Possibly the most storied arrangement of three digits in motoring history, 9-1-1, was never meant to be. Instead sports car manufacturer, Porsche, fully intended the iconic moniker to read ‘”901”.

As production of the 356 came to an end, Porsche switched to building the 901. That is until French carmaker, Peugeot, raised its hand – claiming to hold the rights to any 3-digit array where the numeral zero takes center stage.

So, just weeks into production in 1964, Porsche had to pull the plug on its 901 halo-car, renaming it the 911.

Obviously, this close to the launch of such an important product, the seemingly minor hiccup threw the company’s plans into disarray. Amongst the problems was what to do with the 9, 0, and 1 numbers that had already been cast in volume, ready for series production. These were to be prominently displayed on the deck-lid and dashboard of the 901 – signifying that this was a new generation of cars unrelated to any previous design like the earlier 718 and 804.

So, in order not to waste their gold-plated badges, once they had decided to honor the French request Porsche simply used a pair of 1s to end up with 911.

An eloquent solution? Maybe – but would it not have made better economic sense to just rearrange the numerals to read 910? Of course, there was the 910 race car that debuted in 1966, so perhaps the company already had the name reserved.

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Peugeot Also Named A Race Car 908
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While it’s unclear whether Porsche ever challenged Peugeot’s claims in a court of law, the company did retroactively rename some of their other models such as the Porsche 904 (renamed the Carrera GTS) and the Porsche 906 (now called the Carrera 6).

However, Porsche did not change the names of many of their race cars like the Porsche 907 that, in typical Porsche fashion, actually followed the 910 in the production sequence. Using closed, long-tail bodywork for the first time, the 907 achieved Porsche’s first 24hr race win with a 1-2-3 finish at Daytona in 1968.

Peugeot apparently also had no problem with the 908, which succeeded the 907. Starting life as a closed coupe in 1968, the 3.0-liter flat-eight 908/01, was reconfigured as the 908/02 open spyder, with bodywork that evolved into the 908/03.

Interestingly, in 2011 Peugeot Sport built a diesel-powered 908 for the Le Mans Prototype category of racing. Why would they choose to campaign a 908 after Porsche’s racing success with the number?

Another anomaly was the lightweight, Hillclimb 909 Bergspyder that evolved into the 908/02. It also spawned a modern interpretation using a 981 Boxster Spyder.

Considering the high profile of these cars it seems strange that Peugeot chose not to protest. Possibly because these were never intended to be sold to the public?

What is even more puzzling, is why Peugeot targeted Porsche’s 901 but took no action against other manufacturers that also appeared to transgress? Some even in direct completion with the French manufacturer.

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BMW 507 Roadster's Naming Was Not Thwarted By Peugeot
Via: THE VALUE

History shows that Peugeot was not the only ones in the industry using the digit-zero-digit naming scheme. In 1952, when BMW restarted car production after WWII, their first car was christened the BMW 501. BMW also had other variants of the 501 which adopted the number-zero-number nomenclature, the 502, 503, and 507, to be precise.

Peugeot may have forgiven BMW for the 503 and 507 seeing as they were only produced in very limited numbers and only for the USA. But, as for the 501 nomenclature, in 2012 French publication L’Automobile reported that Peugeot was working on a new 501 four-door coupe that would directly rival Audi’s A3 and Mercedes-Benz’s CLA. With a plethora of reserved numbers, why would the company settle on one that had already been used by another manufacturer?

Although never officially challenged about its naming practices, BMW voluntarily discontinued this method of model designation after 1959, instead, choosing names such as the 3200 CS, which reflected the engine size.

BMW did again briefly encroach on another Peugeot naming tradition (number-zero-zero-number) with their 2002, but has since switched to '#Series'.

Having slapped Porsche with a desist order for the 901 it would seem self-explanatory that other high-profile manufacturers would receive the same treatment? Not so.

Ferrari loved having the “0” center stage. So while Porsche was scrabbling to rename its car, Maranello rolled out the Dino 206, 208 GT4, 308 GT4, and 308 GTB/GTS. All badging that Peugeot also applied. Maybe the low sales numbers didn’t justify a legal challenge, or maybe the fact that they also went by other names such as Dino, GT4, or GTB/GTS saved Ferrari from a challenge.

Whatever the reason, while Peugeot’s somewhat erratic application of its rights might be unclear, what's for certain is that in 1964, Porsche only built 235 911s, starting on the 14th of September. Only the first 82 models were produced with the type designation 901, and although none were supposed to get out of the gates of the Zuffenhausen factory, some did, becoming valuable collectibles – largely due to Peugeot thwarting Porsche's original naming plans for the 911.