TG’s guide to concepts: the shocking Porsche Panamericana

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No, it doesn’t matter how long you stare at it, and from what angle. Porsche’s Panamericana concept won’t stop looking completely bizarre.

The back story is a familiar one. The Panamericana, like so many one-off motoring creations, was a birthday present. The year was 1989 and Stuttgart needed to mark the 80th birthday of Ferry Porsche. The 964-gen 911 was also knocking on in years, so the company needed to signpost its new design direction, and give the faithful some clues about what they could expect for the upcoming 993.\

Using a 964 Cabriolet chassis as a base, the Panamericana (named after the classic 1950s endurance race) sat upon chunky, Porsche badge-engraved tyre tread housed in cutaway arches to give a chunky, almost beach-buggy look to the familiar 911 silhouette. 

Designers Steve Murkett and Harm Lagaay (of BMW Z1 fame) apparently intended the trademark cutaway wheelarches as more than a styling flourish. They envisaged that the car, if produced, could be offered with different terrain tyre options, and binning conventional arches would give the necessary clearance for longer-travel suspension and knobbly rubber.