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The Porsche Type List |
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When Professor Ferdinand Porsche started his business, the company established a numeric record of projects known as the Type List. As has been reported many times in the past, the list began with Type 7 so that Wanderer-Werke AG did not realize they were the company’s first customer. Of course, as a result, Porsche’s famous car, the 356 as defined on the Type List, was actually Porsche’s 350th design project. In reviewing the Porsche Type List enclosed on this website, you might notice several interesting aspects. First, although there is a strong chronological alignment of Type numbers, it is certainly not perfect. No official explanation exists as to why this occurs. It is possible that Type numbers were originally treated only as an informal configuration and data management tool and today’s rigorous examination of Porsche history is but an aberration of 20/20 hindsight. Secondly, you might also notice that there were variations on Type List numbers that were probably made rather spontaneously. For example, consider the Type 60 with its many “K” variations to designate different body styles. Also consider how the Type 356 was initially a tube frame chassis then changed to a sheet metal chassis with the annotation 356/2 but the /2 later reused to describe different body/engine offerings. Then there were the variants on the 356 annotated as 356 SL, 356A, 356B, and 356C designations and in parallel there were the 356 T1 through 356 T7 designations. Not to mention, of course, the trademark infringement threat that caused the Type 901 to be externally re-designated as the 911. Karl Ludvigsen, in his book Porsche, Excellence Was Expected, provides the following additional insight on Type numbers: “Over the years Porsche skipped many numbers in the sequence. Sometimes the omissions were accidental, for Karl Rabe, the keeper of the numbers, was anything but methodical in their allotment. And sometimes the omissions were deliberate, as when the men of Porsche decided to begin with No. 7, so that their first customer, the Wanderer Werke, would not think that they were a bunch of novices. During the hectic war years many numbers in the 200 series were skipped. In the 400 series only six numbers were used, the last being 425; a fresh start was made at 500 when the design office moved back to Stuttgart. From 500 onward the type number list was relatively tightly packed through the 700's and into the early 800's, the Type 804 Grand Prix car being an example. That was where the list stood when the time came to pick a number for the successor to the 356. To get it they jumped over many 800-series numbers and picked 901. Why? To symbolize a new beginning with a new model? To get an attractively well-rounded number? The real reason is much more prosaic. In the early 1960's Porsche was more closely integrating its sales, parts and service operations with those of Volkswagen. In fact a joint VW-Porsche sports car sales program was not too many years in the future. Porsche part numbers, therefore, needed to become compatible with those used by VW, and when a review was made of the number classes that were already in use on the Wolfsburg parts-control computers it turned out that the only category that was still free was the 900 series! That was why the new Porsche was named the 901, at first, and why all subsequent Porsches have been numbered in the early 900's. Since that time the original Porsche practice of giving a separate type number to each drawing office project has not been followed. Instead, all the components for a given car tend to carry the same number prefix, independent of the time sequence in which they were developed. (No longer was a type 356C car fitted with a Type 616/16 engine and a Type 741A transaxle, for example. The new system was certainly simpler.)”
Several Porsche Type Lists have been previously published. All of them leave significant gaps and rarely reveal the source of the information. I believe the Type List shown on this website is the most complete and accurate copy that exists. It was originally based on a copy provided by Ghislane Kaes in the early 1980s. It has been supplemented, and in some cases corrected with additional information learned since that time. In close examination the Type list provides wonderful new insight into Porsche projects prior to 1950, and the circuitous route the company traveled before maturing into a famous sports car marque in the 1950’s. In you know of any corrections or have any additions, please do not hesitate to bring that information to my attention. |
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Types 007 through 287 (Pre-Gmünd) |