Category Archives: Nigel Matthews

A 4-door 911 for Christmas

By Nigel Matthews

Porsche débuted it’s new and unique four-door Panamera to the public at auto Shanghai April of 2009, and is now available to anxiously waiting customers here in Canada.

The Porsche 911 is the core of the company brand, so it is no surprise that the Porsche designers have incorporated the timeless 911 shape into the four-door Panamera.

A 911 four-door sounds a little odd but, believe it or not, it is nothing new as the first one was built 42 years ago. Dr. William Dick, a Porsche dealer principal in San Antonio, Texas, wanted to give his wife something special for Christmas. The Dick family garage housed a fleet of cars that included a number of Porsches, a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce, but not one of them was a four-door sedan. Dick sent the general manager of his Porsche dealership on a trip to Italy; his task was to visit the various coachbuilders with his idea of building a four-door Porsche 911. Only one of the firms took this request seriously and returned some design prints.

A contact in the U.S. suggested that Troutman-Barnes of Culver City, Calif., could handle such a project and that is exactly what happened. They began with a new 1967 911, cutting it in half through the roof and floor.

They built a new “B” pillar and added a “C” pillar to hang the rear door from. The rear doors were standard 911 front doors mounted in reverse and on opposite sides. A reversed left front door became the right rear door and vice versa. The Porsche factory made two non-adjustable rear seats for the car. The Fuchs aluminum mag wheels were replaced with chromed steel rims with hubcaps, to give it a more appropriate sedan look and to handle the additional weight.

Other luxury touches included the installation of electric motors, normally used to power the sunroof, into the doors to operate the windows.

Mrs. Dick received her four-door 911 for Christmas in 1967, at a cost of slightly more than for a Rolls-Royce.

Anglia design ahead of its time

By Nigel Matthews

Two cars were launched in 1959 that had a profound impact and will be remembered by many in Britain as one of their favourites.

The Mini was one and the other was the Ford Anglia 105E. The Anglia was a design way ahead of its time. The very distinctive rear window, which had a reverse slope, and the overall shape and functional rear fins gave it the appearance of a small, modern American car, not that there was such a thing as a small Ford in the U.S. of 1959.

Ford went out on a limb with colours that had not been seen before in conservative England. These included primrose yellow, light green and some of the Deluxe models were painted in an attractive two-tone combination.

Ford put a lot of thought into the design of the rear window. All too often the rear passengers in small cars had to endure less than perfect comfort due to headroom heights. The reverse-rake rear window solved that problem; the longer roof offered improved headroom and comfort, and it also helped with improved rear visibility in wet weather.

The engine was completely new and quite a departure from the side valve, flat-head of the 100E. The new engine was a high revving, over-head-valve, that produced 39 horsepower at 5,000 r.p.m. The four-speed synchromesh manual transmission was the first of its kind fitted to a production saloon built by Ford’s Dagenham factory.

The Anglia was built in a number of body variations, including a two-door, four-door, wagon, van and pickup. There was a Europe-only model called the Sportsman; this model carried its spare tire on the back, similar to the North American Continental kit.

English built Fords will be one of the celebrated marques at the 2010 All British Field Meet which takes place on May 22nd at Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, BC. Come and see if you can find a Ford Anglia on display.