A four-door Porsche over 40 years before the Panamera
In 1967, Mr. William J. Dick decided to give his wife a very special Christmas present. It was to be a four-door Porsche, because although the couple had already owned a whole range of exotic and elegant cars (e.g. Beutler-Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce), it now seemed to be time to drive a special four-door limousine. And it had to be a Porsche.
A number of coachbuilders were asked whether they would be prepared to build a 911 with four doors. Most of them turned them down, only OSI came up with a design that didn't look enough like a Porsche for Mr. Dick. At some point, Troutman-Barnes was approached. This company suggested lengthening a production 911 and equipping it with four doors and spent most of 1967 on the conversion.
The car, a 911 S, was lengthened by around 50 cm, a B-pillar was inserted, a new roof was constructed and front doors from the other side were repurposed as rear doors that opened in opposite directions to the rear.
The entire interior was fitted out at Porsche in Stuttgart with an orange-brown leather that Mr. Dick knew from a pair of shoes that the Lucchese Boot Company had tailored for him. The rear seats were adapted front seats and the car was fitted with electric windows and a Sportomatic gearbox, as well as air conditioning.
Mrs. Dick was probably quite excited about this unusual gift, but Mr. Dick had another intention. He wanted to prove with the four-door 911 that there was a larger market for such a vehicle. Road & Track magazine generated interest with an extensive report in its March 1968 issue, but the Dick-Porsche remained a one-off, which is said to have cost the good man the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in conversion costs.
However, customers had to wait until 2002 for a four-door production Porsche, as the Cayenne off-roader with rear doors was then available. It would even take until 2009 for the Panamera, which was more like the four-door 911. However, there were other four-door Porsche one-offs, such as a Porsche 928 with four doors in 1977, which was presented to Ferry Porsche as a gift.
Incidentally, the four-door Porsche is said to still exist, but at some point it was repainted brown and also got back the Fuchs rims, which Mr. Dick had replaced with steel wheels with hubcaps because, in his opinion, they better reflected the character of the vehicle.
