Porsche Cayenne GTS Design Edition 3

Porsche introduces the Cayenne GTS Design Edition 3 for £64,753.

Despite ‘The Economy’ and the general antipathy towards big SUVs, the Porsche Cayenne powers on and still sells in numbers that astonish those who don’t understand the car. The last model to be introduced (apart from the very limited Cayenne Transsyberia) was the GTS; a more road-focused version with a tweaked version of the normally aspirated 4.8 litre V8.

And it is the GTS that Porsche has used for a new version of the Cayenne – the Porsche Cayenne  Design Edition 3 (the previous two were on the Boxster and Cayman). Sadly, this is just a cosmetic package; no nice juicy turbo bolted on, for example. But it takes Porsche down the road, visually, of the likes of Gemballa, which produces extreme examples of the Porsche Cayenne that go down well with the less reticent and low profile Cayenne drivers.

The paint scheme in Lava Gray is the most obvious sign that this is a limited edition, together with the stripe running up the centre of the car (a la Scuderia), big, matching 21″ wheels and tinted windows. The inside get several extra cows to swathe everything in red-stitched black leather and Alcantara and a few extra toys like Bose, and a switch to change the exhaust volume.

The standard GTS already gets PASM as standard, and this is carried over to the Design Edition 3, giving a brisk 0-60 of 6.5 seconds and slightly better on-road manners (not that there is anything wrong with the Cayenne’s standard set up).

Porsche wants £64,753 for the Cayenne GTS Design Edition 3, but they are throwing in a half decent watch and a matching set of luggage for free. That’ll clinch the deal!