The reasons why, fortunately, the Porsche Cayenne Cabrio never saw the light of day

On the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Porsche Cayenne, the model that saved the brand from the deep crisis it was mired in during the 1990s – and that after having declared time and again that we would never see a Porsche SUV… and much less a Stuttgart model with a diesel engine – Porsche reminds us that from the very origin of the Cayenne project, a convertible version was considered.

A combination of SUV and convertible body styles that did not take hold in the development department of the German sports car manufacturer. Some have since dared to try it, though with a different approach. Take the Evoque Cabrio, or the Volkswagen T-Roc Cabrio. And honestly, neither of them can be said to have been a success.

But back then – we’re talking about 2022 – Porsche considered from the very beginning three additional body styles for the classic Porsche Cayenne SUV: one with a long wheelbase and a third row of seats, a coupé… and a Cayenne without a roof. Nothing more was ever heard of the long version, while the idea of a Cayenne Coupé (two-door) was shelved until 2019, when the Porsche Cayenne Coupé was launched, this time with four doors, driven by the success its rivals were enjoying with this body style.

A hybrid between a Porsche Cayenne and a 911 Targa

However, the idea that initially seemed the riskiest, that of a convertible Porsche Cayenne, was the only one that was not only not discarded, but a prototype was actually designed and built. It is not a functional car, but the Porsche Cayenne Cabrio does exist: the only example is kept in the Porsche Museum. Why was it never put into serial production? Frankly, basically because Porsche realised that the result was a car that did not have enough appeal for what had to be a model of the brand; in other words, that it was an “ugly” car. Moreover, the profitability forecasts were not promising at all.

For these reasons, the Porsche Cayenne Cabrio never got beyond the prototype phase as a design exercise. The designers limited themselves to seeking stylistic solutions for a Cayenne from which the roof had to be removed, never implementing the measures needed to increase the rigidity of the bodyshell, so that had it been a functional car it would not have offered safe driving.

At least the Cayenne Cabrio served to seek answers: with shortened front pillars and such a narrow roof with a descending line, would the rear seats be usable? How would practicality be affected by the fact that its two only doors were 20 centimetres longer? Would it be possible to fit a high-quality soft top that looked elegant enough?

While the result could pass from the front, the reality is that someone got “stuck” at the drawing board with the rear, for which two proposals were made. The area would surely have been refined much further had the project been decided to move forward, for which the hood mechanism of the Porsche 911 Targa (991 generation) was used. The idea was for the roof to travel over the roll bar, to be hidden when folded in a Z shape behind a double-hinged cover that could open in two directions. But although the roof was manufactured for installation on the prototype, its mechanism never got beyond the simulation phase.

Porsche Cayenne Cabrio concept photo gallery