It’s not often I get nervous driving at less than walking pace. But when I saw the boulder-strewn, ditch-riddled, steep and rocky ridge I was supposed to climb, I got really quite nervous.

Nervous about being revealed as the inexpert off-roader I am, more nervous about damaging a rare and valuable prototype on one of its final sign-off drives and, I guess, most nervous about tripping over a crag, falling over the edge and having enough time on the way down to calculate the terminal velocity of a 2019 Porsche Macan before it and I splatted ourselves into a pristine patch of South African veldt.

The Macan facelift has been revealed - read about it here

Porsche, it seemed, had decided to show me that the Macan was more than just the most entertaining SUV ever to be put on the market and that in this, its second generation form, it was also a formidable off-roader.

What had been done to achieve this? Had a low-ratio transfer ’box been fitted? The suspension raised? The approach and departure angles radically enhanced? No, no, thrice no. It seems Macans could always peddle this shtick, just nobody knew.

But in an environment requiring monster traction, manoeuvrability and driver interaction it was outstanding, as the fact that I survived to tell the tale attests.

What did that tell me about how Porsche has transformed this car after three years in the marketplace? To be honest, not a thing. Truth is, the car is not transformed. The car has been disgustingly successful these last few years and done more than any other to turn Porsche into the most profitable car company on earth. Why would you transform that? Or even much change it?

Except that Porsche can’t help itself. More than any other mainstream company on earth, Porsche loves to tinker, even when there’s no apparent need. And tinker it has, far more than the blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em revisions to the Macan’s exterior suggest.