I'm sure there are some out there who would think that messing with the iconic 911 shape is blasphemy. But for the rest of us, this 911 may just be the prettiest 911 ever made. The reason you probably have never heard of it is because only one was ever made and it was built over 50 years ago. Back in the early 911 days (i.e. 1960's-1970's), Porsche didn't make a 911 Cabriolet. The engineers in Stuttgart didn't think they could design a convertible version (or perhaps feasibly build one) that would meet the American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rollover safety regulations, which is part of the reason the 911 Targa exists. Since the American market was quite important to Porsche as far as sales and profitability of the 911, a convertible wasn't built back then. It wasn't until 1981 that Porsche showed the world a concept 911 Cabriolet at the Frankfurt Motor Show and a production version didn't come out until late 1982 as
Mitsubishi Evo X GSR at Atlantic Motorsport Park - Kevin Doubleday © If you live in Canada or the US, you'll find that plenty of people hold sacred the terms '4x4' and '4WD' to describe a 'true 4x4', where you have a butch transfer case with a low speed, perhaps a body on frame chassis, and ideally a solid axle or two. I'm not sure how that translates to the rest of the world. My extensive research into the motoring industry in Europe (which exclusively consists of watching Top Gear and The Grand Tour...) concluded that most people across the pond simply refer to any vehicle that is capable of sending any power to all four wheels as a 4WD vehicle, further muddying the waters. Where I grew up, 4x4 was more or less synonymous with 'Jeep' so that's not much help either. However, despite all various systems attempting to do the same sort of thing - distribute power between all four wheels instead of two - not all systems are created equal,