Porsche 996 to 992 naming conventions

[twro]

I watched this interesting video today, an interview with Porsche designer Grant Larson, who penned the original Boxster (amongst others).

Listening to him talk about Boxster 986's, 911 996's, Cayman 987's etc I decided (for my own interest) to put mock-up an infographic timeline so that I could see how they all fit together, here it is below (comments welcome!). 

Apart from the general confusing nature of numbering (986 > 987 > 981 > 718/982) it is interesting that the mid-engined cars closely matched the launches (and naming) of the 911's, until the launch of the 718 when the timing got a bit out of whack, but 982 is still in the same naming convention as 992.

Some of the date years may not be perfect, as it depends on announcement vs launch date which would have been different by country, these are dates from Wikipedia.

Infographic:

 

Video:

 

[Joz]

Wondering what the next 911 will be called, 993 is gone.

not sure of their reasoning but doesn't seem to well thought out.

[StevepGT3]

99E

[twro]

On 28/02/2022 at 08:25, Joz said:

Wondering what the next 911 will be called, 993 is gone

992.2 - does that count?!

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/every-new-porsche-911-version-coming-soon

But good question, after that who knows? 994 might be confused with the 944. 995 was used ("A four-seat future sports car study from 1978. The 995 was developed to explore advances in safety, efficiency and technology, including a twin-clutch automatic gearbox and ABS braking.") but they could probably use it again. But then they would be back to 996 again!

Here is a full list of all the 9 number code's Porsche have used: https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/by-the-9s-every-porsche-900-series-type-codes-from-901-to-999/