Porsche says next Cayenne will be faster than Bentley Bentayga

Bentley and Porsche are both high-end marques under the same umbrella, and may even be collaborating on development of new models – but while they tend to take different approaches and go after different customers, that doesn't mean they can't share a bit of sibling rivalry. And that spirit of competition – even within the Volkswagen Group – looks to be coming to a head in the form of their upcoming luxury performance crossovers.

For his part, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer promises that the brand's upcoming Bentayga sport-ute will (in its top spec with the W12 engine) be the fastest SUV on the market. But in speaking with Car and Driver, Wolfgang Hatz – who holds the Porsche R&D head office that Dürheimer used to occupy – says the Bentley won't be king for long.

Porsche just released the new Cayenne Turbo S in Detroit, touting it as the first SUV to crack the eight-minute barrier at the Nürburgring. And Hatz says that the next version will be even faster. "Our Cayenne is always very very quick. It is doing 300 km/h [186 mph]. I think if [Dürheimer] is doing 2 to 3 km/h more, then why not? He's doing that with a 12-cylinder. Our car will be much quicker on the road."

The next Cayenne is slated to use a new generation of engines, and according to Hatz, will benefit from the same (if not more) weight loss as the new Audi Q7 with which it will share its platform. That sounds like a winning combination to us. That is, at least, for fans of performance crossovers. For those who aren't, Porsche promises it won't be bolstering its lineup with any new ones. Apparently the Cayenne and the smaller Macan are enough.

Nor will Zuffenhausen slot anything bigger than a V6 into the Macan, according to the report. While Porsche's baby crossover will surely continue to get faster with new iterations, the Cayenne will always remain the performance flagship of its SUV range.