The 911 can trace its roots back to sketches drawn by Ferdinand Porsche in 1959. The Porsche 911 was developed as a more powerful, larger, more comfortable replacement for the Porsche 356. The new car made its public debut at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show and It originally was designated as the “Porsche 901″. 82 cars were built as 901s, However, 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 the name to the 911.

(happy birthday k-star!) The 356 was porsche’s first production automobile. It was a lightweight and nimble handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2 door sports car available in hardtop coupe and open configurations. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. It is estimated approximately half of the total production of 76,000 356s still survive.