Seems that after decades of neglect and lack of new ideas & models, the concept of premium "shooting brake" has become all the rage during the last year or two. Aston-Martin, Bentley, Mercedes, Audi, Maserati, Ferrari, et al, have all had their go at it, with mixed and sometimes very questionable and polarizing results. One would think that Porsche would have made it a point to have a competitive offering for this market segment, not so much for the potential sales / revenue increase such a limited market product would surely generate, but rather for the sake of sheer visibility and bragging rights in the premium, disposable-income luxury-goods niche.
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the attached photos in Nicolas Jeannier's interweb site "ARTHOMOBILES" ( which I highly recommend, try googling Arthomobiles.com and see how you like it ), a labor of love wherein he posts elegant and beautifully photographed photo essays of various European Rallies, classic and vintage events, all the prominent new car shows as well as Paris Retromobile, Essen, etc. I have never been as hard-core a Panamera-hater as some on our site have unsolicitedly professed to be ( to the point of being downright in-your-face obnoxious about making bloody well sure we all realized just how much they despised the Panamera ), and must admit that when I saw these shots, I felt that apparently Porsche had taken some of the harshest and perhaps even justified criticism about the Panamera to heart and decided to show the world that the original design maybe isn't as hopelessly flawed and doomed to eventual oblivion as the above types have led us to believe, in other words, I saw a whole new direction in the " Liquid Metallic Blue" Panamera Sports Tourismo model. What I find especially interesting is just how relatively minor the changes observed in the three shots below are to have produced such a dramatically different looking product..........sort of a genuine "Gentlemen's Express" which Porsche's competitors only wish they could create.
Perhaps insufficient favorable feedback was generated by this, in my eyes, quite attractive and sensible exercise, but I'm surprised and somewhat disappointed that Porsche has seemingly decided not to pursue this direction further, since none of the subsequent car shows world-wide have shown this model, including the recent local SF show and as far as I know it wasn't at the LA show either.
Does anyone have any additional information or care to share some thoughts and facts about this apparently still-born idea.
JZG
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