Driven to extinction: Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo

Celebrating the wagon is a stereotypical car-guy trope, alongside lauding weight reduction, championing the manual gearbox, and talking about polar moments of inertia without any basic understanding of physics.

With that in mind, it’s with much gnashing of teeth that we announce the demise of Porsche’s prettiest long roof, the Panamera Sport Turismo.

Yep, that’s right, the torpedo-shaped Sport Turismo is not returning for another generation when Porsche ushers in the third-generation ‘972’ Panamera – due here from next month if Porsche’s delivery planner is to be believed.

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There’s a school of thought that says that Porsche does not make a truly beautiful car.

Purposeful cars, yes. Functional? Certainly. But something truly sensual? That’s a tough case to make and the Panamera Sport Turismo, with its sleek fuselage and broad haunches, was something that looked like nothing else on the road.

The Taycan Cross Turismo lacks the Panamera’s consistently rising beltline, and looks comparatively gawky.

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Introduced in 2018 and commanding a $7500 premium over its fastback ‘sedan’ sibling, the Sport Turismo was never a big seller, mopping up less than 10 percent of global Panamera registrations and around 15 percent here in Australia.

Perhaps it was the price premium coupled with the fact that the Sport Turismo didn’t offer much extra boot capacity over the Panamera sedan.

The Panamera model line vice president Dr Thomas Friemuth even admitted that “when it comes to the customer’s point of view, [the Sport Turismo] is a little bit of a design piece.

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“The practicality of the car doesn’t change much compared to [the Panamera sedan] because we have the huge hatch. The sedan’s hatch is big, and the Sport Turismo’s is more or less the same.”

Even if it wasn’t the very last word in terms of practicality, it would have been great to have the Sport Turismo stick around. Price parity with the sedan may well have achieved this, leaving Porsche customers with a largely aesthetic consideration to make.

Indeed, it looks likely that the outgoing (deep breath) Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo will forever be the most powerful production Porsche wagon with an internal combustion engine.

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With 450kW at its elbow, it’s hard to see anything with pistons eclipsing that figure.

Why bother when a Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo can, rather effortlessly, reel off 520kW? Nevertheless, we’ll miss the long-roof Panamera.

It was left-field, elegant, refined and purposeful. Never the obvious choice but always one that garnered appreciation, it was a refreshingly sleek alternative in a sea of bulbous SUVs.

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This or a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso?

The realm of ultra-luxe shooting brakes is rarefied air but there are two now-dead contenders that square up rather intriguingly.

The 450kW Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid meets the 449kW GTC4 Lusso T. Both offer AWD for an ultra-chic ski resort arrival, but a 2018 Ferrari will set you back around $350K, while the Porsche will be $100K less.

Tough call but we’d probably choose to pony up for the dancing donkey.