Next Porsche Panamera V8 and V6 Spied on the Nurburgring

The video below, which comes from Touriclips, shows us a pair of Panamera test mules that were being pushed hard on the Nurburgring earlier this week. One of the test vehicles treats us with a distinctive V8 snarl and we even see it pushing the back end out a bit. Sport Plus, anybody?

As for the second Panamera test mule, this comes with a rather restrained soundtrack, indicating the presence of a V6 engine. Nonetheless, both vehicles had the voice of turbocharging.

We’ll start with the V8 and tell you the presence of the vehicle on the ‘Nordschleife is understandable. Porsche’s current 4.8-liter V8, be it in naturally aspirated or turbocharged form, does need a rework, so it’s only normal for the automaker to be using its spanners to give us something fresh.

The V6 though doesn’t seem to make all that much sense. That’s because with the Macan, Porsche introduced two new incarnations of a twin-turbo V6. The unit has already made it under the hood of the revamped Panamera S, replacing the naturally-aspirated V8. The Cayenne, which will receive its mid-cycle revamps soon, is set to follow the same path.

Still, we have to remind you of the Porsche 2017 super-hybrids rumor. This states that the German carmaker wants to take full advantage of the hybrid lessons it has learned with the 918 Spyder. Thus, an electric powertrain could take the current range-topping Panamera and 911 Turbo S models from their current gas-powered 560 and 570 hp respective outputs to around 700 horses.

This all goes to show Porsche is fully enjoying its engineering fetish these days. The automaker is also working on the future turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engines, as well as on the Cayman GT4 remember?