History

The Porsche 911 is something of an automotive enigma, it is currently one of the most up to date and modern vehicles on the road, yet you will often find the latest version of the Porsche 911 on the road alongside much older vintage versions; the 911 is in fact on of the oldest and longest running super cars since it was first introduced in 1963. The Volkswagen Beetle like stylings adopted by Porsche have attracted many fans over the years and the vehicle has been constantly updated in order to bring it up to date and make it competitive with other vehicles throughout its development. Despite this endless series of updates bringing the Porsche 911 in line with modernity the concept and idea behind the car has never changed since it was first created and it continues to be one of the top selling super cars and sports cars of all time.

One of the secrets behind the success of the Porsche 911 is that it has been adopted by many racing teams over the years, something that has allowed the vehicle to forge something of a unique reputation amongst car enthusiasts and motoring fans around the world. Both as a rally car and a racing car it has seen great success with many citing it as the most successful (and also the most loved) competition car in the world. Throughout the 1970's the vehicle scooped many trophies, in many instances it beat off stiff competition from unique concept cars and prototypes designed just for racing and this cemented its reputation and allowed Porsche to develop the 911 further. There have also been a number of Porsche 911 derivative vehicles that have taken part in endurance competitions such as 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Actual design of the Porsche 911 began in 1959 when a more powerful replacement for the popular 356 was required. The 356 was the first vehicle produced by Porsche so the new replacement had a lot to live up to; the new 911 was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963 although it was not fully complete with a new engine until 1964. Originally Porsche planned to call the vehicle the 901, and a small number were badged and sold as such, however Peugeot complained that in France they had exclusive rights to car names in this style so the company chose to rename it to 911, dropping the middle zero and avoiding any potential legal problems with Peugeot. This first Porsche 911 went on to sell exceptionally well with many customers appreciating the 2+2 seating, powerful 1991 cc engine and Beetle like design.

Although the Porsche 911 is always described as such there are in fact a number of versions with Porsche adopting a number of different internal numbers for each respective version of the 911. From 1964 through until 1989 the Porsche 911 was the standard name, however in 1989 to 1993 the company used the 964 moniker. This was replaced by the 993 until 1998, and the 1996 from 1999 to 2004. The most up to date version of the Porsche 911 is the 997 that has been carrying the torch since late 2004 to the present day. The 996 and 997 versions departed with tradition somewhat in that they replaced the standard air cooling with a newer water cooled system. This proved to be a sensible move with these newer versions selling far better than any other Porsche 911 has in the past.