Porsche Macan S Diesel on Road
Easy to forget, when you’re sitting in the lush surroundings of a
premium crossover like the Porsche Macan, that cars like these are also built
for terrain far ruder than their manners. Crossovers are the progeny of pure
off-roaders whose roots go back to the WW2 Jeep and the original Land Rover,
and many of them still provide full-time four-wheel drive and the hardware to
keep going when the road runs out.
The Macan is one of these, its dauntingly impressive bank of centre
console switches housing one labelled “off-road”, and another engages a hill
descent control to ease the car’s passage down treacherous slopes. More than
that, all versions come with electronically controlled four-wheel drive, and
those desiring this Porsche in its most intrepid form can order it with
height-adjustable air suspension. That’s what the 255bhp Macan S Diesel that
we’re experiencing comes with, together with a stout 428lb ft of torque – just
the kind of pull you need when negotiating uncertain terrain.
Porsche Macan S Diesel Side View
And it’s the Macan’s off-road adventuring credentials that we’re
testing here, in the foothills of Morocco’s snow-tipped Atlas mountains. Our
route on day one will take us south-east of Marrakech towards Adassil on all
kinds of surfaces. One of the most chilling of them, despite the 35deg heat, is
a fast, uphill track in the lower reaches of the mountains. An open, relatively
smooth dirt road of hard-packed, blood-orange mud and rock, its surface scatter
of gravel and dust plumes dramatically behind the Porsche as our speed builds.
But not too much. Tempting though it is to treat this road as the rally stage
that it resembles, the toe-tingling drops into the valley below put an end to
any experimental charging into corners, let alone the disengagement of traction
control systems. Even at heart-calming speeds, you can begin to feel the Macan
shifting into a drift unless you’re circumspect.
The emphasis with the Macan, inside as
well as out, is all about delivering as sporting a driving experience as
possible.
What you also feel is an excellent, electro-mechanical steering
mechanism, whose weight, precision and feedback give you the confidence to push
this car, despite its height and unsporting bulk. So although you can feel the
Macan’s body teetering towards a drift, you can also sense its purchase on the
proceedings through the wheel rim. Finding out what it really does when the
grip breaks is something that we’ll discover tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re
looking for some surfaces to test the Macan’s clambering capabilities, although
they certainly aren’t going to match those of the herds of goats that are a
common sight among the low, pinky-orange hills that we’re among now. They’re
almost as common as the decrepit Mercedes-Benz W123 taxis plying the roads a
good 35 years after they were built. These Benzes frequently endure having
their nearside wheels driven into the dirt to avoid oncoming traffic, much of
the country’s road network being single track. Striking potholes big enough to
hide a cat is a perpetual hazard, too.
