Porsche's New Storage Solution Is For Hiding Something Special

Porsche has patented a new storage cubby design for sports cars in a secret area, perfect for storing valuables. The filing, discovered by CarBuzz, with the DPMA (German Patent and Trade Mark Office) showcases a compartment hidden within the car's shell and accessible via the door frame. According to the patent filing, there will be at least a partial covering to reduce or prevent water ingress into the security compartment. Ingress into the chamber is stopped from both sides via the shell. Once the car's door is locked, the opening in the door sill is fully sealed.

According to the patent paperwork, the depth of this hidden compartment will be at least four inches and 12 inches at the most. Oddly, Porsche specifically mentions a piece of A4 paper as a baseline, meaning you could perhaps smuggle documents securely, or even a bag of... diamonds. Definitely diamonds.

Hidden compartments are nothing new, however. The Chevrolet Orlando had a hidden compartment behind the infotainment buttons. The Rivian R1T has a neat storage space between the bed and the passenger compartment, and every Rolls-Royce famously has an umbrella hidden in the door. The R1T can hide various adventure-type apparel, which is perfect for its intended audience. Rivian also gives you a neat little flashlight hidden in the door. Rolls-Royce owners don't like standing in the sun or the rain, so you give them an umbrella. None of these are applicable to Porsche drivers. If they lose a phone, they just buy a new one.

McLaren used the bodywork behind the door for storage on the F1, but back then, the entire side opened to allow you to stick a briefcase into the rear fender. Gordon Murray has resurrected this concept with the T.50.

Porsche's design is simpler, and is only visible when the door is open. Using an A4 paper as a baseline implies secret paperwork. But this isn't the movies, and a decent spy will stay far away from any car that draws attention to itself. A decent spy will go for an Orlando, now that we think about it.

We can imagine a Porsche 911 Turbo owner using it to store a few watches or some other accessories to use when on the move. Buyers love clever solutions like this and we can imagine them making full use of this when they want to leave the roof down while popping into the shops quickly and don't want their belongings going A.W.O.L.