Februrary Mavs&Mochas: Turbo Coffee

by Chris Cuyler

Our monthly Mavs & Mochas events always pair cars and coffee, so what better place to meet up than a business that pairs coffee and cars? Turbo Coffee in the Colony was our gracious host this month, and their love of cars is obvious when you step inside or read their menu.

Cara, the manager said, “We like living in the fast lane and meeting as much of the community as possible. We are passionate about bringing the people together and we love the car community. It’s what Turbo Coffee is centered around.”

There is plenty of space inside for a lovely breakfast and enough space outside for the 98 cars that arrived. Of those 98 cars, 18 were the feature car: the Turbo 911. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the 911, and what a start it had.

By the early 1960s, Porsche had gained a reputation for quality, high-performance cars, due in large part to the 356. However, after more than a decade, the 356 was coming due for a major redesign. In 1963 at the Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany the Porsche 901 made its debut. The car’s success at that show was the motivation for the Porsche factory to begin production as soon as possible due to public interest in the new model.

In September 1964, production on the 901 began and 82 cars were made before a dispute erupted over the naming convention. The French car manufacturer Peugeot took issue with the “901” designation because they had patented a three-digit numeric name for one of their cars that also contained a zero as the middle digit. They claimed to have ownership of the naming convention and that they had already sold many cars using this convention.

How did Porsche react? They changed the “0” to a “1” and called their car the Porsche 911. Then they fired up their air-cooled, rear-engine sports car and defiantly raced into history with an iconic name for their iconic car that is still going strong to this day.