Porsche 911 | Vintageride's Blog

The first Porsche 911

Posted by vintage ride blog in Cars, Porsche, Video on 18 January 2011

2011 should start with a scandalous topic. Don’t you think so?

A lot of things have to be rebuilt, redesigned, rethought after this financial crisis … and what about rethinking the Porsche 911!

Yes, I know the eternal cutie from Stuttgart has never disappointed us, but we could ask us what she would look like if designers and engineers had made other decisions. Porsche enjoys the same loyalty to the 911 for almost 50 years now. 911 is maybe the most hallowed 3 numbers ever in motoring history. Even if its first name was 901, but the French manufacturer Peugeot protested on the grounds that in France it had exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. So, instead of selling the new model with another name in France, Porsche changed it to 911.

On September 12, 1963, Porsche unveiled it’s first new car since the 356s, a Yellow Type 901 (so it was to be named) at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The 911 actually started as a Type 695, also known as the T7 prototype (T6 being the last 356 internal name. The T7 was supposed to be a change in direction from the aging 356s. Designed in the late-Fifties, the 695 was intended to be a true four-seater sports car. It was with the 695 that Porsche decided upon the use of the flat-six powerplant (which has been the mainstay of the 911 range ever since). However, despite the 695 having entered the test-driving and development stage, Porsche management decided against the four-seater arrangement, and demanded that the car be redesigned in traditional two-plus-two arrangement, with smaller rear seats. The 695 has a wheelbase longer than the 356s by almost 100mm. Moreover this first architecture directly limited its power potential. The front half did make it to production, but there was no way the rear end would (thanks to Porsche’s founder), so it was given a makeover by Butzi Porsche, Ferdinand’s son.

911’s early years were not easy mostly because of its too short wheelbase (which evolved in 1964 to 2 211 mm, in 1969 to 2 268 mm, in 1971 to 2 271 mm, in 1978 to 2 272 mm and in 1997 to 2 350 mm). Fine tuning on an early 911 was highly complicated and some brutal solutions were necessary (like adding two 11 kg weights in the front bumper).

Some tv shows oftently presents the 911 as the “beetle” (for instance the great Mister Clarkson from Top Gear) which was right until the 996 series because many parts were shared between those two icons during 33 years.

In 1978, facing two modern models (the 924 and 928), the 911 was supposed to disappear. Ernst Fuhrmann (former CEO) wanted to put an end to a car with such specifications (rear-mounted boxer configuration). He even decided to limit its power to 180 hp but customers and even the Porsche Family didn’t agree. Finally Fuhrmann left and development continued we the success we know!

Have a look at the video below and tell us if you think that the 911 would have had the same story starting from this design.