The Lost Art of the Four-Door Convertible: 8 Rare Classics That Defined an Era

When you picture a convertible today, it almost always has two doors. That wasn’t always the case. In the early to mid-1900s, four-door open-top cars rolled off factory lines with surprising regularity. These weren’t custom coachbuilt one-offs, they were official production models, often sharing chassis and engines with their hardtop siblings.

Canvas tops or removable hardtops were common, and automakers offered multiple body styles to capture every slice of the market. Here are eight of the most memorable factory four-door convertibles, from stately luxury to delightfully quirky.

The fourth-generation Lincoln Continental, built from 1961 to 1969, is perhaps the most iconic. It featured rear “coach doors” that opened backward, giving it a distinctive, elegant profile. Few know the 1961 model started life as a Ford Thunderbird before Lincoln adopted it as a flagship.

Powered by a 430-cubic-inch V8 making 300 horsepower (later bumped to 340 hp), it was the car of choice for President John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, and Lyndon B. Johnson. A new 1961 Continental cost about $6,069, roughly $68,000 today. Meanwhile, Packard’s Super Eight and Super Twelve offered art-deco styling and V12 power, though the company folded in 1956.

The Super Twelve made 175 hp, while the Super Eight’s L-head straight-8 delivered 160 hp. Both were available as convertibles, and the top-trim One-Eighty even came with power windows and optional air conditioning.

Cadillac countered with the Series 75 and the V-16 Convertible Sedan. The V-16, powered by a 452-cubic-inch engine, made just 165 hp but was a marvel of excess. Its V8 counterpart in the Series 75 produced 135 hp. Both were offered as four-door convertibles. The Duesenberg Model J, introduced in 1928, was the ultimate status symbol.

Its 420-cubic-inch straight-8 with dual overhead camshafts made 250 hp naturally aspirated, or 325 hp supercharged in the Model SJ. Only about 481 were built, each costing $8,500 for just the chassis and engine, about $166,500 today. ” Chrysler’s Imperial, produced from 1926 to 1954, was another standout, with a long hood, imposing grille, and a four-door convertible body that RM Sotheby’s called the most popular open Imperial of the 1930s.

Early models were coachbuilt, with Chrysler supplying only the chassis and engine.

Buick’s Roadmaster Convertible Phaeton revived the horse-drawn phaeton design, debuting in 1936 with a 320-cubic-inch inline-8 making 141 hp. The 1939 model introduced the “waterfall” grille and sold for $1,983, about $48,000 today. Ford’s De Luxe, launched in 1932, didn’t offer a convertible until 1935.

It shipped with an L-head V8 making 85 hp, later upgraded to a 239-cubic-inch V8. The most obscure entry is the Kaiser-Frazer Frazer Manhattan, a rare four-door convertible from the late 1940s with only about 70 examples built. Its 226-cubic-inch flat-6 made just 110 hp, paired to a three-speed manual.

The Manhattan was discontinued in 1951, but its rarity makes it a fascinating footnote in automotive history.