Latest-gen Porsche Cayenne to be revealed 29 August

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Porsche has released a trickle of information about the upcoming new Porsche Cayenne. Or rather, some details about the types of testing the third generation SUV – due 29 August 2017 – has endured during the development process.

To start with, the vehicle is a completely new with chassis and display/display control concept all redesigned to widen the gap between sportiness and comfort. Internally referred to as the E3, the development process began back in 2014.

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Part of the punishing routine during the process includes an endurance test using a hydraulic testing facility that applies artificial vibrations to chassis and the vehicle body. The point is to subject the vehicle and its many different parts to extreme stress that it is unlikely ever faced by the finished product. Under everyday conditions in urban traffic, on country roads and on the motorways, the vehicles cover up to 240,000 km within a few months in shifts.

That’s nothing compared to the roughly 4.4 million test kilometres in total, submitting the Cayenne/E3 to different conditions that range from 50 degree Celsius to minus 45. That requires the test to be done around the globe, including the usual race tracks used by the Stuttgart manufacturer to test all of its models.

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The Hockenheimring and Nurburgring-Nordschleife are natural destinations within Germany. In Italy, it’s the ridiculous Nardo high-speed track – a massive loop of 12.6 kilometre. The heat factor comes in Dubai and the USA’s Death Valley where temperatures during summer will break sensors, electronics and materials that does not meet the grade. Cold weather testing was done in Alaska.

Another scope of the gruelling tests include driving the upcoming Cayenne in start-stop traffic in Chinese cities, master test tracks in Sweden, Finland and Spain. Further road tests were done in places as diverse as South Africa, Japan, and New Zealand – both on-road and off-road.

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So now, after 760,000 of Cayennes sold (since model introduction in 2002); and an exhaustive list of tests of the third-gen Cayenne, we only await the world premiere. 29 August, remember.