splashes, letting the Cayenne dictate travel’

speed grip wasn’t the only issue: this one would offer the potential to go where the tarmac ends With ground clearance that could be raised to 273mm (from 217mm), a low-range transfer box and locking centre differential, this Porsche presented Land Rover-like capabilities

And then comes the opportunity to find out. A few miles east of the picturesque village of Romaldkirk, the tarmac indeed ends and suddenly we ’ re green-laning To be on the safe side I’ve raised the ride height, and as you can see, this particular Cayenne is optimised a little for such treatment, of which more shortly Thing is, any Cayenne could tackle this route, with air-conditioning to your face while your behind is coddled by heated leather No hair shirts, no diffs locked, dampers set to ‘Normal’

At first we simply follow a pair of tracks and hear long grass tickling the Cayenne’s underbelly I don’t need to take things quite so gingerly, it seems, so confidence builds and so does speed, the steering wheel kicking back gently over ruts and the suspension absorbing bigger movements than the tarmac ever gave rise to

And then things get a little more challenging: it looks like tractors have sunk here, the grass strip down the middle has deviated to one side, and the route becomes less obvious Forward direction is now indicated by the dry stone walls on either side rather than an apparent pathway; they’re about 40ft apart and quite how we negotiate our way is down to us

Yomping and swamping, we erupt through some water splashes, modulating the throttle while keeping a lighter grip on the wheel, letting the Cayenne dictate travel to an extent It finds its way, traversing with barely a grumble even over sections that have front and rear axles twisting in opposite directions

All in a day’s work for a car like this In 2006, two private rally teams each entered a Porsche Cayenne S in the Transsyberia Rally from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia – and took first and second place There followed a limited run of 26 Cayenne S Transsyberia customer cars, and in 2007 the Cayenne scored a onetwo-three finish in the Transsyberia, and a total of seven finished in the top ten A year later, 19 started the Siberia Rally and took all but sixth place in the top ten

Those Transsyberia editions were fitted with all-terrain tyres, a safety cage, a shorter axle ratio, reinforced front wishbones and underbody guards The car you see here is a mechanically standard 2005 Cayenne S but was used from new as a technical training vehicle by Porsche Cars GB before being acquired by the UK’s Porsche Classic

Clockwise, from left V8 sings, goes and lugs; off-road treatment more appropriate than you might have thought – as green-laning proves division The ‘overland’ treatment tells absolutely no lies: it’s now fitted with genuine Porsche rock rails and wheels, and it’s running off-road tyres

Few family-size cars offer such capability at this price Serviceable early Cayenne V8s are yours from around £5000; even a 450bhp Turbo is comfortably under ten grand And Porsche Classic offers full parts back-up

So, we ’ ve had fun on road and off Turn around in that comfortable yet supportive driving seat and we notice plentiful space for a trio of rear-bench passengers There’s a sizable boot, too Yes, yes, yes, those practical elements are all staples of this kind of big, estate-shaped fourwheel-drive car But the fun bit isn’t, not always, and it certainly wasn’t two decades ago That comes from putting the ‘S’ into SUV

I mean, it’s a Porsche so you might imagine you could nail it round a track, too Well, almost. And why not? In fact, our sister magazine evo actually did, back when the Cayenne was new How did it fare? Turn the page