Designed to compete with Bavaria’s best, the Cadillac ATS was tested and tuned on the famous “Green Hell,” Germany’s famed Nurburgring circuit, and has been refined to the point where it has Mercedes, Audi, and BMW quaking in their boots. But the Cadillac ATS is only available as a sedan, whereas many German competitors come in coupes, wagons, and of course convertibles. If Cadillac really wants to take on the Germans at their own game with the ATS, they’ll need to fill more market niches than the current four-doors-and-a-trunk configuration.

But… do we really want a four-door droptop Cadillac ATS? Carscoop came across this rendering of just such a vehicle done by Newport Convertible Engineering, the same folks who gave us the Dodge Challenger convertible.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s not that we don’t like NCE’s previous work, especially the aforementioned Dodge Challenger convertible. Its just that some cars better lend themselves to going topless than the Cadillac ATS, which looks just kind of funky without its roofline. Four-door convertibles are awkward as it is; we can’t imagine anyone needing this car in their life though.

Then again, NCE has found buyers for previous Cadillac convertible conversions, including droptop Escalades, STS, and yes even CTS models. To each their own, as the old saying goes, though we think this is one of those concept cars that looks better on paper than in practice – and maybe it should stay that way. We’d much rather wait for a Cadillac ATS Coupe anyways.