Talk:PORSCHE 962C/@comment-28629811-20170710165950/@comment-28169398-20170711025415

"The engineers in Zuffenhausen and Weissach then went on to retain this system. Order receipts were good – test engines, naturally aspirated engines, water turbines, racing cars – and the internal numbers were rising faster and faster. In some of the new sports car types, Porsche again used the internal plant code for the official model name, as was the case in 1953 with the Porsche 550 Spyder, the spirited mid-engine car.

Yet, it was precisely the successor to the 356 that led Porsche to abandon the customary typology. In view of possible future cooperation with the VW plant, the new Porsche was to be compatible with the number ranges used there. As the 900 numbers had not yet been allocated in Wolfsburg, the decision-makers at Zuffenhausen chose 901 for the six-cylinder version and 902 for a subsequent four-cylinder car. However, an unexpected problem arose: the company Peugeot stated that they had been using three-digit numbers with a zero in the middle since 1929 and therefore owned the legal rights to all similar number sequences in France. The 0 was therefore quickly replaced by a 1 – the already existing typeface 1 simply had to be doubled for the brochures and type name on the rear of the vehicle. A legend was born, officially baptised with the name 911. In 1964, no one could have guessed that this 911 stopgap solution would one day become world-famous."

From The Porsche Code