What's the news?

Not content with the ever-increasing sales of its current diesel models, Porsche has revealed a new bi-turbo V8 and it's showing it off in its best-selling Cayenne model first. Fast, frugal and hopefully fun, the Cayenne S Diesel launches in January 2013.

Exterior

It doesn't look much different from any other Cayenne to be honest. As it's an eight-cylinder model the larger front brake calipers are finished in silver, and like its little brother the wings wear discreet diesel badges while the tailgate simply says Cayenne S. The front end uses black fins to emphasise the air intakes, but unless you opt for a lurid colour this is one subtle performance 4x4.

Interior

And of course Porsche is famous for the level of options and personalisation that can be applied to its cars, which is handy as the Cayenne S Diesel has no changes to the interior. That means it's relatively spacious, impeccably well put together and neatly designed, if crying out for your personal touches - so long as you have deep pockets!

Mechanicals

If the 245hp 3.0-litre V6 diesel Cayenne is too weedy for you then try this S model on for size instead - its 4.2-litre V8 twin-turbo diesel makes 382hp. Combined with 850Nm of torque it can sprint to 62mph from rest in only 5.7 seconds and only stops accelerating at 157mph. There's optional Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus to keep things in check around the bends and the firm claims it has been tuned to sound like a proper V8 rather than a regular oil-burner.

Anything else?

Have the optional 100-litre fuel tank fitted (just don't think of the fill-up costs) and the Cayenne S Diesel will theoretically travel for 746 miles on one tank of fuel thanks to its 34mpg combined fuel economy figure. Both that figure and the 218g/km CO₂ emissions will take a hit when taking advantage of the Cayenne's 3.5-tonne towing capacity though...