The 911 is 50! Not even Dr Ferdinand Porsche would have ever have thought this car would still be going strong after all this time despite the board of Porsche wanting to axe the car in the mid 1970′s in favour of front engined V8!

Launched at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor show it was the “star” of the show. Originally badged the “901″ it had to be renamed as Peugeot objected to the use of the zero in model number as this was their idea. Porsche simply inserted a ONE in the centre; the 911 born. It had a 2 litre 130 BHP flat six configured air cooled engine with a 5 speed gearbox.

The independent suspension consisted of front wishbones, Macpherson struts & individual torsion bars while the rears were trailing arms mounted on a transverse torsion bar & anti roll bars fitted front; rear. Early cars were criticized for their handling characteristics so Porsche increased the wheel base 57 mm to improve this. Front & rear disc brakes were fitted as standard for all models. This set up continued throughout the cars development to the late 1980′s.

During this period various new models; upgrades were introduced, including the legendary 1973 2.7 Carrera RS, the 930 Turbo. Other variants included the Targa with a lift out centre roof section that cleverly folded up & would fit in the luggage compartment. a convertible model was introduced in 1983 which completed the range & in the latter years these body styles were available in the turbo wide body with a normally aspirated engine or even in turbo charged form. Other developments included mechanical fuel injection & then electronic fuel injection. From 1986 a redesigned gearbox was fitted & this included a hydraulic clutch. Impact bumpers were fitted from 1974 to meet the much needed USA market requirements. The turbo engine now produced 300 BHP from its 3.3 litre engine.