Turns Out Porsche’s Panamera Sport Turismo Is Good For Hauling Gold, Too

You’d think that moving a large quantity of gold bricks through a city’s center would entail an armored truck or two. But those trucks don’t move very quickly. Plus, the longer the journey takes, the longer the treasure is out in the open.

So when Baird & Co needed to move £10 million (nearly $14m) in gold from its vault in East London to its new showroom on the other side of town, it reached out to Porsche.

The automaker dispatched three of its new Panamera Sport Turismo wagons to handle the precious cargo – two Turbo models (in blue and white) and a Turbo S E-Hybrid in red, the colors of the Union Jack – plus a lead car in black.

Each of the three cars had to transport four adults (including a driver, radio operator, and security officers), plus two crates of gold bricks, each weighing some 66 pounds and worth some $2.3 million.

The convoy was escorted by police motorcycle outriders, with a helicopter overhead. It left the undisclosed location of the vault at 11 am on Sunday morning, driving at speed along 12 miles through the British capital along a carefully planned and rehearsed route. It reached the showroom at Hatton Garden, in the Borough of Camden, 40 minutes later without incident, the air suspension keeping the load level at all times.

“In this instance, we had a very large shipment of gold to transport – which is quite rare. We had to rely on the cars to be absolutely reliable, to be stable and to be more than capable of carrying the gold with capacity – in terms of performance – to spare,” said Baird & Co director Nick Hammond. “We didn’t want the vehicles to be anywhere near their limits, which is asking quite a lot. And, despite the phenomenal weight – and the density of the weight – the Panamera had to carry, they performed impeccably.”