

Have you seen a limo around here waiting for me?

The ultimately confusing driving machine...

But I still can't figure out what to call it.

And some poison on our track.

I got a lot of speed and no control right now.

Welcome to "Top Gear."

On this show, no weight will be lost, no wives will be swapped,

but if you enjoy the smell of tire smoke,

this is where you belong.

I'm Adam Ferrara, that's Tanner Foust,

and this is Rutledge Wood.

And this, courtesy of the petersen automotive museum,

is a Porsche 356.

It's the first production car in the world to carry the Porsche name.

Company founder Ferdinand Porsche once said,

"if one does not fail at times, then one has not challenged himself."

And now the company he left behind is challenging itself,

to come up with a new car.

I went out to see whether or not,

they were setting themselves up for a fail.

Wood: In two syllables, it defines an entire category...

The sports car.

One glance of its coat of arms conjures up superiority,

racing pedigree, and a rear engine.

And their pursuit of automotive advancement

gives us a faint glimmer into the future of automobiles.

The name Porsche is synonymous with sports cars.

And they've had some great ones, like the 911.

They've also had some not-so-great ones like the 924.

But their newest model is low, sleek, muscular, and...

It's a four-door.

This is the Porsche Panamera turbo.

It'll set you back almost 134 grand,

and that buys you a staggering top speed of 188 miles per hour.

That's not just sports-car performance.

It's supercar speed.

But it's a sedan.

Looks like the engineers at Porsche have taken up their founder's challenge

and delivered a 911

with a front engine and too many doors.

Now, you might be thinking, that's a big fat fail already.

I mean, Porsche should be making sports cars, not sedans.

And they've never made a sedan, which clearly shows.

Just look at this thing.

The last time you saw something this hunched back,

it was hanging off the cathedral at Notre Dame.

Pretty it's not.

It gets a little better once you get inside,

but the cockpit's got so many bells and whistles,

I need chewbacca riding shotgun.

Look at all these buttons.

Earlier I tried to put on my heated seat,

and two missiles came out oj the headlights.

This is confusing.

I'm also a little confused by the name... the Panamera.

Porsche says it's named after the Carrera Panamericana,

the mexican road race in the '50s.

But the race only lasted three years after numerous fatalities.

They do not mention that in the brochure.

So it's not pretty, it's got a dumb name,

and a dashboard that would baffle even nasa,

but not everything about the Panamera is a fail.

Now, one of the C.E.O.S said

he wanted to be able to sit in the backseat in total comfort.

And he's 6'3", just like me.

Porsche put bucket seats in the back,

that are similar to the front seats of the 911.

There's plenty of legroom,

and the synthetic suede headliner has a bubble

that gives the backseat an incredible amount of space.

Having a big backseat is important in any car,

but is it worth the sacrifice when it looks like an eggplant?

But when you drive it...

It feels amazing.

Driving this thing in sport mode

is like holding onto a missile.

I mean, this is a sports car.

So what if it's got two extra doors?

When you're looking this way, you won't even notice.

The Panamera turbo has a massive 4.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine,

borrowed from the Cayenne turbo S. U.V.,

that delivers a whiplash-inducing 500 horsepower.

And weighing over 4,300 pounds,

it needs as much power as it can squeeze out

to maintain its sportiness.

This sedan could do zero to 60 in 1,

2,

3.8 seconds.

That's faster than the Aston Martin dbs.

This isn't just quick for a sedan.

This is just quick, period.

But even if it accelerates like a Porsche,

there's no way it handles like one, right?

Wrong.

The handling on this car completely matches the power.

It is so tight and so precise yet completely forgiving when you need it.

And with the all-wheel drive, you just point and shoot

and it goes wherever you want.

Oh. Wing is out.

I feel like I'm having an out-of-body driving experience.

I mean, I know I'm driving a four-door, but it feels like a sports car.

Much of the body is built from aluminum,

to reduce weight and improve fuel economy.

It's nice to see that Porsche's at least striving to go green.

But sometimes you can take things a little too far.

Now, here's something strange.

It's called the start-stop system.

Let's say I'm driving in traffic and I come up to a light.

So I stop as normal.

But then the car dies.

But that's not a problem.

It's designed to do that to save gas, and it works.

All I have to do... take my foot off the break,

the car fires right back up, and take off.

Did I mention it has launch control?

Check this out.

Come to a complete stop.

First, you put it in sport.

Then you put it in sport plus.

Put your left foot on the break,

bring the rpms up to 5 grand,

wait till it says "launch control activated,"

and hold on.

Holy moly!

Man, I think the front end left the ground.

100.

110.

112.

122.

130.

139.

150.

158.

164, 166, 167!

And I'm running out of room.

167 miles an hour in a four-door.

Thank you, lord.

The Panamera might not conform to what you would expect from a Porsche,

but I don't think old Ferdinand will be turning in his grave just yet.

So, you liked it?

You know what? It's pretty good.

Now, this is the top-of-the-line turbo model,

which is a little bit pricey at 134 grand,

but you can get a base-model Panamera for 74 grand,

which is a pretty good deal considering you do get a Porsche sports car

and an everyday grocery-getter.

I still wouldn't buy one.

I mean, are they really claiming that this is a potential track car

that you can play with, like, on the weekends?

They really think so.

It's got launch control. It's also got a lap timer.

I mean, they are serious about this car.

It's unbelievable, but there's only one way to really find out.

And that is at the hands of our silent racing driver.

So take it away, Stig.

All right, on the line, activating the launch control.

Out of the hole extremely quick for such a heavy car...

Zero to 60 in under 4 seconds.

Really amazing as it goes into turn 1,

going into the chicane.

This is one of the tighter sections of the track.

Stig just bored inside, really, I think...

Comfortable, upset that he's got to drive such a big behemoth.

Into the teardrop... tightest section of the track.

When you do get 500 horsepower on this corner,

it can be difficult to stay tidy.

A little bit of wheelspin on the way out of that one,

but amazingly just picks up the speed, really gets out of its own way...

130 miles an hour on the back straightaway here.

Now the Stig's starting to get a little bit excited,

goes through the bumpy corners.

The Panamera absorbs it absolutely with no drama.

Into cameraman's corner, tires squealing,

complaining that they have to work with 4,300 pounds.

Coming into the s's,

making his way quickly towards the last turn,

looking like he's getting a little bit out of shape here.

A little bit of opposite lock,

fighting his way into the last corner, and across the line.

Wow.

Wow.

I have to say,

it looked a lot quicker than I thought it would.

Yeah. For something that big, he was cooking.

Coming out of the corners is where it looks most impressive.

And putting the power down, even when it's sliding,

it looks like it picks up speed quickly.

I would call this a GT car.

And, really, to give you an idea of where the GT cars land,

we've got a V-12 vantage,

with quite a bit of a horsepower advantage at a 1:28.2.

I'm getting a little bit optimistic.

The Mercedes sls with a 1:27.6.

You think it was quicker than a mercedes?

All: No.

Not a chance, right? No.

The Panamera did a 1:25.3.

Wow.

That's faster than a lambo.