8 minute read
AUTOMOTIVE
resourceful and passionate, and it shines through in his care for all things wine. Catering companies have also been impacted and are opening their doors, metaphorically, to the fooddelivery business. My company, Inspired Occasions, is offering weekly menus for home delivery, featuring fresh and seasonal dishes from salads to desserts. One of my favorite concepts is the complete picnic kit; one week we featured Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, with buttermilk fried chicken, homemade brioche buns, creamy coleslaw, macaroni salad, and kettle chips, all packaged and ready to assemble in your own backyard.
EL: We’ve barely scratched the surface of all the places in Kansas City that are working tirelessly to keep good food and drinks in your home, and, more importantly, to keep their doors open and their employees paid. Now more than ever, we encourage you to support the places you want to see on the other side of this pandemic, and no amount of support is too small. We look forward to the day when we can return to crowded dining rooms, bustling bars, and hugs with friends.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Emily and Stewart Lane are natives to Kansas City. Stewart is the Executive Chef of Inspired Occasions catering, and Emily does freelance marketing and communications for arts organizations in the KC metro. Along with their one-year-old daughter, Evie, they live a life filled with food and culture.
Luxury, technology, or performance? Yes.
The Cayenne.
Porsche Kansas City
9400 West 65th Street Merriam KS 66203 (913) 677-3300 www.aristocrat.porschedealer.com
2020 CAYENNE LEASE $899*MONTH 36MNTS
$6,989 due at lease signing
Excludes any title, taxes, registration, license fees, insurance, maintenance and dealer fees. No security deposit required.
©2020 Porsche Cars North America, Inc. Porsche recommends seat belt usage and observance of traffic laws at all times. European model shown. Some options may not be available in the U.S. The Cayenne.*Actual lease price determined by your authorized Porsche dealer; your payments may vary. Closed-end lease offered to qualified lessees with approved credit by Porsche Financial Services (PFS) through participating U.S. dealers. Must take delivery by 6/30/2020. Estimated payments based upon MSRP of $82,570 (includes delivery, processing, and handling fee) for a Model Year 2020 Cayenne with the following options: Metallic Paint, Panoramic Roof System, Roof Rails in Aluminum Finish, Fuel Cap with Aluminum Look Finish, Adaptive Air Suspension incl. Porsche Active Suspension Management, 20” Cayenne Design Wheels, Wheel Center Caps with Colored Porsche Crest, Power Seats (14-way) with Memory Package, Lane Keep Assist incl. Traffic Sign Recognition, Seat Heating (Front), and BOSE® Surround Sound System. Model pictured may have optional features and equipment. Price excludes any title, taxes, registration, license fees, insurance, maintenance and dealer fees. Lease payments of $899.38 for 36 months total $32,377.68 based on the adjusted capitalized cost of $72,950 (requires dealer contribution which could affect price). Total due from customer at signing $6,989.38 (first month’s payment, acquisition fee of $1,095 and capitalized cost reduction of $4,995). No security deposit required. At lease end, lessee pays excess wear, $.30/mile over 30,000 miles and $595 disposition fee. Purchase option at lease end $49,380 plus taxes. Specific vehicles and options are subject to availability and your price may vary. For additional information see your participating authorized Porsche dealer or visit Porsch.com/usa.
The Taycan is one of the most anticipated cars of the last few years because it embraces a fully electric drivetrain. But, technically, it’s really not the first electric Porsche, because the very first vehicle to bear the Porsche name was also fully electric. In 1893, a somewhat precocious 18-year-old Ferdinand Porsche, who later became the founder of the company that bears his name, joined the Vereinigte ElektrizitätsAG Béla Egger company in Vienna. After four years there, he progressed from mechanic to head of the testing department, and the first vehicle he designed – the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton – was powered by an octagonal electric motor. By 1900, Porsche had moved to a carriage maker in Vienna where he developed an electric wheel-hub motor. In 1900, the Lohner-Porsche Electromobile was presented at the Expo in Paris. Lohner’s reason for using an electric motor? The air was “ruthlessly spoiled by the large number of petrol engines in use.” Sound familiar?
But the Taycan is not just a reaction to “ruthlessly spoiled air”; it is a showcase for future technology at a time when the majority of tomorrow’s vehicles are likely to be powered by electric motors. Porsche calls it a sports car for the sustainable future. In a way, the Lohner-Porsche Electromobile and the Taycan are historical bookends to the use of the internal combustion engine. That’s not to say that the internal combustion engine is dead, but its days appear to be numbered as most auto manufacturers are developing battery-powered electric cars for the future.
