2021 Porsche Panamera Turbo S Sets The Sedan Lap Record At Road Atlanta

Porsche took the recently announced 2021 Porsche Panamera Turbo S to Georgia’s historic Road Atlanta in a bid to grab the “saloon” lap record. The freshly launched Panamera Turbo S replaces the Turbo and adds substantial performance elements that eventually guided it to set this lap record.

For this outing, Porsche selected Leh Keen to pilot the 620 hp Panamera Turbo S around the track. Keen is a veteran racing driver who has raced for Porsche in the past. He also builds some of the most authentic Safari 911s the world has ever seen.

2021 Panamera Turbo S

Whenever Porsche takes its newest model to Road Atlanta, just know that it’s about to go down. The Porsche Cars North America HQ is in Georgia, and Road Atlanta is the local track. Another thing to note about Porsche - if they take a team and a car out to a track like this, they already know they can set a record. Otherwise, it would be a huge waste of time and money to ship a new car, a crew, and a driver to not set a record.

Porsche recently took this very trip to Road Atlanta with the Taycan Turbo S and Leh Keen, where the Taycan recently set the lap record for EVs with a 1:33:81 lap.

The 2021 Panamera Turbo S features several of Porsche’s performance upgrades as standard, assisting its scorching lap time at RA. Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCM), Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+), rear axle steering, and Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control Sport roll-stabilization system (PDCC Sport) are all utilized on the Panamera Turbo S for 2021.

With all of these options equipped, Keen was able to turn a 1:31:51 lap time at Road Atlanta.

Also for 2021, Michelin and Porsche have teamed up to develop a special tire for the Panamera. The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 NDO Ultra-high performance tire will be available to all Panamera customers no matter the trim level.

At $179,050, the 2021 Panamera Turbo S is one of the most expensive sedans on the market, beating out the current BMW M5 Competition, Mercedes S63 AMG, and Audi RS7. All these cars are slightly different in their defined purpose, but the Panamera’s price towers over all, making it not so mysterious as to why it didn’t sell very well in 2020.

Max Larsen is the Porsche reporter at Torque News. Since he was 15 years old Max was building old cars and selling them for profit, spawning his love for cars. He has been around Porsches his entire life. His grandfather had several 911s and he’s owned two Porsche 944s, which made the auto-shop class cars a lot simpler. Reading old car magazines and seeing press cars at shows gave him the passion to write and pursue the industry. He is currently studying Journalism at Western Washington University and writing for the racing team there locally. Follow Max on Torque News Porsche and on Twitter at @maxlarsencars. Search Torque News Porsche for daily Porsche news coverage by our expert automotive reporters.