Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo: you’re never too old for Scalextric

The saying goes that boys never grow up. It’s merely a case of them getting older and their toys more expensive.

Priced at R2 654 000, the Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is definitely too sophisticated to be considered a toy. But, anyone who has ever played Scalextric as child will appreciate that this superb offering is the closest a real-life car can get to those little battery cars zipping around a track on many a lounge floor around the world.

Growing electric range

The Taycan, a fastback sedan like the Panamera, made its local debut last year as Porsche’s first fully electric car. The Taycan Cross Turismo was rolled out in 2021 and dubbed by Stuttgart as its most versatile off-road offering. Differentiating it from its sibling is an estate inspired shooting brake design and optional air suspension that allows the car to be raised by 30mm.

Compared to the Taycan in 4S guise, the Taycan Cross Turismo is 20 mm higher at 1 409 mm, 11 mm longer at 4 974 mm, 104 kg heavier at 2 244 kg and same width at 2 144 mm.

Both feature 84 litres of space in loading compartment under the bonnet, while the Cross Turismo has 37 litres more space in its 446 kg rear, which can be increased to 1 212-litres with the rear seats folded down.

The optional Off-Road package our test car had fitted includes wheel arch cladding, front and rear skidplates, cladding at the base of the doors and on the front and rear aprons. The air suspension included in the package gives you the option to manually raise the car also to select Gravel Mode when venturing off the tarmac.

Serious battery power

The Taycan Cross Turismo uses the same hardware as its sibling, which means power comes from an 800-volt battery. The Performance Battery Plus, which consists of a total of 396 cells situated in the car’s floor, has a total capacity of 93.4-kWh. In the case of the 4S Cross Turismo, there is 360 kW on tap, or up to 420 kW with overboost, to go with 650 Nm of torque.

And this is exactly where the clear comparison to Scalextric comes in. Can you remember your little hot-rod ever taking its sweet time to get off the mark, or did it fly like a bat out of hell as soon as you pulled the trigger? The latter, of course. The same happens in the case of a fully-electric car. Instant power and mind-numbing torque.

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Though this applies to all electric cars, it is just so much more obvious in a performance electric car like the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo. Porsche claims it will reach 100 km/h from a standstill in 4.1 seconds.

What makes this even more extraordinary is that it achieves this with none of the ear-drum rattling charade a fossil-fueled vehicle will do. And a faint little electric hum later and you have left the other cars at the traffic light for cold. And we have to admit this is seriously addictive.

Surreal driving

You can opt for the electric sports soundtrack which adds artificial sound inside the very futuristic yet simplistic cockpit, but in many ways this actually makes things more surreal.

This, combined with the two prominent wheel arches rising out from the sides of the bonnet gives you the feeling that you are driving in a Formula E race.

Add to this the Taycan Cross Turismo’s low centre of gravity and excellent handling it is hard to bring yourself back to reality that you are in fact not competing in a race but driving on law-enforced public roads.

A maximum range of 452 km is possible with the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, which similar to a traditionally powered car, will depend on driving style. But fortunately, a quick charge either at home or on the charging grid should cost you less than what you used to spend on Scalextric batteries.

For more information on the Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, click here.