Scene One: We're racking up triple-digit speeds in the latest vehicle from Porsche of Germany while running lickety-split on the 2.3-mile curlicue track tucked into rolling hills at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

Enormous speed-rated tires for all four wheels claw the asphalt to render uncanny stick-it-down traction as we steer the car down the right-left-right cha-cha-cha of Barber's tricky corkscrew chicane.

Scene Two: This same Porsche hugs a narrow strip of pavement strung like thread along the rim of an escarpment high in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Alabama.

It tackles the twisted trace at a swift pace yet exhibits surprising agility in the process.

With its independent suspension system under constant computer control for electronically variable shock valve damping, the big wheels prance in step with every contour of the washboard road surface yet the ultra-stiff monocoque structure floats smoothly through all of the rough stuff.

Scene Three: The 'Brazilian Highway' -- a deep sluice of red Alabama clay mixed with a river of run-off rain water -- forms a gumbo-thick mire through a tortuous four-wheel-drive (4WD) training course back at the Barber race complex.

The same Porsche we push so quickly around the test track or so deftly across knotted mountain roads also plunges into axle-deep goo on the Brazilian Highway and, drawing on the computerized Porsche Traction Management (PTM) 4WD system which includes a low-gear range and locking center differential, grinds through so much tire-sucking muck without deviating from the straightaway line.

It also climbs an ultra-steep embankment and romps over a stair-step pile of riprap granite, proving it can venture confidently across rugged terrain far away from pavement.

But what kind of vehicle, you may wonder, can run around a race track in lightning-fast time like a race-ready sports car but also slog through a mud pit or scramble over walls of boulders like a tough and rugged off-road wagon?

There's only one answer for a vehicle with the seemingly incongruent traits of an agile sports car and go-anywhere 4WD wagon: Porsche calls it the spicy Cayenne.

Mark it as the first sport-utility wagon for a brand recognized heretofore strictly for producing incomparable two-seat sports cars capable of capturing the checkered flag at fabled endurance races like LeMans, Sebring and Daytona.

For that matter, it's also the first four-door vehicle for Porsche, the first to carry a bench-style back seat, the only Porsche that can accommodate up to five passengers in the cabin and the only one with a cargo bay and hatchback lid at the tail.

Despite the rather conventional format as a four-door SUV, Cayenne poses Porsche-engineered mechanical systems on a tightly tuned platform geared for high performance and sporty maneuvers. (CONTINUE...)