Off-roading in a Porsche

There was a nagging feeling among the folks at Porsche India that people did not believe in the off-roading capabilities of Porsche’s SUVs, the Macan and the Cayenne. To turn them into believers, Porsche held an off-road experience bang in the middle of Mumbai (yes, Mumbai) and we got a chance to be a part of it.

The off-road course, created at Bandra-Kurla Complex, was sufficiently diverse in the challenges it offered, ranging from an acceleration-braking patch to a 30-degree side incline, chicken holes, rumblers, positive and negative-side inclines and an axle-breaker patch. To be honest, the Cayenne Diesel and Macan Turbo looked too cushy to manage it.

They weren’t.

Both the Cayenne and the Macan come with a dedicated off-road mode that activates the limited slip differential and raises the suspension to increase the ground clearance. Additionally, both come with Porsche Hill Control to tackle downhill gradients, and a bunch of other electronic flourishes to improve traction off-road. On a more fundamental level, they are equipped with all-wheel-drive setups and a monster 550Nm of torque.

Starting with the Cayenne Diesel, in Sport Plus mode, we thumped down a mud patch with our feet kissing the floor and then slammed the brakes hard. You could feel the heavy pulsation from the ABS working hard. We followed this by a steep hill ascent and then a descent, executed with Porsche Hill Control in place. There was a slush patch, rumblers and chicken holes, all of which were handled with ease. The part where the off-roading ability of the chunky Porsches was really called into play, however, was the axle-breaker patch. As the cars clambered over large, alternating mounds of mud, two wheels were suspended mid-air. The limited slip locks got activated to channel power to wheels that actually had traction and pushed the car forward. Of the two, the Macan was definitely sportier, though it bobbed much more than its bigger sibling.

While this off-road experience might have been more of a simulation than the real deal, it did help to underscore the ability of the Cayenne and Macan to veer off the tarmac. Plus, there is a case to be made for being cocooned in body-hugging leather seats and pampered with multi-zone climate control while crawling over mud-hills and thrashing through slushy patches.