Hissing Porsche ambulances

Porsche has delivered two very special Cayennes to Stuttgart's fire department, both featuring experimental 'hissing' sirens.

The two Cayennes have been equipped as emergency medical vehicles, allowing doctors to be whisked to accidents swiftly in what's known as the 'rendezvous system'.

Both Cayennes required extensive modification for their life-saving role, the interiors stripped out in the rear to enable the carrying of medical equipment like an electrocardiogram and a defibrillator.

In addition to the obvious high-visibility reflectors and flashing blue lights the Cayennes are also fitted with innovative new hissing sirens.

The hissing tones emitted from the siren allow people to better hear the direction the emergency vehicle is coming from.

This should make response times even quicker and safer, the fire department running a scientific study on the experimental sirens to ascertain their effect on clearing traffic.

Powered by a 290bhp 3.6-litre V6 engine, the four-wheel-drive Cayennes are well suited to both the urban environment and Stuttgart's hilly terrain.

They were built to special order by Porsche trainees in the Porsche Training Centre, Porsche Board Member Thomas Edig stating: “Working on such complex and challenging special orders as a part of our professional training reflects the skill and the broad spectrum of competence of our workforce. Projects of this kind naturally motivate the younger generation of Porsche employees even more strongly to do their absolute best.”

The two Cayennes are not the first emergency vehicles produced by Porsche, Moscow's fire department runs a similarly customised Cayenne among its emergency vehicle fleet.

Despite the Cayenne being very well suited to the task Porsche claims it will only build such machines in exceptional circumstances.

Kyle Fortune