(June 5, 2013) STUTTGART, Germany — The Porsche Museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 911 with one of the most extensive special exhibitions since its opening. The “50 Years of 911” anniversary exhibition opened today. The Porsche Museum is presenting an extraordinary retrospective on the 911 until Sept. 29.

More than 40 different 911 versions tell the unique and exciting history of this sports car model range. The range of vehicles shown extends from the original 911 up to the present day, including rare production cars and race cars as well as numerous prototypes, which will be presented to the general public for the first time.

Historic brochures, advertisements and posters from the collections of the Porsche archive round off this journey through time, reviewing five decades of 911 history.

“I personally recall the presentation of the Porsche 901 very well at the IAA in Frankfurt in September 1963,” says Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, looking back into the past. “Everybody in the company was anxiously waiting to see how customers and journalists would react to the new car. But my father Ferry Porsche believed in the concept of the new model right from the onset. A couple of years before his death, he emphasized once again how proud he was that he was proven right about the 911 being a success.” Matthias Müller too backed up the story of success of the 911.

“I don’t know any other sports car that has such a great history and yet at the same time is so modern as the Porsche 911,” he stressed. “It reflects everything that makes our brand special in its very essence. This timeless sports car concept not only has behind it an exciting history. It also has ahead of it a great and successful future.”

Today, the 911, designed by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, is deemed one of the most successful sports cars of all time. More than 820,000 of the 911 have been built over the last 50 years. It has gained more than 20,000 racing victories.

The Porsche engineers from Zuffenhausen and Weissach have reinvented the 911 in each of the now seven generations, demonstrating the innovativeness of the brand again and again. Like no other vehicle, the 911 combines seemingly contradictory traits such as sportiness and everyday utility, tradition and innovation, exclusiveness and social acceptability, design and functionality — there can be no doubt that it stands for the “Engineered by Porsche” quality seal.

Ferry Porsche once put into a nutshell what constitutes the secret of the success of the 911 model range: “The 911 is the only car that you can drive from an African safari to Le Mans, then to the theatre and onto the streets of New York.”

The starting point of the “50 Years of 911” special exhibition highlights the development stages of the 901 type as well as a replica of its first-ever presentation at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 1963.

In addition, film footage of the first 911 test drive will be shown. 50 stories all around the topic of the 911 will then guide the visitors through the exhibition. Among other things, the 911 fan will learn how the sports car got its model designation. Advertising messages, quotes from Ferry Porsche, highlights from the racing history as well as anecdotes from the early development stages point the way for the visitor through the history of the 911.

More than 40 exhibits in the anniversary exhibition show the wide product range of the 911 from its beginnings to our present day. A 911 R can be admired by fans, of which no more than 19 units were produced in 1967 for a small circle of top-notch private drivers as well as for the Porsche factory itself.

A 911 Carrera RSR is on exhibit, with which the sports car manufacturer heralded in a new era in customer sports car racing. One 934 model from 1976 that was part of the field of starters in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, continuing right up to 1982, also contributes to the exhibition. Alongside the original 911 of 1964 and other anniversary models, there are unusual and prominent 911 cars to be discovered. An armored 911 (996) with safety glass is presented alongside a 911 Carrera, whose former owner was the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. Among many other things, motor sports fans can delight in the first Carrera Cup model from 1990, a 911 Carrera Cup (964) as well as one 911 GT3 RS 4.0.