While performance and exotic brand four-doors seem have taken off in recent years with models like the Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera, they aren’t a new concept. After all, Maserati has produced the Quattroporte for years and Pininfarina made a sedan concept for Ferrari years ago.
While Ferrari enthusiasts would be in full freak out mode (and rightfully so) over a sedan, Porsche purists already had to swallow the Cayenne. After that, the Panamera proved to be much easier to take. While the Panamera is Porsche’s first production sedan, it wasn’t the company’s first flirtation with the idea. That honor belongs to the Porsche 928 H50 Concept, which Porsche is showing off for the first time this weekend at Pebble Beach.
The 928 H50 Concept is a stretched 928, and forerunner to the Panamera. All these years later, it is amazing to see the basic design similarities between it and the Panamera. Thankfully we can say that things have improved in the styling department since then. With the Panamera, Porsche had to develop a dedicated new front-engined platform to underpin it. Front-engined GTs were long-gone out of the company’s lineup. With the 928, Porsche had a front-engined platform in the 1980s – but the lengthened version reportedly wasn’t up to Porsche’s standards of rigidity.
Now, it is the opposite situation – the Panamera came first and many are pining for a modern day 928 GT. We’ll see if that one ends happening, but we do know rigidity won’t be a problem. Under the hood the 928 H50 Concept packs Porsche’s 330 horsepower V-8 engine. The concept dates to 1987, and Porsche logged 5,000 test miles on this particular concept. Interesting stuff. Autoblog was on hand to capture pictures of the unique creation; check out their gallery for more images. We’re glad Porsche waited until the Panamera to produce its first sedan. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.