2020 PORSCHE TAYCAN 4S
Battery: 96kWh lithium-in battery, 563 horsepower
Transmission: 2-speed automatic
All-wheel drive
Wheelbase: 114.2 inches
Curb weight: 4,954 pounds
Base price: $109,370
As driven: $128,670
MPGe rating: 68 in the city, 71 on the highway
Porsche’s history in racing and performance has been punctuated by powerful gasoline engines, but the 919 hybrid racing car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three years in a row, from 2015 to 2017, used electric motors in concert with a gasoline engine.
There are three Taycan models: The Turbo S, the Turbo, and the 4S that I drove, and all have dual electric motors driving both the front and rear wheels. The Turbo S can generate up to 750 horsepower with launch control and over boost, resulting in a zeroto-60 time of 2.6 seconds. The Turbo puts out 670 horsepower and a sprint-to-60 time of 3.0 seconds. The 4S has 522 horsepower or 563 with the Performance Battery Plus. It hits 60 in 3.8 seconds. Prices start at $103,800 for the 4S, $109,370 for the 4S with the Performance Battery Plus, $150,900 for the Turbo and $185,000 for the Turbo S.
Synchronous electric motors on the front and rear axles create all-wheel drive and the rear axle has a two-speed transmission. Porsche is the first to use a two-speed transmission because it offers more relaxed cruising. The car usually starts in second gear in normal mode but full throttle engages first gear.
The Taycan is a quietly quick four-seat sedan that embraces Porsche’s DNA with startling performance. Its outright performance numbers are on par with many exotic supercars, yet in daily driving, it feels docile and refined until you punch the throttle. Electric motors deliver maximum torque instantaneously so that acceleration feels more like a time warp. Picking your way through highway traffic is like driving a video game – a dab of the throttle (no longer called a gas pedal) moves the car so effortlessly that it’s as if it reads your mind and reacts intuitively.
The chassis rides on a 114.2-inch wheelbase. The profile is a cross between a 911 and a Panamera sedan. A large battery pack resides under the floor and helps give the car a low center of gravity and near perfect weight distribution for sports-car handling. That’s typically not what you expect to find in a four-door sedan.
Michael Mauer, Head of Style Porsche, said that purely electric vehicles are often higher than their conventionally powered counterparts because the relatively heavy and large batteries are positioned in the floor of the vehicle, while the occupants sit above them, according to Porsche’s press materials. To create the low profile and keep a comfortable seating position, designers created “foot garages,” or low spaces, for passengers’ feet. The back seat legroom looks tight, but once inside, your feet fit under the front seats and legroom is more than adequate.
Range and charging time are important aspects of an electric car. Porsche is the first company to use an 800-volt system instead of the usual 400 volts. A 270kW charging station can bring the battery to 80 percent in 22.5 minutes, but few 800-volt charging stations exist. The more common charging stations will take considerably longer.
When I picked up the Taycan 4S, the system predicted a range of 187 miles. I drove 122 miles and still had 122 miles of range left. The EPA mileage rating is extremely conservative and most owners will get better mileage.
The interior is typical Porsche. Comfortable seats with a relatively tall center console cradle the driver and front-seat passenger. All of the instruments are digital, and they can be reconfigured in several ways to suit the needs of the driver. Two touch-screens are located in the instrument panel – one in the center and one in front of the passenger. The passenger can control navigation, audio, and climate from his or her own screen. The console also has a touch-screen.
The car I drove had the basic all-black interior with no bright trim work on the door handles, steering wheel, or around the air vents. I believe a little more bright trim would be my choice.
Because electric cars are quiet, the Taycan has Porsche Electric Sport Sound that makes the vehicle’s own drive sound more emotionally charged and richer. Disturbing noises from the drive architecture are deliberately minimized, while harmonious, emotive sounds that match what the car is doing are amplified.
In the future, there will be a Taycan Cross Turismo with slightly higher ground clearance and a station-wagonstyle roofline.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR / PHOTOGRAPHER
Tom Strongman has a degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri and was formerly the director of photography and then the automotive editor of The Kansas City Star. Tom, a member of the Missouri Press Association Photojournalism Hall of Fame, has written about and photographed cars for more than three decades.
