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Taycan Cross Turismo Turbo first drive: The best $2,600 upgrade Porsche has ever offered
By Seth Weintraub
May 27, 2021
Taycan Cross Turismo Turbo
Porsche hooked us up with a gorgeous blue Taycan Cross Turismo ‘Turbo’ for the better part of 24 hours last week so we could get a feel of the lust-worthy variant of the popular Taycan EV. For a short time, I was the envy of the suburbs…
The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo is the slightly “station-wagoned-out” version of the popular Taycan EV that we reviewed all the way back in January of 2020. I was blown away by the handling and performance, calling it “the best Porsche ever.”
There’s a gravel button on the bottom of the center stack, and it calls out to you when the roads get rough and turn to dirt. The gravel button, when activated (blue), raises the Taycan a few inches more off the ground and prepares the car for bigger bumps in the road and some AWD drifting.
This is the kind of car you can hit triple digits on the highway on-ramp if you aren’t careful. No one is beating you off the line unless you pull up next to a hypercar, Plaid Tesla or Turbo S. And driving on the highway? You are a man among men. It is like playing soccer with a bunch of 5-year-olds. You can play nice, but when someone goes too far, you can just take off like everyone else is standing still.
The Cross Turismo offers a little more headroom (.34 inches) for the front passengers but a lot more (3.6 inches) for rear passengers, along with a bucket seat experience. There’s more room in the back for bikes, golf clubs, or even car camping.
Porsche will have a rear bike rack (and even Porsche Electric bikes!) that we’re looking forward to checking out. The front trunk is still smallish — enough room for a small suitcase or charging cables.
Porsche has another winner on its hands here. The big takeaway for me here is that you have fantastic sports cars like Tesla or Audi or Porsche, but the ability to go on gravel with those big AWD paws is another reality altogether. Stopping and starting are lightning quick, whether on asphalt, dirt, or even grass.