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Porsche 901 was the name originally intended for the Porsche 911.
By the early 1960s, Porsche project design numbers had reached into the 800s. For instance, Porsche's 1962 F1 model was called
Early Porsche 901 brochure
{{Porsche vehicles 901 sv:Porsche 901
Porsche 901 was the name originally intended for the Porsche 911.
By the early 1960s, Porsche project design numbers had reached into the 800s. For instance, Porsche's 1962 F1 model was called Porsche 804
The Porsche 804 is a single-seat, open-wheeled racing car produced by Porsche to compete in Formula One (F1). It raced for a single season in 1962 in the 1½ litre formula.
Background
In 1957 the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile ...
.
At the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (Frankfurt Motor Show) in Frankfurt in September 1963, Porsche presented its successor to the Porsche 356
The Porsche 356 is a sports car that was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Salzburg, Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Porsche, Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first ...
as the 901. It took several more months until the cars were manufactured for sale to customers. Between 14 September and 16 November 1964, 82 cars were built and the 901 was presented in October at the 1964 Paris Auto Salon. Officially the 901s already constructed were used for testing and for exhibitions, and Porsche sold none to private customers. Nevertheless, several of the cars retained by Porsche at that time appear to have made it to private ownership subsequently: in 1988 number 20 was discovered and completely restored by Kurt Schneider and his wife, Lori. In 2010, it was reported that car number 37 was owned by a Porsche specialist named Alois Ruf.
The 901 was renamed after French car maker Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
objected to Porsche using any three digit number where the middle number was 0, asserting ownership of the naming rights in key markets, and having already sold many models with that scheme. Porsche responded by simply replacing the middle 0 with a 1, calling the car the Porsche 911. This also affected other Porsche models, which were primarily intended for racing but also sold as road legal cars. In those cases, Porsche kept the internal part number of 90x, but used a unique name for marketing, selling the Porsche 904
The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. It was officially called Porsche Carrera GTS due to the same naming rights problem that required renaming the Porsche 901 to Porsche 911.
History
After ...
as the Carrera GTS and the Porsche 906
The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 is a street-legal racing car from Porsche. It was announced in January 1966 and 50 examples were subsequently produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category to the ...
as the Carrera 6. Porsche enthusiasts continue to refer to these cars by their three digit design numbers.
Later, Porsche introduced pure racing cars which were not sold for road use, and did not compete with any road-going Peugeot. These carried the design numbers Porsche 907
The Porsche 907 is a sportscar racing prototype built by Porsche in 1967 and 1968.
1967
The 907 was introduced at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. Following a suggestion by Ferdinand Piëch, the position of the driver was moved from the tradition ...
, Porsche 908
The Porsche 908 was a racing car from Porsche, introduced in 1968 to continue the Porsche 906- Porsche 910- Porsche 907 series of models designed by Helmuth Bott (chassis) and Hans Mezger (engine) under the leadership of racing chief Ferdinand P ...
, and Porsche 909
The Porsche 909 "Bergspyder" was a spyder sports car designed and built by Porsche in 1968. Its purpose was to compete in hillclimbing competitions, specifically the EHCC Sports Car (Gr. P) class of the European Hillclimb Championship. It was a sh ...
. Additionally, the 901 number is used among Porsche enthusiasts as shorthand to identify the aluminum five-speed transmission used in early 911s; the part number for these transmissions used an 11 digit code that began with 901 as did many other parts on the early cars. Later 911s from 1969 used a different magnesium case and a part number beginning with 911.
References
External links
Early Porsche 901 brochure
{{Porsche vehicles 901 sv:Porsche 901