While this would only take a very small part of the market there hasn’t been a four door convertible that made it to production in more than fifty years. That seems like a travesty of the market and its high time we bring back some form of a four door car that has nothing but the sky as its ceiling and offers a suicide door setup in the rear of the car. The last real production four-door convertible was the Lincoln Continental for 1961 which has since been dubbed the Entourage car because of its part in the show.
Cadillac came close only five short years ago as they brought the Ciel concept to the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance with a gorgeous four door convertible build. This car had it all, the class, the style, the look and the attitude. Taking this concept to production would have put Cadillac in position to ask nearly any price they wanted for the Ciel, but they unfortunately left this car in the production zone, which is kind of like the Twilight Zone, but it’s where concepts go to die and never be revised again.
Now that we see that Lincoln has reinvented the Continental the one thing we need to think about is whether or not a convertible is somewhere in the plans. It’s certainly not out of the question and could make for a car that we would love to enjoy on every road. The unfortunate truth of making a convertible four-door car is there are several design and engineering challenges that must be cleared in order to make such a car a real production possibility . These challenges begin with the amount of flex that a convertible car feels, which a four door model would certainly have even more than a two door version.
Unfortunately, to offset the flex of the car a lot of added structural integrity would need to be added in other places. The result would be a car that is much heavier than desired which would also become extremely inefficient when it comes to the fuel mileage numbers. This heavier weight would do nothing for the handling of the car either and you end up with a car that feels like a tank in your hands with no fuel efficiency and a difficult drive to master.
The reason this was possible fifty years ago was the lower regulations for cars to meet certain standards. On a positive note, with the advancements being made in the world of automotive materials we may soon see car that can be four door convertibles again by giving the rigidity needed while being lighter and easier to handle. The only question once we have the materials that are lighter and still hold up to the strength we need is whether or not the automakers will actually make a four door convertible again? Most automakers prefer to move the seats fore and aft for easier egress, but it would only take one to bring back the joy of a true four-door convertible. Which automaker will it be?
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