We wouldn’t be wide of the mark if we said that 2014 has been the year of the supercar. Just think of the kind of machinery that popped up: the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder trio of hypercars, the 458 Speciale, the Jaguar F-Type Coupe… The list goes on.
Yet, Autocar’s Steve Sutcliffe says that one of the most impressive cars he’s driven this year is, in fact, a 2.2-tonne SUV. It’s not a British one, either, for those of you who were expecting him to fly the Union Jack, as British auto testers sometimes do.
This SUV is the Porsche Cayenne Diesel S. Yep, you read that correctly: it’s a diesel. Not just any old puffer, though, as the twin-turbo, 4.2-liter V8 pumps out 380hp and 626 lb-ft of torque. While the torque figure is not P1-beating, it isn’t wide off the mark either.
Anyhow, what really impressed Sutters is the way Porsche has managed to transform the Cayenne in a vehicle that really handles and made the second-gen diesel as fast as the first-gen mighty Turbo. Scroll down to see what else he has to say about the Cayenne in the video right after the jump.