Yesterday Porsche for the first time presented the interior concept of their forth­coming four door GT the Panamera. The long awaited challenge to the upper echelons of the saloon market is due to go on sale in the UK from 12 September 2009, and will come with V8 power units and a luxurious, hi-​​tech interior ambience. One defining feature of the Panamera’s cabin is the centre console, which extends from the fascia to the rear seating area – and another is a truly cockpit-​​like envir­onment for all four seats. From the look of the pics, it won’t just be mum and dad up front who get the full Porsche GT exper­ience. And as every good Grand Touring family need to be protected as well as thrilled, the car will come with driver and front passenger airbags, curtain airbags as well as – on the front seats – side and knee airbags. Side airbags will be available for the rear seats as an optional extra. Four-​​zone automatic air condi­tioning is available as a further option, providing individual adjustment of temper­ature, blower intensity and air distri­bution for each seat. Porsche have intro­duced a truly cutting edge ICE system to the Panamera range in the Burmester, which features more than 2,400 square centi­metres of ‘sound membranes’ which appar­ently deliver a near live quality audio exper­ience. 16 speakers, each of them routed by its own amp channel will put out more than 1,000 watts comple­mented by an active subwoofer together with a 300 W Class D amplifier. This little gadget will of course, be an optional extra! At the head of the Panamera line-​​up is the Panamera Turbo, which will offer a twin-​​turbo 4.8-litre V8 devel­oping 500 bhp (368 kW), with power trans­mitted by the Porsche ‘double clutch’ trans­mission (PDK). With all-​​wheel drive as standard, the Panamera Turbo accel­erates to 62mph (100 km/​h) in 4.2 seconds and reaches a top speed of 188mph (303 km/​h). Fuel consumption in the EU combined cycle is 23.2mpg (12.2 ltr/​100 km) and Co2 emissions are 286 g/​km. Pricing and other detailed inform­ation is et to be released, but we think it’s fair to say that the Panamera will be cheaper than the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, but a fair bit more pricey than your Audi A8!