OUR FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE THIRD-generation Porsche Panamera is on neither road nor race circuit (though we’ll drive it on both in a few hundred words’ time) – it’s on a wooden platform. Roughly 50 metres long, it’s interspersed with up-and-down ramps at staggered intervals to upset the car as it drives over them; the sort of bumps that’d really make your and your passengers’ heads swing uncomfortably if you ran over them on the road. We’re instructed over the radio to drive along the platform at 50kph (31mph). And… the Panamera is smooth. Very smooth. There’s a bit of a jiggle through the car and a muted thump as the wheels wallop against the ramps, but it’s a distant sensation.
This is our first taste of the Panamera’s flagship air suspension technology: the optional Porsche Active Ride system. All Panameras ride on sophisticated air suspension as standard, but hybrid models have the option of the new active system – made possible by their 400V electronic architecture. It adds around £7k
