Porsche Announces 50th Anniversary Celebrations For The 911

By Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Viknesh Vijayenthiran

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Vik is an Editor at High Gear Media and contributor for a number of sites within the High Gear Media network. He was a co-founder of Motor Authority... More

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However, this year Porsche’s iconic 911 sports car also turns 50.

Yes, it was in 1963 at the Frankfurt Auto Show that Porsche first rolled out a prototype for a new sports car to replace its 356.

That prototype was the original 901, which went into production just the following year but had to have its name changed to 911 due to a dispute with French automaker Peugeot, which argued that only it could use numerical names for vehicles where the middle number was a zero.

Over the next five decades, Porsche would build more than 820,000 examples of the 911, firmly cementing the car as the heart of its brand. Today it is considered the quintessential sports car, and a benchmark for all others.

While Porsche is expected to mark the anniversary with a special edition 911, which will most likely debut at this year’s Frankfurt Auto Show, the automaker has confirmed a series of other celebratory events.

The first of these will be at the 2013 Retro Classics Stuttgart taking place in early March. Here, Porsche will present four special 911s including one of the first 911 Turbos, a 911 Cabriolet concept from 1981, a 1997 911 GT1 ‘Straßenversion’ supercar and the pre-series Type 754 T7. The latter was a chassis Ferdinand Porsche used to develop the original 911.

Porsche will also be taking an original 1967 911 on a world tour, stopping in five confinements where it will be shown at events like the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Finally, Porsche has also confirmed that its official museum in Stuttgart will be running an exhibition titled the ‘50 years of the Porsche 911.’ The exhibition will run between June 4 and September 29, 2013.

Hit the next coupe of pages for a brief description from Porsche for each of its 911 generations.