The Original Four Door Porsche

Ever wondered what the Porsche Panamera would have looked like if it had been conceived, designed, and built during the 1960s? 

Me neither, but that doesn’t mean that a one of a kind ancestor to the Panamera wasn’t built. Leave it to Motorheads to cut a Porsche 911 in half and slap it back together with an extra pair of seats and room to spare.

Panamera's Granddaddy

In 1968, the aforementioned Motorheads Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes decided that two seats were simply not enough for a 911. Their solution? Cut the car in half, design new body panels and sheet metal to accommodate the longer wheelbase, and then weld and rivet it all back together.

The result is a strange 911 that you may not even take a second look at unless you got close. Then you would see that this car is sporting suicide doors hinged at the rear and it is 21 inches longer than its 2 seated 911 brethren. It was perfectly drivable and, in my opinion, doesn’t look half bad:

Suicide doors FTW. And legroom!

I think the impressive part of this whole endeavor is the amount of room they were able to add to the original frame. 21 inches gave any rear seated passengers ample leg room. That’s a far cry from today’s 911s. They are technically four-seaters, but good luck getting anything larger than a small child or a bag of groceries back there. It makes one wonder why they even bother sticking seats into that cramped space.

Anyway, I thought this was a cool article. And I am very impressed with the final result. It’s amazing to think that this was done by only two guys in a garage. Motor heads come up with some crazy stuff don’t they?

Read the full article here. Thanks to Road and Track for tracking down one heck of a car!