If you've been to a track day, you're likely to have seen at least one of these tearing it up. Notice I didn't say what kind of Porsche the Caterham would be going up against.
Evo Magazine set it up as a proper David versus Goliath battle between two insanely extreme vehicles. Literally these two couldn't be more polar opposite.
The Porsche Cayenne Turbo S is a ridiculously powerful and ridiculously heavy sport-utility vehicle. They really are reaching for it when they say "sport," in SUV. BUT, at the same token, we don't know a vehicle that can go on the track AND then literally be taken off road on the same tires. That's a proper engineering feat. As you'll see below, it's not a track day superstar; however, you have to keep in mind that it does put up a 1:26.8 time.
Our lovely little lime green Caterham is the antithesis of the Cayenne Turbo S. It's lightweight, has a relatively trite amount of power compared to the Porsche and everything in the vehicle was built with the track in mind. It turned out a 1:24.8 time around the course.
If I were to bang on about both vehicle's power-to-weight ratio, the Caterham would edge out the Cayenne by nearly 25 hp/ton, so, it's not a surprise that the Porsche hung in there as good as it did.
I say kudos to Evo for keeping things interesting and showing the mighty performance of the Cayenne; however, I could do without the typical, stupid journalist comment about the Turbo S not making sense.
It’s David versus Goliath in our latest video track battle, as the dinky little Caterham Seven Supersport takes on the behemoth Porsche Cayenne Turbo S around the Bedford Autodrome.
All isn’t as ludicrously silly as it might seem. While the Cayenne’s 2215kg kerb weight equates to more than four 520kg Sevens, it has nearly four times as much power (543bhp vs 140bhp). As a result, the Porsche’s 249bhp/ton power-to-weight ratio is in the same ballpark as the 273bhp/ton Caterham’s. So while the Turbo S’s 175mph top speed is a stonking 55mph higher than the 120mph Supersport’s, their 0-62 times are nearly identical, the 4.5sec SUV just pipping it...
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