The Porsche Cayenne has celebrated 20 years, two decades and three generations of continuous success that have brought the German brand to the top of sales in its category. Now, the firm has declassified interesting secrets of the.
The Porsche Cayenne It has become an institution in the market, a true reference in the category. Each generation surpasses itself once again in all aspects, a key moment in which the German brand has decided to declassify some key aspects of this successful model of the offer that, for the first time, has been split into two bodies with the Porsche Cayenne Coupé.
It should be remembered that Porsche has always listened to the purists, but in the case of the Cayenne, it did not. Criticism reached the highest levels, shouting to the heavens for the tremendous mistake that the Cayenne was considered in the brand’s range, contrary to philosophy and qualified in advance as a fiasco. Time has proved Porsche right, and by far. The Cayenne was born as an off-roader, later becoming – from the second generation – an SUV.
The first Porsche Cayenne, a real challenge to be a success
One of the great secrets of the generations of this model is its internal code, identified with a letter “E”, whose meaning is “enduro», one of the intrinsic characteristics. The first obtained the “E1” and the current one holds the “E3”. Porsche acknowledges that implanting the aesthetics of the 996 of the time was not easy at all in the model, because under the hood there was a V8 engine, and they had to respect a maxim in the style of Porsche: that the highest point of the wings and headlights is always above the hoodso only on the design of the headlights they spent a whole year.
The firm has explained why not use grills as other manufacturers integrate between headlights. A key that many have asked for a long time and without an answer. But the brand has revealed it, and it is that the bumper air intakes are sufficient for cooling and intake air necessary for combustion, so Porsche customers were already used to the front air intakes of the sportier models, even if these were to cool the brakes. This is the reason why it was decided to do without the calenders.
Internally known as project «Colorado», the first generation of the Cayenne was conceived at the same time as the Volkswagen Touareg. The two models share the doors, and although it may not seem like it, they are a key element in the design. Doors compromise roofline designPorsche could not lower the roof line as desired, so a solution was sought to create a flight line: tilt the fixed rear pillar window and add a spoiler to the end of the roof to create this sportier feel.
Inside, the challenge was also enormous, as one of the big problems was the instrument panel. Porsche had no plans to invest in the development of a new frame, but he found himself forced to do so when it could not integrate the usual five clocks of the 911. And despite spending the money, he also had to compromise on a specific feature: the engine speed clock had to move to the left instead of staying in the centeras some clocks had to merge as they did not have space for all independent ones.