SPORT Utility Vehicle

With Porsche's proclivity for purist performance, the new Cayenne emphatically puts the "sport" in "sport utility vehicle". We head to the high North-east to sample the new SUV and Coupé models in entry V6 guise 

- Jim Gorde

LET'S START WITH THE FACT THAT "ENTRY" is a relative term. The bare-bones Porsche Cayenne still gets a slew of premium equipment and feels refined and tastefully posh, no matter which of the six senses is given priority. The reason for it being classified the entry model is, of course, the 3.0-litre V6 turbo-petrol powertrain; which, on paper, is the same as an Audi S5 TFSI-minus one solitary horsepower. That's all secondary. We have an SUV that drives like a sports car despite its two-tonne-plus weight. And we're in a new part of the country-one I've never set foot in before the mountainous North-east. Our drive would take us from Guwahati, on the edge of the Assam border, into Cherrapunji in Meghalaya, which is so close to the international border with Bangladesh I had to disable my mobile phone network to prevent two things: the 30-minute time-difference display and to nip any chance of international roaming charges in the bud. Right, then, here's how things went.

The starting point was our hotel in Dispur and the route was about 160 kilometres one-way to the former "rainiest place on Earth", an honour that is now held by Mawsynräm, which lies just about 20 kilometres west of Che as the crow flies, but more than 80 km and nearly three hours away by road.