The Porsche Cayenne EV Takes on Goodwood: A Thrilling Ride
The Goodwood starter gives us the thumbs-up. I expect extremely hard acceleration but what I get is an explosion. My head hits the restraint behind, I’m depressed several inches into upholstery that previously felt firm and my innards are rapidly rearranged. The loads are all instant, yet it’s surprisingly quiet in here.
Nobody will yet tell me how much torque this thing has, but it’s got to be four figures of foot-pounds. Even though it’s all deployed at once via four fat 22in Pirelli P Zeros, there’s barely a squeak of wheelspin. That’s what electronics can do.
The trees either side are a blur, and we’ve got to be doing 90mph when we turn in to that first double-apex. Gabi dabs the brakes – I think – though retardation probably comes as much from this EV’s powerful regenerative braking. We clip the grass apexes twice and then the awesome acceleration begins again.
Out of the trees, the track straightens and widens. I glimpse thousands of blurred faces either side as our Cayenne bolts past the big house on the left and under the bridge at a speed that in other hands might seem deeply crazy.
There’s time for a lightning glance at Gabi – still ice cool, making tiny, timed steering movements – and then we’re approaching Molecomb, the reverse camber left-hander hidden beyond a little brow that has been the ruin of many a worthy Goodwood entrant over the years.
