2014 looks like it will be a banner year for Porsche. With a recent Bloomberg estimate that the German automaker will surpass 200,000 vehicles sold in the year, one can only imagine the resounding sound of untold champagne bottles being simultaneously popped across the Atlantic Ocean.
Two-hundred thousand vehicles was a company target, all right, but for three years down the road. Imagine your most ambitious life goal, and then an impartial friend saying, “Oh yes, I crunched the numbers on that; you’ll actually be there next week. Might I borrow your lucky rabbit’s foot for the weekend? I’m going to Las Vegas.”
But what, says the not-yet-bubblied reader, is the reason for the speed-up in time? The answer is the reason we’re clearing out space on our showroom here at Leith Porsche: the arrival of the Macan. It turns out that as much as Americans love Porsche, and even more than Americans love Porsche SUVs, they really, really love entry-level Porsche SUVs. This ought not to be a huge surprise as this is exactly what the Boxster did for the company in the late 90s (tip of the hat to you, our entry-level convertible friend).
The Macan is an engineer’s dream of performance meeting a crossover utility vehicle—technically it’s a CUV, not an SUV. And with this week’s analyst expectations, CEO Matthias Müller felt comfortable sharing a cloaked plan the company has been working for a while: not only will the Macan, already at 340 horsepower base, get an additional 60 horsepower in the turbo variant—there is a possibility that we will see a Macan GTS.
For the new believers, GTS means grand touring sport. More pertinently it means a Macan that is simultaneous lighter, and more powerful. Sharper brakes, more sophisticated suspension technology, a more feverish engine, and of course the handling capabilities that make a Porsche a Porsche. There is even the possibility that a manual transmission could be possible, though honestly an automatic PDK would be tough to beat, no matter how good you are.
So there you have it, a Porsche CUV with at least 430 turbocharged (possibly supercharged?) horses and as much weight trimmed as feasible. When might we see this GTS version? Stay tuned.
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