Why Is Porsche's Legendary Car Called the 911?

What's in a Name?

These days, we've come to appreciate simple, numeric automotive model names. After all, there have been some seriously silly attempts at naming cars over the years. Porsche, for one, has a history of keeping things simple, though we've been guilty of mispronouncing Taycan a couple of times already. But it's certainly worth asking how Porsche came up with its most famous simple model name in the automaker's 70+ year history - the 911.

Solid Plan?

Before the 911 came along, Porsche was winding down production on its original sports car, the 356. They originally named the car's predecessor the 901, even going so far as to order up a bunch of gold nines, zeroes, and ones for the car's full-scale launch.

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(Nearly) Universally Loved

Like a proud parent, Porsche unveiled its latest masterpiece at the 1963 Frankfurt Auto Show. But even though the car was a smash hit with most everyone, there was one tiny party that wasn't so pleased to see the 901 - French automaker Peugeot.

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Already Taken

At that time, Peugeot owned semi-official rights to any automotive nameplate that featured three numbers with a zero in the middle. Which seems like a strange copyright to own, but hey, it was what it was. So they sent a friendly letter to Porsche requesting that they change their new car's name.

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Easy Way Out

Porsche, of course, decided to take the easy way out and likely save some cash buying new gold letters for their mass-produced sports car. The only problem was, 85 901-badged cars had already been produced.

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Slipping Out

Those 85 cars were said to be used for internal testing, but as we now know, several of them have made their way into the hands of the public. Those few 901s also bring big bucks at auction every time one crosses the block.

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Disaster Turned Triumph

Now, whatever happened to all those zeroes is a mystery. But at least Porsche was able to save the majority of the letters they had already produced. And quite honestly, we think this little mishap turned out in their favor, anyway.

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Making an Argument

This was despite the fact that 901 was the next logical step for Porsche. By the early '60s, they had already reached the 800s in their model names. But since Peugeot had already built and sold several models with a similar scheme, they had a basis to make a legal argument.

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Trickling Down

As you might imagine, other Porsche models were affected by this little legal battle as well. Porsche renamed the 904 the Carrera GTS and the 906 the Carrera 6 as a result. But Porsche fans still refer to those models by their three-digit numerical names, regardless.

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Happy Ending

Porsche still went ahead and produced the 907, 908, and 909 thereafter. But these were racing cars not sold for road use, and thus they weren't in direct competition with Peugeot. Today, it's hard to imagine a world in which the 911 could be called anything else. So in the end, perhaps this little snafu worked out for the best!

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