The label on the fan reads Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, which is the full name of the company. “Dr.” of course for doctor, “Ing. h.c.” for honorary degree in engineering, “AG” being the legal form of the company (roughly equivalent to a British PLC), and “F. Porsche” of course being Ferdinand Porsche, first of the name, famous war criminal and automotive engineer.
The funnest fact about the 911 is that it was supposed to be called 901. And if you look up why they changed, you’ll easily find Porsche’s version of events, that “after a claim about naming rights from French car manufacturer, Peugeot”, Porsche was forced to change the name. And a great many English-speaking sources are quite eager to have the French to blame for anything, so job done.
But if you’re a connaisseur, you might know the 1956 BMW 507, predating the 901 by a few years, or the later Dino 308/208 and Ferrari 308/208, and you might be thinking there’s something weird about that trademark explanation.
The thing about that is you’d be right: it’s not the reason. And Porsche knows it. This is where the “war criminal” bit is important.
France was occupied from 1940 to 1944, and its industries put under German control for the war effort. Some didn’t even need to be convinced much to collaborate *cough*Renault*cough*. Others, like the workers, executives and family members of Peugeot, did everything they could to slow their production and sabotage their work, while trying to avoid having their factory and workers shipped to Germany.
And this was all fun and games until 1943, when Ferdinand Porsche uses his influence over the leader of Germany to be put in charge of the Peugeot factory at Sochaux, and its top of the line foundry. Porsche and and his son-in-law (and Volkswagen exec) Anton Piëch were determined to make aircraft parts and V1 missiles out of Sochaux. In response, the Peugeots increased their sabotage and collaboration with the Resistance.
This lead to people being arrested, tortured, deported, and even executed. At the end of the war, the factory had been sabotaged, bombed, and finally pillaged by Porsche and Piëch on their way out. The only consolation for Peugeot was that Sochaux never produced a single V1.
After WWII, Porsche and Piëch were briefly incarcerated by the French government, and liberated against a massive bail, then went straight back to Germany where they never had to fear being taken to court over their war crimes.
There wasn’t much Peugeot could do about it, but when Porsche tried to put to market a model named “901”, they seized the opportunity for a little bit of petty revenge. Porsche was forced to scramble finding a new name, letting Peugeot take the win rather than having to explain where the beef came from. They just left it at “a claim about naming rights”.
Peugeot never used the name 901. They only used 900 for prototype racecars (and one concept car), starting with the 905 in 1990.
