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2002 Porsche Cayenne
| These tyres do not off-road ... |
The Cayenne is seen as the third Porsche. The number three refers to a new class next to 911 and Boxster/Cayman. The Cayenne cannot fall
back on any tradition, because building such a sportive giant is unique. It is requiring the impossible. It should combine the possibility of towing a trailer with up to 3.5 metric tons of weight, enough space for an active
family, assert himself in the most difficult off-road situations as well as with very fast driving on the highway. There are (so far) two technical limitations to this concept: fuel consumption and tyres. While the fuel
consumption is just staggeringly high, the tyres simply (so far) cannot perform the initially assigned job. They can be designed either for high speed on the highway, or perfect off-road performance. For safety reasons,
Porsche chose for high speed tyres. The rest of the concept is very successful.
| Porsche initially dispensed on the diesel, but only initially. |
You may drive wherever you want with this car, according to the opinion of its founding fathers. Porsche has put countless racing victories on its name, among them a double victory of Paris-Dakar in 1986. However, in the
meantime, there is rivalry. First of all there is the VW with the same basis. The VW might be equipped with a W12 with the same performance as the first Porsche Turbo. Mercedes offers an almost as strong V8. Therefore,
the engine family is extended after three years (see below). Nevertheless, Porsche consciously surpasses the diesel engine which would help soften the discussion about the extraordinary fuel consumption.
| At suspension and spring system (almost) everything adjustable. |
One may suppose that the engine is extensively related with that of the Porsche 928. The road performances hardly differ from other
Porsches. With full acceleration, the chassis descends after just 10 seconds with 125 km/h about 25 mm, with 210 km/h once again about 11 mm. One hardly feels the nearly 2.5 metric tons vehicle weight, though the car
is of course not as handily as a sports car. The car is standard equipped with air suspension (see pictures 5 and 6) which does not hinder a sporty handling characteristic.
| Correct oil pan despite dry sump. |
In terms of the engine Porsche lives up to its expectations. The adjustable intake camshaft originates from the six-cylinder engines. The engine is in need of much more cooling. (pictures 6 and 7) Its cylinders are cooled
down in a rather lateral than longitudinal flow to avoid heating one cylinder with the heat of another. Its aluminium material is long-live through special alloys or extra parts from compacted graphite iron. The engine oil is
stored inside the engine, in spite of dry sump lubrication. Porsche advertises a life span of 90.000 km for the spark plugs. The turbo charger has oil- as well as cooling fluid connectors.
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