porsche badging - Page 1 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

Not getting into your numbering question just yet but the 924 with the bigger engine- ie the 2.5, was the 924S. The early 944s are however, essentially a 924S with wider body panels and a slightly higher compression ratio (later 924S's have the same).

There is a reason to the madness, has to do with "factory" designation's ie my 944s2 cab is actually a 945 etc etc

Ok I've got a bit more time but not the entire day it would take to explain this rather dull subject fully, so here is a bit of info for you- Firstly I have no idea why the Porsche stuck with the Nine designation for so long, when they had used many diferent numbering sequences before its first foray into the Nines. Everyone knows the 911 was going to be named the 901 but those pesky French over at Pugerot (sp?) claimed they had the dibs on 3 number designations with an 0 in the middle, so those cany krauts bunged a 1 in the middle and hey presto the 911. That 901 numbering thing is legedary now, but what ive never understood is that if thats the case how Porsche then got away with the 904, 906 & 908 race cars? perhaps coz they were racers not road cars? but what about BMW with the 507? Before the 901 Porsche had many diferent model numbers starting with type 7 back in the '30s ( a Saloon car for the German company Warender) through cars like the type 22 (1934 auto union GP car) the type 60 (the beetle) and my favorate Porsche the type 101 (the Tiger tank) Obiously there was the 356 but loads of other model numbers existed ie 313 & 328 were type numbers for Porsche tractors. Also lots of type numbers have been designated to engineering projects for other companies as well as for Porsches own cars- including cars that never made prodution ie the 989 the prototype 4 door 911 (ref Car magazine 1991) Back into the Nines type numbers lots of cars are known in enthusiast circles under the internal Porsche type number, rather than what the model was actualy badged as by Porsche now there are loads of these but for example- 911 turbo =930, 944 turbo =951 964 turbo =965, Boxster =986 and the list goes on and on. Oddly the the Cayenne thing is actually known as the type E1 internally at Porsche, (well so I was told a year ago anyway) so perhaps now the 911 is up to a 996 type number ( the 997 the next 911 ?)the Nines numbers system is soon to be coming to an end? (particually if Ducati hold the rights to the 998 & 999!) I know that the nice Dr Alex is doing some stuff on Porsche numbering systems soon, however if you can't wait for that, and you want to read to be bored to death with tedious Porsche numbers freaks out boring each other, post your question on Rennlist >> Edited by iguana on Sunday 15th December 14:58

It's true about the numbering system, maybe that's why they brought out the Boxter and the Cayanne? I would have to say tho, ordering spare parts makes sense with this system and you can see various part numbers from different models in the code. As the 928 came before the 924, and the 924 is "half" of the 928 engine, shouldn't they have called it a 464 ??

yeah so its so dull and i really wasn't expecting this many replies to be honest for that very reason!!! i'm less confused but don't know if in know any more, though basically are you saying if you refered to porsches by their internal number it would make more sense? i.e 993 and 996 for the last two 911 porkers but surely ducati also hold the rights to the 996 which must be their most famous bike ever!?!

As iguana so rightly says it's only us anoraks that use the internal codes; 930, 964, 993, 996. Porsche just markets their cars as 924, 944, 928, 911, Boxster, Carrera or Turbo. Porsche themselves didn't use the 911 moniker from 1984 - 1993, those cars (911 and 964) were called Carrera 3.2 then Carrera 2 (or 4) until the 993 came out, then they went back to the 911 marketing name! Any clearer?

Spot on Iguana. The deal with Peugeot allowed Porsche to retain 90 numbers for race cars.

I wonder how Ferrari got away with the 308? I guess the italians just ignored the rules

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ok (first i doubt the above is spelt correctly).... and second, as a kid i spent hours trying to decipher porsche's badging system as to me it just makes no sense!!! i mean to begin with, are there any particular reason why they all begin with '9', though this doesn't matter as most model names for cars mean nothing, but at least they seem to be in some sort of order... my beef is, the smallest porsche you could buy was a 924 which then became the 944 when it had a new engine, yes? but the largest you could get, the GT was the 928, but also fitting in hear somewhere was the 911, 968 and the 959 (the daddy) not to mention the 912/914/916 agggghh!!! i respect not all these models were produced alongside each other, but did porsche just pull the last two numbers out of the hat, or is there some logic behind them!?! your comments grately appreciated...