motorlore Porsche built a car. Peugeot's lawyers renamed it. The 911 debuted at Frankfurt in 1963 as the 901. Clean, simple, logical. Then Peugeot pointed out they held a trademark on three-digit names with a zero in the middle across several European markets. Porsche quietly swapped the badge before the first customer car shipped. The man who drew the body was Ferdinand Alexander Porsche — the founder's grandson. He left the company and started Porsche Design in 1972. The shape he sketched in the early sixties still determines what every 911 looks like today. Under the rear lid sat a new flat-six that almost didn't happen. Ferry Porsche wanted to stick with a four-cylinder. His engineers talked him out of it. The resulting 2.0-litre unit made 130 PS and pushed the car past 210 km/h. Porsche has been selling this car, with that engine in that position, for over sixty years. Every generation of management has considered moving it. None of them did. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_911 · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Alexander_Porsche Photos: Lothar Spurzem · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · via Wikimedia Commons · David Villarreal Fernández · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons #thecarhistory #carhistory #automotivehistory #cars