The Porsche designations have always been the lols to me.
They require a decoder that only true purists know how to use.
Numbers are all over the place. I will never know what any of it means.
It's silly that we even use them and not something more human like 1st gen, 2nd gen, etc. These days those codes have been relegated to internal chassis designations and make up the first three digits of the part numbers on the car, usually. E.g., 991 143 831 or whatever would likely be a part that goes on a 2013-2019 911, 958 341 830 would be a '10-'18 Cayenne, etc. Wasn't ever meant for enthusiasts to use.
They
used to name their cars the same as the designation, and 911 was obviously the code they used for the first one, distinguishable from the 914 or 917. But when the 2nd generation 911 came out (964) it was kind of too late to change the name, so the name 911 stuck for the model, and 964 became the internal designation. Meanwhile, 718 ironically has nothing to do with modern parts numbers (those say 982), it was instead a throwback to the actual 718 chassis code which was was a small 4-cyl race car, and as a marketing name, only served to get the Cayman and Boxster under one umbrella and unify their three digit names (again, now separate from their three digit chassis codes) with the 911 and 918 in sports car names.
I love Germany. But it's not really a country with simple solutions to problems.
