2021 Porsche Panamera Turbo S

Is it different on the outside?

A little. The Sport Design package is not standard, and it brings tweaked air intakes and larger side vents, as well as a redesigned headlight clusters for the Turbo S, where the four light points are set further apart from each other.

What’s more, the rear light strip now runs uninterrupted over the luggage compartment, connecting the rear LED light clusters. GTS models get darkened taillights, but it’s not the case for the Turbo S.

Tell me more about those 620 horses

Packing the same 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 found in the Panamera Turbo and Cayenne Turbo, the Turbo S flavour benefits from quite a hefty power upgrade. While the Turbo made do with 550 horsepower, the Turbo S gets a beefed-up stable of 620 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque.

That’s enough to send the saloon from 0 to 100 kph in 3.1 seconds (0-60 mph in about 2.9 seconds) and further away to a top speed of 315 kph (195 mph).

All these changes were triggered by modding the crankshaft, connecting rods, and fuel injectors. The compression ratio was also reduced. Not that we expected anything less from Porsche.

To pave the way for such performance, the Panamera Turbo S uses a three-chamber air suspension setup, the carmaker’s PASM active suspension management and PDCC Sport – or Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control which also integrates a torque vectoring mechanism known as PTV Plus.

Any new additions inside the cabin?

Well, not exactly. There are some tweaks on the tech front, though, in the sense that the Porsche Communication Management setup (read: infotainment) adds Voice Pilot online voice control, Risk Radar (live info on road signs and potential hazards), and wireless Apple CarPlay.

For the record, the existing multimedia setup inside the Panamera pretty much aces everything in terms of interface, ease of use, graphics, and readability, so there was no point in fiddling with something that’s perfectly functional.

That said, some features that used to be on the options list are not standard:

• Lane Keeping Assist
• Porsche Inno Drive
• Night Vision Assist
• Lane Change Assist
• LED Matrix headlights
• Park Assist
• Surround View
• Head-up display

When can I get it and for how much?

Well, you can order now, but Porsche won’t start shipping the revised Turbo S earlier than mid-October in Europe and spring of 2021 in the U.S. There’s no word on price, however, expect a sticker of at least $150,000 for the Turbo S and around $90,000 for the base model.