TECH: TOPICS
The four-seater theme was well to the fore when the 924 and 928 were conceived. Both cars ended up with token rear seating, although less so than the 911. Indeed, the 928 became the basis for several four-seater experiments during the 1980s. These included Ferry Porsche's two-door birthday-gift 928-4, as well as two stretched four-doors built by American Sunroof Company (ASC, also known as American Specialty Cars), one to Porsche's design. All work on these projects was cancelled by then company chief, Heinz Branitzki, shortly after he assumed post as Porsche's CEO in January 1988.
Six months later, Branitzki announced Porsche would spend DM1billion ($546 million) on designing, developing and tooling a new model to replace both the 928 and 944 ranges. The 911, he said, would remain in production. This was a blueprint laid down by supervisory board chairman, Ferry Porsche, who gave his management team the task of building the company's future around two basic production models.
A new technical chief would propound this crucially important new model – from October 1988, Ulrich Bez was in charge at Weissach. Although he wouldn't have described it as such, the result of Bez's ruminations was “a proper sedan for the super-rich grandads”, which is how the influential Manager Magazin presented it. With Porsche aiming upmarket, making a car adequately seating four occupants seemed logical. So too was the idea of providing a door for each of them, although Bez told his colleagues this new Porsche “could, naturally, also be a two-door.”
Under project number 989, Bez put his team to work on a new front-engined, rear-drive car seating four in comfort. “A Learjet for the road,” as he reminisced, years later. “Its interior package was to be like a BMW 5 Series. This was a car for the exclusive market. It was designed for those who had a BMW, perhaps an M5, but who preferred the idea of Porsche ownership. At that time, Porsche was the more exclusive car maker, producing between twenty and thirty thousand vehicles each year. In this context, the
