Powered by big engines with loads of horsepower and torque, and featuring extra legroom in the rear, cars like the Porsche Panamera Turbo Executive are insanely cool. Essentially, you can have fun in both the driver's seat while flooring the gas pedal or resting comfortably and enjoying all the tech available in one of the rear seats. However, this German sedan comes with two downsides. The most obvious of them is the sticker. Priced from $160,000, the Panamera Turbo Executive costs more than the Mercedes-AMG S63 and it's nearly as expensive as the S600 and Maybach S550 versions of the same sedan. The second one, in my opinion, is that almost all standard colors are either white, gray, silver, or black.

Granted, you can also opt for Sapphire Blue, Night Blue, and Mahogany (brown), but the first option is the only one that stands out as a bright, colorful hue. If you want something different, say a flashy shade or red, you're pretty much forced to either pick one of the $3,300 optional colors or take it to Porsche Exclusive for an even higher sticker. Which brings me to the slightly bespoke Panamera Turbo Executive that Porsche Exclusive rolled out just in time for the holidays. It's finished in Carmine Red, features the SportDesign package, and it's drop dead gorgeous. By far the flashiest color available for the Panamera Turbo, Carmine Red gives the sedan a unique appearance that you can't usually find on big sedans on the streets. For some reason, most people opt for either black and dark shades of gray or go with white or silver.

Maybe this is the exact reason why Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi don't offer brighter colors for the large sedans, but whatever the case, it's a big shame that these cars don't hit the streets in flashier paints more often. The fact that this Porsche Exclusive machine also features blacked-out exterior elements only makes it that much more interesting. Not to mention that the predominantly black interior has red trim on the dashboard and door panels instead of wood and can be had with matching red seats.

I bet this is one of those cars that Santa would drive if all of his reindeer caught the flu all of a sudden.

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Why it matters

Needless to say, big sedans like the Panamera Executive look pretty good in white, gray or black and I get why most customers opt for these colors. When you buy a car like this, you need to ride in comfort but you definitely don't want to attract too much attention and a bright color would make your sedan stand out in traffic or in the parking lot. On the flipside, we live in an era when you can't go unnoticed in most places and a black car is not as stealthy as one may think. Of course, I'm not here to tell businessmen what colors to buy their expensive cars in, but this Panamera Turbo Executive is proof that a large sedan looks awesome in a flashy paint job.

Panamera 4S

Panamera Turbo

Engine

2.9-litre V6

4.0-litre biturbo V8

Output

440 HP @ 5,650 RPM

550 hp @ 5,750 RPM

Torque

405 LB-FT

567 LB-FT @ 1,960 - 4,500 RPM

0 to 100 km/h

4.4 seconds
(4.2 seconds with the Sport Chrono Package)

3.8 seconds
(3.6 seconds with the Sport Chrono Package)

Top Speed

289 KM/H (180 mph)

306 km/h (190 mph)


Read our full review on the Porsche Panamera Exclusive here.