Panamera's Ring record

Porsche’s Panamera may not float everyone’s boat, but you can’t argue that it’s fast. The brand’s first ever saloon has done its obligatory laps of the Nürburgring, and in Turbo form at least, has walked away with the four-door record.

It lapped the Nordschleife – fast becoming the performance car litmus test – in 7 minutes 56 seconds, making it three seconds quicker than the previous record holder, the Cadillac CTS-V (pictured, grey). The four-wheel-drive Porsche is someway short of the Caddy in the power stakes, its 4.8-litre V8 engine offering up 493bhp and 516lb ft compared to the rear-driven CTS-V’s 550bhp and 551lb ft.

The Panamera’s time is equal to that of its Porsche 911 Turbo stable mate as well as the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale and is a whole 17 seconds quicker than the E60 BMW M5.

If you want to read our driving impressions of the Porsche Panamera Turbo, then grab a copy of Issue 134 of evo – on sale Wednesday July 22.