Porsche Colour Cruise in the 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 : Colour Me Rad
Singapore – All good days start with cars and coffee and this is shaping up to be a great day at the ‘Porsche NOW’ pop-up showroom in the CBD, as we enjoy a double-hit of espresso as we wait for the car to be prepped.
We’re suitably attired in festive red-white – the colours of the Singapore flag – to pick-up a Carmine Red 718 Cayman GTS 4.0, because we’re to join the Porsche Colour Cruise in the lead-up to Singapore’s 58th National Day.
One of the biggest things I appreciated about growing up in Singapore was the opportunity to mix and mingle with an eclectic melting pot of races, languages and religions. Outsiders like to make fun of our tiny city-state as being a ‘fine’ city, but that’s only because it literally is so fine.
But hey, at least it doesn’t smell perennially of piss, walking the alleyways isn’t a matter of life, death or GBH and the multi-racial melting pot of denizens means we get to enjoy a delectable smorgasbord of food that isn’t just boiled, broiled or grilled.
This spicy mix of cultures also means there’s a vibrant heritage in terms of history and architecture, even in spite of how ‘young’ Singapore is. And some of these iconic locations were to form the backdrop for the Porsche Colour Cruise, as we blended the iconic German sports car brand’s 75th Anniversary theme “Dream in Full Colour” with this year’s National Day festivities.
We’re to pilot the GTS 4.0 PDK around as the photo / video team takes snapshots of Porsche’s Carmine Red mid-engined, rear-drive coupe in front of some vibrantSingapore sights.
In case you’re wondering, GTS models across the Porsche portfolio sit in that Goldilocks sweet-spot of saint-sinner between regular (in this case, Cayman and Cayman S) and rad (GT4 and GT4 RS).
As we’ve already mentioned, Singapore is a melting-pot of diverse cultures that nevertheless manages to operate as one united people.
In that same vein, the 718 range also features an intriguing mix of turbocharged flat-four and naturally-aspirated six-cylinder engines, which creates an all-rounded model line-up that has something for everybody, because well, #sportscartogether.
When you’re driving a proper driver’s car like the GTS 4.0, it’s as much about the journey as it is about the destination. After the caffeine perk-me-up at the Porsche showroom, it was time to enjoy the perky Porsche’s 400hp / 420Nm hit on the long and scenic route to visit several locations.
The route would take us from the Porsche NOW pop-up to Joo Chiat (via the MCE), through the CBD and then to Mount Faber and Sentosa, before finishing off back at the showroom.
Rojak is made up of sugar, spice and all things nice, but it’s as good an analogy for Singapore as any, with not just the food and the people, but even the local Singlish vernacular consisting of a fusion of words drawn from Malay, Chinese and its many dialects.
Confronted with a mix of highways, small winding roads and traffic snarls in the CBD and Chinatown, the GTS 4.0 and its PDK gearbox lived up to its Goldilocks credentials, as it credibly alternated between wafting and whoop-ass.
Few spots are as charming and as whimsical as the stretch of Koon Seng Road in the food haven of Joo Chiat, with its ornate, pastel-hued array of pre-war Peranakan conservation houses.
If you’re wondering, ‘Peranakan’ refers to the Straits-born descendants of Chinese or Indian immigrants who married indigenous people from the Malay Archipelago and then resettled in Singapore with their culture, traditions and most importantly, food.
Few places explain how Singapore went from mix-and-match to happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation within a few short generations better than the National Museum of Singapore, which is housed in a regal Grand Dame with neoclassical white pillars and a prominent dome as cherry on the topping.
From there, it is a short hop, skip and jump past Fort Canning to the Old Hill Street Police Station. With windows festooned with the striking colours of the rainbow, it makes for a picture perfect pit-stop. Most notably, it was the site of Singapore’s first prison and was, at that time, the largest government building here.
You may think that pounding the pavement as you navigate the rat race from MRT station to office and back again imparts some meaningful activity in the CBD, but the truth is there’s nothing like the frenetic hustle and bustle of Chinatown as it rouses from slumber to greet a new day.
And that’s how the GTS 4.0 delivers its nat-asp goodness, because the shouty urgency in which it transitions from sanguine to salacious takes this petrolhead’s breath away.
It’s similar to the ‘festive’ lao jiet atmosphere when you’re in the thick of the buy/sell/bargain action in Chinatown… because you want to be in the thick of the action with the GTS 4.0 as well, simply because driving is not a spectator sport.
We park up right by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, which borders on both Chinatown and the fringes of Tanjong Pagar, Singapore’s business district. The temple was inspired by the Tang Dynasty in China and features a coat of traditionally lacquered red paint and bold green windows with gold accents.
From the beautiful, we take a short blast down to the brutalist, as we visit the roof-top of the People’s Park Complex, a relic of the 1970s that is notable for being the first mixed-use development in South East Asia.
Apart from an up-close-and-personal view of the 25-storey housing megalith (on top of six storeys of commercial space), it is also a cool vantage point from which to appreciate the different facades of the Singapore skyline, which encompasses classic low-rise HDBs, conservation shophouses, as well as the modern skyscraper-lined skyline that defines the Singapore of today.
PHOTOS Porsche Asia Pacific
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