Hey TS,

Couple of weekends ago I got together with few friends and we went up to Lancelin, Perth, Western Australia in a Cayenne Turbo for a bit of a bash through the sand dunes.

Lancelin's a quiet coastal town about two hours north of Perth which is always inhabited by dirtbikes/quads and 4x4's due to the vast array of sand dunes that have built up over time.

It was a nice drive up with some great scenery! Unfortunately we had to make a stop on the way, a flat we acquired whilst doing 130+ pulls on the freeway being the reason It was the first time the spare had ever been changed on before, so it was a learning experience for all. Surprisingly, changing a flat on a Cayenne was a very easy and stressless exercise with Porsche having really thought out the tools used and especially their placement in the vehicle. Another thing that helped was the simplicity of the instruction manual. Once we had the space saver (rated at 50mph) on we hit the road again and before long we had arrived.

The fun begins...

We managed to hit around 95mph on the flat beach, passing puzzled fisherman at quite a number of knots. Local's initial looks of shock, turning into laughter as we shaped up the big dunes. The spotlight was on us as we were surrounded by gazing eyes in bunky HiLuxs and Patrols, ready to point us back the way we came... With a simple rise of the suspension, we powered up the dune and then continued on cutting up the sand and showing the only way to do sand dunes, is in a Porsche Trolling around we watched other cars & bikes attempt certain dunes and patches of sand and fail. The Cayenne just powered on and if I'm honest I'm pleasantly surprised! (Who's laughing now)

I often to get push around a fully optioned '09 Turbo S and the contrast between what the Cayenne, whether it be Turbo or Turbo S, can do both on AND off road is absolutely amazing!

Next time we should have a couple Cayenne Turbos and RR Sports to roll with as well.

Here are the pics

Cheers,
Josh

 

Good pictures did you use the diff lock's and low range in some situations, I've got a 06 Cayenne S and I've used it many times offroading with the 20" Sport Design wheels. I've got stuck once or twice, with the difflock and low range its great to get out of near getting stuck situations. with the 18" wheels you've got are better offroading because of the tyre size available.

 

So what pressures were you running Josh?

 

Going up steep dunes we locked into low range before hand and went straight up with speed. There was one slight include where the sand was so soft that we got bogged. We raised the suspension and engaged low range and reversed out after a few trys back and forwards.

We were lucky enough this time not to have dig ourselves out.

@ Karl - I honestly can't remember, sorry

 

The steep inclines dont need low range, give it a try with PSM off and go faster than usually mainly keeping the car in manual so it doesnt shift to a higher gear and gets bogged down.

If all else fails just add low range.

 

Thanks for the heads up MM

We had switched it off and in Sport but for those really large ones, talking 15-20 metre hills, we had to use low.

You'd have very similar terrain where you are, have you taken a CTT out there before? I'd be interested to hear other member's opinions on how it faired on the sand.

 

We've got soft sand in the dunes in the summer because of no rain, it's much harder in the summer judging by the harsh temperatures of 40-52 degrees C.

I mainly use Low-Range on steep declines so I don't use the brakes and roll over.

I like to go faster, I've hit around 100km/h in the dunes and it is fun, nothing like doing a drift in the sand with the sand splashing on the side like a shower.

 

Really sick shots!! I'll always be a fan of the 1st gen cayenne design..