Other then the engine and body work, are there any key differences between the 2 models? Just wondering if the Turbo is worth the extra money or if the S will be tunable to be pretty close to the Turbo. Does 0.6 extra liters of displacement mean much in a motor?

 

.6 liters does mean a lot. Just look at the difference with the 3.4, 3.8 and 4.0 liter engines in the 911 range. Huge difference with each of them. S can be tunable to levels of the turbo, and the turbo can be tuned to extremely high levels, but it all depends on how reliable you want your car to be.

Excluding all the options that come standard on the turbo, such as better seats, PASM, PCM and a few other tid bits, you are paying a 10K premium for that extra .6 liters of displacement. And you know what they say, there's no replacement for displacement...

Saying all that though, I'm personally looking at the S, as it meets and exceeds all my needs for a CUV. (340 hp is plenty in a cross over, not to mention better gas millage).

 

What are you guys seeing as the major cosmetic differences between the S and Turbo? The front facia is very similar aside from the DRLs, and the Turbo has an additional kit that contains for body painted parts, but what else am I missing? I kind of miss the more pronounced, aggressive look of the 958 turbo and GTS compared to the other variants, it's odd the same design does't follow suit w the Macan.

 

I think the s is just fine. If I were spending $70k+, I would just get a cayenne s. To me, Macan is supposed to be affordable and there isn't much performance difference to justify the price difference. These will sell well for sure

 

That is because both Macan models feature turbos, which require larger air inlets for inter coolers. I agree they could have done more to distinguish the two, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on which model you're getting) Porsche could not change the size and shape of the front grill.

 

Look again. The lower lip of the Turbo sticks out quite a bit. Like bubba in Forest Gump, lol.

Those air intakes on the turbo have those big rectangular turning vane thingies. Hard to see because it's dark on the launch vehicle

 

Officially known as PBRTVT on the option sheet.

 

Fantastic! Love it.

 

nice.

 

Painted in exterior or deviated colours is another option also.

 

Just came back from the dealer. If I place my order within the week, I'll get a spot in the first Macan allocation for the Kuwaiti market with a May delivery date.

I specced a Macan Turbo in rhodium silver metallic with a two-tone interior in black/garnet red with everything from Burmester and heated/cooled 18-way seats to carbon fiber side blades/interior trims and stainless steel front/rear skid plates. Opted for the 20" Spyder Design wheels; the 21s are luscious but I know that one pothole on Kuwait's sh***y roads is all it'll take to separate me from a few thousand dollars. Besides, I love the design of the Spyder wheels; they're a modernized version of the ones on my Cayenne so they'll serve as a nice reminder once the Cayenne is sold.

The issue, however, is the price. The Macan Turbo is considerably more expensive than I anticipated with a base price of 28100 KWD [approx. 73290 EUR/99400 USD], putting it above the base price of a Cayenne GTS at 27700 KWD. With my options added on, I pulled the car up to a whopping 33960 KWD [approx. 88600 EUR/120000 USD]. For a country with no taxes or supplementary charges, this is an absurd price for the segment especially when given the fact that there are no rivals [the Audi SQ5 isn't sold in Kuwait so the only competitors are the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Range Rover Evoque and their ilk]. Another customer was speccing his Macan Turbo order and complained of exactly the same thing; he too expected a lower price point for the segment and wasn't happy about looking at a compact SUV costing 120000 USD. The way the pricing structure is set, the base Boxster and Cayman models will remain the cheapest Porsches in Kuwait even when the base Macan shows up.

At this point, it looks like Porsche and/or our local dealer are getting greedy.

khabah

 

I believe the Turbo also has beefier brakes over the S.

 

Macan S: Front 350mm, rear 330mm
Macan Turbo: Front 360mm, rear 356mm

Suzy991 (iOS app)

 

The brakes are just one obvious upgrade over the S.

A Porsche factory technician who just completed a preliminary training on the Macan informed me that some of the not so obvious upgrades the Turbo has over the S are:

The engine is not simply bored out to an extra 600cc. The entire driveline and the engine itself is beefed up by a significant amount to handle the extra thrust: the drive shafts, the brakes, the multi links, the engine cooling, the crankcase, the pistons, to name just some of the major components. On top of that, Porsche is deliberately under-stating the output of this turbo engine due to marketing reasons; the power is actually close to 430PS! This level of power output is also hinted by almost identical performance times of the Macan Turbo in 0-100 km/h and highway passing/acceleration times when compared with the much more powerful Cayenne Turbo with its 500PS engine.

So, I don't think it would be as easy, or even a good idea at all, to look at simply chipping a normal S to increase power to the Turbo's levels of performance in terms of handling, reliability or safety.

 

^^ +1

The Turbo is also prepared for more power than it now has, because of an upcoming Macan Turbo S. However, they could have made the Turbo a bit more different in terms of looks, compared to the S IMHO.

Suzy991 (iOS app)