After three years of restoration, the Porsche Museum will finally present one of the newest additions to its collection – and the oldest 911 that it holds – at the special exhibition “911 (901 No. 57) – A legend takes off” from 14 December 2017 to 8 April 2018. The red coupé was built in October 1964 as one of the first series production models of the sports car known back then as the 901. Almost exactly 50 years later, the Porsche Museum happened to find this rare item and decided to buy it with a view to restoring it back to its original state.
Production of the Type 901 commenced on 14 September 1964 (model year 1965), and in October of that year the new sports car was shown at the Paris Motor Show. It was there that Peugeot spotted Porsche’s use of the three-digit model reference with a ‘0’ in the middle, and as Peugeot had trademarked this numerical sequence in the French market, Porsche was obliged to change the name of the 901. However, a total of 82 units of the model 901 had already been manufactured before the model name was changed to 911. The 901 was originally sold for a price of DM21,900 and all of the customer vehicles produced up to that point were manufactured as 901 vehicles, but sold as 911 vehicles. Frustratingly though, the Porsche Museum collection has lacked one of these rarities for 50 years.
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