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PORSCHE MUSEUM STUTTGART
Germany's Newest Shrine to Speed and Sports Cars

After a long wait, it has finally arrived, the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. A minimalist design exterior of angular lines in surprise contrast to the swooping curves for which the world’s most famous sports car maker is known. The Porsche Museum appears rather like an alien space ship landing in the north Stuttgart factory suburb of Zuffrenhausen where the German sports marque has been manufacturing its cars since 1950, a glistening reflective silver sided box seeming to hover in the air above the streets, where even the traffic seems to consist of Porsches. An impressive design idea from Delugan Meissl to support the entire exhibit above the ground on just three v-shape pillars housing the escalators which carry visitors to the museum floors above the glass walled ground entrance at the Porscheplatz.

Ferdinand Porsche, began his career working for a company that made horse carriages for the Austria-Hungarian emperors in the 1890’s, but soon ventured into the new engineering of automobiles, designing an electric car with Ludwig Lohner in 1898. He worked with automaker Daimler on the world's first electric-combustion hybrid engine car, before coming up with the most successful car design ever, the Volks Wagen (the peoples’ car). Twenty million of the inexpensive and convenient Type 1 Volkswagen “Beetle” have been produced, but Ferdinand Porsche as a designer was fascinated with speed rather than convenience. In 1939, he created the Type 64, for a road race from Berlin to Rome, a lightweight aluminum body of elegant sweeping curves based on the Volkswagen rear air cooled engine and chassis. The Type 64 became the genesis for what has become the Porsche brand and indeed a fetish for lovers of fast cars.

The Porsche Museum presents an orgy of speedy vehicles, 80 cars on display on three levels. Starting from the bare burnished aluminum chassis of the Type 64 - one direction examines the pre-1948 history of Ferdinand Porsche, but the majority of the exhibition levels are devoted to the sports and racing cars from 1950 onward when the auto-maker was in the hands of son Ferdinand Anton “Ferry” Porsche, starting with the first “true” Porsche sports car, the 356, to the continuing advances of the 911 Carrera Turbo. While other German auto-makers like Mercedes or BMW made sedans or even trucks, Porsche has focused almost entirely on sports cars, with only a brief excursion into Formula One which never actually competed and the curiosity of a Porsche tractor, even Porsche’s legendary racing car history has been devoted to light-weight aerodynamic agile, high power-to-weight ratio road racing and sports cars.

Unlike the Mercedes Museum on the other side of Stuttgart (see Mercedes Benz Museum Stuttgart) where a visitor starts at the top and winds downward through history and car design, the Porsche Museum rises upward through the levels. There are a few exhibits on design and engineering with films and cutaway models, but most of the museum is devoted to the magnificent cars and racing legends, so sleek while standing static in a museum almost seem as if flying down a track, while the power of aerodynamic downforce pins a Rothman's 956 upside down. From the Targa Florio to Porsche’s dominance of Le Mans and endurance road racing is in evidence throughout and celebrated with pride in Steve McQueen’s famed filmic ode to road racing with the special Porsche outfitted with camera needed to film the actual racing 917s at speed in the movie “Le Mans”. An audio guide explains the exhibits by the press of the exhibit number, allowing the visitor to wander to wherever interest leads, rather than a linear chronology. There are interactive computer stations on the top floor to explore the Porsche mystic. For the real Porsche history minded, the museum has an historical archive and research library open to the public on prior arrangement. And perhaps unique among car museums the Porsche Museum has a glass walled auto mechanic shop where the historical vehicles of the museum, still sent out for historic racing events (see Mille Miglia: Brescia to Rome) are maintained, and private owners of classic Porsches can have their cars repaired by the factory technicians.

The Porsche Museum has two restaurants, a coffee bar with view of the workshop, and a souvenir museum store with models and Porsche gear for kids young and old on the first level. Museum open hours are 9 to 6 Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays. The parking garage in pristine Porsche white, so new it seems one could almost picnic on it, is below ground, entered next to the entrance. Admission is 8€ for adults and 4€ for students and seniors, parking is 2€ paid with admission. The Porsche Museum is easily reached by S-bahn with its own stop at Porscheplatz, directly next to the museum. A Porsche showroom is across the street - just in case you’d rather drive a new 911 Turbo home than take the tram back. © Bargain Travel Europe

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STUTTGART - CITY OF FESTIVALS

STUTTGART MUSEUMS

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