At the end of the 80, Porsche was ready to develop a 4-door sporting saloon car, on the same concept of the Maserati Quattroporte. Some different solutions were taken into consideration, including a project by Giugiaro’s Italdesign, but Porsche eventually choose an internal project by Harm Lagaay, which looked more traditional and more akin to the 911 family feeling. The engine was to be a modern V8 engine with a capacity of 3616 cc giving around 300 bhp. The new project, known as 989, never went into production also because of project manager Ulrich Benz quitting and of the high production costs. The lines of the 989 were nevertheless to be a base for the following generations of the 911. To a certain extent, the 989 can be considered as the ancestor of the 2009 Panamera.