The new Porsche Panamera seems to be attracting more tuners than any other car. Panamera is a four-door, four-seat luxury sedan. It was first unveiled at the 13th Auto Shanghai international automobile show in China in 2009. Since the Panamera’s official launch we have seen a number of tuner propositions all over the world and more are expected after the Essen Motor Show on the 27th of November.
The performance tuner Caractere specialized in restyling the vehicles in the VAG group. The Belgian performance tuner also wanted its own version of the Porsche Panamera. It has therefore joined hands with electronics engineer Dynatek to create its own tuner for the Porsche, The Family Estate Car. It created a new product line called the Caractere Exclusive, an up-market product. They have made a few aerodynamic changes and added a few engine upgrades to come up with the Caractere Exclusive.
With regards to the aerodynamic equipment, the 2010 Porsche Panamera with Caractere exclusive has its front bumper with integrated lights. This bumper is compatible with all the other cars in Porsche line-up. It has a set of side skirts which add a sporty look to the car. On the rear end, they have added a second spoiler along with a bumper, and the air scoops are inserted into this bumper. The interior is also expected to be as good as the exterior. For the interiors Caractere is offering a set of carbon moldings in different colors and different finishes
When it comes to the engine power, the engineers from Dynatek who assisted Caractere Exclusive seem to have done a fantastic job. Dynatek is a world leader when it comes to designing performance tuners and chip tuners. They have been able to considerably improve the overall performance of the engine. They managed to increase the power of the Porsche Panamera engine from an initial power of 500 horse power to 605 horse power, and its torque from 700 NM to 840 NM. This performance growth has been achieved not just by tuning the engine but by replacing two of its original catalytic converters with 200-cell sports catalytic converters. The original exhaust line was replaced with a AKRAPOVIC line. All these performance upgrades were made possible by a revised ECU unit and a high performance AKRAPOVIC exhaust system.
The Caractere exclusive has opted for wide tyres for the wheels. They have a CW1 Graphite or Silver rims 9.5 x 22 inch at the front and 11 x 22 inch at the rear. The vehicle has a Yokahoma 265/30R22 at the front and 295/25R22 at the rear.
With all these enhancements, the Porsche Panamera by Caractere Exclusive & Dynatek looks a lot like the Porsche Panamera GrandGT by TechArt. Though the GrandGT had more enhancements in terms of looks, but the performance which is the most valued enhancement expected from a tuner did not match up to what Caractere Exclusive & Dynatek have provided.
Source: topspeed
