SPIED: Porsche Panamera Shooting Brake on track

Here’s a fresh look at the upcoming Porsche Panamera Shooting Brake. The new estate version of the second-gen Panamera has been spotted at the infamous Nurburgring circuit, undoubtedly being pushed to its pre-production limits.

Commonly referred to as a Shooting Brake for now, the Panamera’s estate cousin hasn’t officially been christened as such yet — “Estate,” “Sport Turismo” and “Gran Turismo” are reportedly in the running too. In any case, we understand that the model will join a very niche market in the industry, currently occupied by the likes of the Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake. Unfortunately, rumour has it that Benz itself may discontinue its sleek estate once the model’s current cycle is over.

Nevertheless, the new Panamera Shooting Brake is building up to be a stunner in the looks department. If anything, this prototype looks a lot like the Sport Turismo Concept show at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Check out the gallery below and you can quite easily see the similarities for yourself. A lot of the car is still masked by camouflage and lighting stickers, but this variant is also likely to be one of the range-toppers — its uprated brakes and quad exhaust tips suggest so.

Apart from this, we understand that the new Panamera will become the first model to be underpinned by the Volkswagen Group’s new MSB platform which is designed for large, front engine, rear-wheel drive models (AWD optionally). The next-generation Bentley Continental range is expected to follow suit.

We’ve had a brief look inside the new Panamera too, which revealed a completely revised dashboard and centre console. The model was seen to have dropped its button-heavy arrangement for a new fully touch-sensitive panel that surrounds the gear lever and a dash-integrated touchscreen display.

For performance, Porsche is expected to carry forward its existing range of V6 and V8 petrol and diesel options for its new Panamera variants. Additionally, several reports claim that the model could retire its current seven-speed PDK dual-clutch auto transmission for a new nine-speed auto unit.

The second-generation Porsche Panamera is expected to make its global debut later this year at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. Could this Shooting Brake appear then as well? Your guess is as good as ours at this point. Stay tuned to paultan.org for more.

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