12 hours in a Porsche Cayenne V8: is an SUV really the best GT?

Day One: 0700. London. Disable phone alarm, flick through news app. Twitter. Shower, change, get in car. Sit in traffic on the A406. Ponder grey clouds. So far, so normal.

But Waze is not set westerly for the office, in Twickenham, like it normally is. It is pointing north. I am en route to Kielder Forest in Northumberland to drive the new Porsche Cayenne S.

The Cayenne has long been described as the saviour of Porsche. Car enthusiasts have been fed the narrative that the Cayenne is a means to an end. Porsche makes this so that other, more interesting, purer Porsches can continue to live.

If this new model feels familiar, that’s quite likely because we road tested the new Cayenne S in last week’s issue, calling it an “enjoyable, uncomplicated SUV to keep forever”.

Our road test, of course, is a place for hard facts and objective assessment. But the circumstances around this particular model necessitate a wider appraisal of its place. So we have decided to see if the new Cayenne S really blends performance and practicality, with an epic day-long tour of the north of England and southern Scotland. Which, in turn, necessitated my early alarm call.

Still, to cover the mechanical bits. According to Porsche, the latest facelift is one of the most extensive product upgrades in its history. There’s the usual stuff – new screens, new suspension, more power, more efficiency.

It’s all geared towards keeping the Cayenne feeling fresh, because from 2026 it will sit alongside the technically unrelated Cayenne Electric, before disappearing entirely as Porsche switches to electric cars only. It’s too early to start writing an obit – but this is the beginning of the end of the ICE Cayenne, and as a result feels the right time to be appreciated.

Intriguingly, for me, the biggest change is not in hardware or software. It’s in nomenclature. Porsche has seen fit to return the S to a V8, this time a 4.0-litre twin-turbo also used in the Panamera and Lamborghini Urus. Mk1 Cayenne S models had a V8, and then midway through the second generation it switched to a V6. Now the eight-cylinder S is back.

11.00: Stop at Wetherby. Standards of driving are getting better, but the weather is getting worse. Flick through the news app. Twitter.

Photographer Max has replied to an email chain with some more precise locations. You can’t really go wrong around Northumberland.

Unfortunately, my first choice, Forest Drive, is closed for winter. This 12-mile toll road links Kielder Castle to Blakehopeburnhaugh, is one of Britain’s highest roads and forms part of the Kielder Forest Rally – a tight, fast national event for historics and modern two-wheel-drive cars.

In my mind, a forest stage + four-wheel drive + 468bhp = photography gold. But still. No point dwelling, I still have 85 miles to drive.

13.00: Arrive in Northumberland. Weather is biblically wet now. Settle down to some work.

19.00: Flick through news app. Twitter. Dinner, Merlot, bed.

Day two: 07.00. Northumberland. Disable phone alarm, flick through news app. Twitter. Shower, change, get in car.

No traffic, no grey skies and no four-cylinder thrum of the BMW X3 I drove up here in. Today is, finally, about the Cayenne’s V8, rather than the everyday mundanity of early alarms and apps.

This engine is magnificent, really. Yes, it’s seen service in numerous Volkswagen Group products but the Cayenne deals out its 443lb ft of torque like a croupier at the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Zero to 62mph is dispatched in less than five seconds thanks to Porsche’s launch control system. Set the dial to Sport+, hold the brake firmly with leftie, mash the throttle with rightie. Lift leftie and the Cayenne slings you away in a controlled whirlwind of aggression and noise. Well, assuming you’ve turned on the sports exhaust. Without it, the V8 is restrained.

The Cayenne is not a traditionally good-looking car. Nor is it unconventionally aesthetic. But this facelifted third-generation car is a lot less gawky than that awkward original.

The wraparound rear light bar adds a bit of retro-futuristic Y2K style commonly found on the Instagram pages of the fashionistas of today.