Porsche Macan Sport: The best just got better

Few cars can ever match the overall package that is the Macan—small, agile, highly capable on and off the road, and luxurious, of course.

It remains a technological tour de force despite being over five years of age.

The base engine is in itself extremely amazing considering its modest 2.0-liter displacement.

It delivers a whooping 252 hp and 370 Newton meters to all four wheels via Porsche’s equally amazing 7-speed Porsche doppel kupplungs hetriebe (Porsche dual clutch gearbox).

Top speed is 229 km/h, and accelerates from naught to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds.

In reality though, acceleration feels even more manic due to the impressive in-gear acceleration afforded by the seven forward gears.

With a change in tires, it would be amazing on loose surface, as well as on paved roads.

Having driven the Macan in various parts of the world (Germany, Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia), the Macan has always showed complete and utter confidence regardless of road and weather conditions.

Now, what happens if you switch out the base Macan’s conventional steel-sprung suspension, and replace it with an active air suspension set-up?

Throw in larger 20-inch diameter wheels in lieu of the standard 18s, and you seem to have a recipe for a really tough-as-nails ride, right?

Wrong! It transforms the firm yet compliant Macan into a real magic-carpet ride.

The amazing Porsche active suspension management (PASM for short) continuously monitors road condition and driving style to help deliver the most stable, composed, and confident stance on the road, matched with ever so slightly more compliance and comfort, to the benefit of the passenger.

As a driver, this means you can keep going hard, faster and longer—or until you run out of gas.

The 20-inch wheel/tire setup, shod with meaty Michelin Latitude Sport high-performance SUV tires sized 265/45R20 deliver a more aggressive turn-in plus sharper steering feel, with the penalty to all this goodness being an infinitesimal increase in NVH.

Need I say that it just looks so much better as well? There’s still decent sidewall thickness, such that you won’t worry about banging the achingly beautiful alloy wheels on rough roads, or through Metro Manila’s pothole-ridden thoroughfares.

Braking has always been a Porsche forte, thanks in part to the seminal 911s rear-engine configuration, which allows far more braking stability at high speeds.

Thankfully, this trait has been carried over to even other Porsche models like the Macan.

The 4-piston front and 2-piston rear brakes still deliver eye-watering braking performance consistently, and without fade.

A favorite test of many Porsche drivers would be to stand on the brakes at or near maximum speed and take their hands off the steering wheel: the impressive braking, suspension geometry setup, and tire selection would allow any Porsche model to brake safely, consistently and repeatedly in a straight line sans any sort of drama.

And the Macan sport delivers on this as well, allowing you to press on harder on the brakes just a bit later.

Also standard on the Macan Sport is the updated Porsche PCM which now includes Apple CarPlay, allowing for a better, faster, easier and more intuitive syncing with your Apple media device.

The navigation software is also finally installed, with Philippine road networks included in case your Waze conks out on you or you’re out of coverage area.

As to be expected, on the open highway, the Macan is king, making short work of long distances.

Thanks to a long seventh gear for cruising, expect 15-17 km/liter on the highway, similar to my fuel consumption earlier this year with the regular Macan R4 that I had facelifted.

And just like in my previous article, the Macan seems to prefer to cruise between 130-150 km/h, which is a typical highway speed for the German Autobahn, but enough to get you in jail here in the Philippines.

On the winding country roads of Cavite, the Macan just flows and ebbs beautifully from corner to corner, the suspension coping brilliantly on large road undulations.

In the city, the Macan gave a decent 8.2 km/liter, probably due to the slightly heavier traffic.

The biggest question most people ask me, and I’m sure something that’s on your mind, is the price difference between the regular Macan R4 and this Sport variant.

Is the approximately P550,000 price difference worth it considering all you essentially get are the larger wheels and PASM active air suspension?

Personally, yes. It just makes the Macan so much more enjoyable to drive, so much more comfortable, and looks so much better as well.

Trust me, in traffic, you’ll get much more admiring/envious looks, too, when you’re behind the wheel of a Porsche Macan Sport.