How the Porsche Cayenne once became a convertible

The Cayenne Cabrio is 4.80 meters long and has two doors that are 20 cm longer than those of the regular Cayenne.

How does a soft roof work? The trunk lid on the Cayenne PFM is installed front and rear, so it can be opened in both directions. The roof was to be moved aft over the fixed roll bar and placed there in a Z-fold under the trunk lid, which opened in the opposite direction. However, in the case of the Cayenne Cabriolet, the mechanism was never fully designed, but remained in the state of computer simulation. The fabric ceiling is now in the museum piece box and must be installed manually if necessary.

The idea was eventually discarded. The outlook in terms of profitability was not particularly promising. Moreover, doubts remained about whether the car would look as attractive as one would expect from a Porsche. “As a cabriolet, the SUV is both aesthetically and formally challenging,” says chief design officer Michael Mauer, who was out of office in 2002, when looking at the concept today. “An SUV has always had a big, heavy body. Combine that with a beanie and then cut the roof off – you end up with a bit of a weird looking thing.”