Description
“Offers invited (seven-figure range)”
The Porsche 911 B17 Pininfarina Prototype, currently for sale, is an automobilia-historic single piece of exceptional significance: It is the only fully four-seater 911 ever built by Porsche for Pininfarina. This vehicle exists only once – it is neither a pre-series model nor a design proposal from an external coachbuilder, but a factory-initiated study intended to answer the question: is a 911 with four full seats conceivable without sacrificing the character of the 911?
Origins
In the mid-1960s, Porsche internally pursued the idea of expanding the model programme upwards and appealing to new buyer groups. The focus was on comfort, a sense of space and travel qualities – without losing the sporty character of the 911. For this design study, Porsche turned to the renowned Italian coachwork designer Pininfarina in Turin.
Pininfarina extended the wheelbase of the 911 body by about 19 cm (7. 5 inches), slightly increased the roofline and redesigned the entire rear end. The result was a radically new sense of space for its time: the 911 became a genuine Gran Turismo, in which four adults could be accommodated in comfort.
Technique
Under the rear hatch sits today a contemporarily correct 2. 7-litre six-cylinder boxer engine producing around 210 bhp, which runs smoothly and reliably. The vehicle has been preserved with the utmost care for decades; technical components such as carburettors, ignition, and batteries have recently been professionally renewed. The body is rust-free, the car is drivable, the driving experience is direct and light-footed – just as one would expect from an early 911.
Provenance
1966/ 67 – Bodywork handed from Porsche to Pininfarina
1969 – Completion of the study
1972 – Sale to the Porsche dealer Raffay in Hamburg
1974 – Acquisition by the Swedish racer and museum founder Nisse Nilsson
1974–2025 – Part of the Autoseum Simrishamn Collection, not publicly offered for sale
Thus the history is traceable without gaps and confirmed in official documents and archives.
Media Presence
The vehicle has been featured several times in international publications, including:
Hemmings
Jalopnik
Auto Motor und Sport
Techno Classica Essen (special exhibition)
Significance
The Porsche 911 B17 Pininfarina is more than an automotive prototype. It is one of the pivotal intellectual precursors of later Porsche lines, in particular:
Porsche 928 (comfort + travel)
Porsche 989 concept (4-door Gran Turismo, 1988)
Porsche Panamera (series introduction 2009)
It is therefore a slice of the DNA of Porsche’s development history.
There are moments in automotive history when manufacturers dare to redefine the boundaries of their own identity. Exactly in such a moment this car came into being.
The Porsche 911 in the 1960s was already more than a sports car – it was an attitude, a form, a sound, a feeling. Yet Porsche asked itself: can this feeling be shared? Can a 911 not only take its driver but also family or friends along?
The answer was this car.
When it was decided to commission the venerable Pininfarina studio in Turin to implement it, it was clear: this should not be a feasibility study, but a design dialogue between German engineering precision and Italian form culture. The extended wheelbase, the newly drawn roofline, the generous glazing – all bear the signature of a designer who understood that a 911 is not just a car, but a balance of lines, proportions and emotion.
When you step into this car, you immediately feel: it is familiar – and yet completely different.
The view through the windscreen is typical of a 911: looking far forward, a slightly sloped bonnet, a fixed horizon. But the space around you tells a new story: it is a place for travel, not just for driving.
The rear bench is not a spare seat, not an idea, not a compromise. It is a deliberate space, a promise that speed and intimacy need not contradict.
You sit in this car and understand that it was not an experiment but a vision.
Why this car moves me
What fascinates me most about this vehicle is not only its rarity – but its soul. It is a car that did not have to survive. A one-off that was not sold, not copied, not reproduced.
It carried history in silence for 50 years.
It was not traded, not celebrated at auctions, not worn down at events.
It waited.
And now – for the first time – it may continue to travel.
Not because it has to, but because the story should be told again.
This car is not merely an oldtimer.
It is a thought. A design. A “what if” – in sheet metal, glass and sound.
To those who own it, you do not own a motor car.
But a possibility to continue a story.
