The Rinspeed Chopster is a concept car from Rinspeed, the Swiss design house founded by Frank M. Rinderknecht in 1979. It is built on a Porsche Cayenne whose body was cut down to two doors with a low roof.
Rinspeed Chopster at a glance
| Maker | Rinspeed Inc., Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Type | concept car, design study |
| Base car | Porsche Cayenne |
| Body | two doors, low roof |
| Production | none, a show car |
| Founded | 1979, by Frank M. Rinderknecht |
The sources mention the Chopster in a single phrase as a two-door, low-roof Porsche Cayenne; the rest of the page covers Rinspeed and its concept series from the same source. Based on one source.
History of the Rinspeed Chopster
Rinspeed Inc. was founded in 1979 by Frank M. Rinderknecht and became the exclusive Swiss importer of AMG and AC Schnitzer vehicles. Its reputation was built on rebuilt and rebodying production cars for the Geneva Motor Show, beginning with a turbocharged Golf GTI and the gullwing-doored Aliporta of 1981.
By the 2000s the company was working on much more expensive bases. Alongside futuristic aluminium-bodied sports cars such as the R Roadster and the single-seat Advantige R1, Rinspeed produced a Bugatti EB110 called the Cyan and a two-door, low-roof Porsche Cayenne: the Chopster.
The idea is the one behind every chop-top: take a tall, heavy-looking car and lower the roof line so that it reads as a coupé rather than an off-roader. The Chopster keeps the Cayenne underneath but changes the most visible thing about it, the silhouette. Examples still appear at classic and tuning shows, among them Retro Classics in 2018.
Design and features
- Low roof: the roof line is cut down to give the Cayenne coupé proportions.
- Two doors: the body is reduced to two doors instead of the standard four.
- Porsche Cayenne base: the running gear and the body shell come from the Cayenne.
- Rinspeed conversion: built as a show car by a company known for rebodying production models.
Rinspeed Chopster versions
- Chopster: the concept described in the sources.
- Other Rinspeed Porsches: the R39 and R69 Turbos of the 1980s, the Bedouin on a 996 Turbo and the zaZen on a 997 Carrera S.
Another Rinspeed study on a Porsche is the Bedouin, which turns into a pickup; the zaZen used the 997 Carrera S. Everything else is under Rinspeed.
Video: Rinspeed Chopster
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Rinspeed, English Wikipedia: the Chopster and the company’s concept cars
