We had a very scary moment on our journey to Stuttgart: we found ourselves on the A4 toll road in France. We had no idea what to do but we stumbled through. Our route took us over the Rhine (where there were massive traffic jams because of bridge construction) across the top of the Black Forest and along the A8 Autobahn to the Porsche Museum near Stuttgart.
2 Thursday 17 June, 2010
We park our Pinto in the gleaming parking area of the Porsche Museum. This is the only parking garage that I have ever been into, anywhere in the world, that smelled of disinfectant. It is spotlessly, amazingly clean.
3 Thursday 17 June, 2010
The Porsche Museum is opposite the Porsche factory in Porscheplatz, Zuffenhausen, a Stuttgart suburb. The new Porsche Museum opened on Saturday 31 January 2009.
4 Thursday 17 June, 2010
The 911 model series, Boxster models and all Porsche engines are produced in Zuffenhausen. Other models are produced in Leipzig, Germany & Bratislava, Slovakia
5 Thursday 17 June, 2010
This is a professional photograph that displays the new museum at its best. The exhibits are on the top two floors.
6 Thursday 17 June, 2010
In this aerial shot, the original old Porsche Museum can be seen within the Porsche Headquarters compound while the new museum is being constructed on Porscheplatz.
7 Thursday 17 June, 2010
Jenni buys our tickets. It cost only €22 for the both of us (including parking, headsets and tax)
8 Thursday 17 June, 2010
We take the escalator upstairs to the exhibits.
9 Thursday 17 June, 2010
It has an ethereal futuristic look to it. Get rid of a few exhibits and they could film science fiction movies here.
Ferdinand Porsche joined Austro Daimler in 1906. He designed the fire truck for use at the Daimler plant where it served for 20 years. It then served for another 36 years in Austria's Burgenland. Porsche left Austro Daimler in 1923.
Ferdinand Porsche moved to Stuttgart in 1923 and joined Daimler as Chief Design Engineer. His first design is this 2 litre supercharged racing car built for Monza in Italy.
13 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1950 Volkswagen
Ferdinand Porsche originally conceived the idea for a people's car in 1934. After WWII, sales accelerated such that 100,000 vehicles had been sold by 1950. By 2003, sales had reached 21.5 million.
14 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1947 Porsche Typ 360 Cisitalia
In 1946 Italian racing entrepeneur Pierro Dusio engaged Porsche for his new Cisitalia brand. It had an aluminium body, 4 wheel drive and was powered by a 12 cylinder, 1.5 litre supercharged engine. The car never made it past the test stage because of Dusio's financial problems.
15 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Porsche before 1948
Ferdinand Porsche started production of his own vehicles in the small Austrian town of Gmünd in 1948. This exhibit describes the activities of Ferdinand Porsche until then.
16 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1950 Porsche 356/2 Coupe (orange car) and 1948 356/2 Gmünd Cabriolet (White convertible)
Following WWII, the first Porsche cars are built in Gmünd Austria. Ferry Porsche develops the 356/2 from the 356/1 prototype and produces a small run of 52 coupes and 53 cabriolets.
17 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1964 Porsche 356 C 1600 SC Carrera Cabriolet
These Carreras were delivered to the German police; the last ten were delivered to Netherlands Police in 1966. Carrera is a feminine noun meaning race or course or in Spanish.
The Spyder is the ancestor of the modern Boxter. The 1962 Spyder (left) was Porsche's first 2 litre, 8 cylinder car. It took out class wins in the 1962 Targa Florio and the 1000 km race at Nürburgring. The 1960 Spyder (right) was used in long distance racing such as the 1960 Targa Florio which it won by six minutes.
This car won the 1969 Targa Florio and enabled Porsche to win the manufacturer's trophy for the first time. This car is made from exotic materials and weighs only 600 kgs (my Honda Civic weighed 1100 kgs)
20 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Porsche Carrera GTS body
The 1964 Carrera was the first Porsche to be fitted with a plastic body but this body is from a later series.
21 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR
The RSR models are Porsche's mainstay for circuit racing. RS stands for Rennsport meaning "racing sport".
22 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Studien (studies)
In this area are prototype cars built to test the market and not all went into production. The green car is a 1959 Type 754 that never went into production although it provided the basis for the later 911 series.
This is a Porsche flat 4 engine and is probably an earlier model, circa 1950's, as it has carburettors instead of fuel injection and one set of cams drive another set via a shaft.
24 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1992 Porsche Studie Boxster
This a prototype that made it into production, the Porsche Boxter. It was a mid engined car that went into production in 1996.
25 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1969 Porsche 906 LH Coupe
This is a long-tailed version of the Type 908 designed to reduce drag and to compete in the Le Mans 24 hour race. Porsche won the manufacturer's trophy that year.
This model 911 was built to comply with stricter safety laws in the USA - it was thought at the time that nanny was going to ban convertibles. This design is a hybrid convertible and coupe as the hardtop roof is removable.
27 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1978 Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick and 1986 Porsche 961
The Porsche 935 (front) was the factory racing version of the Porsche 911 turbo prepared for FIA-Group 5 rules. It was an evolution of the Porsche Carrera RSR 2.1 turbo prototype. The Porsche 961 (back) was a racing car based on the 959 sports car. The 961 project was short lived, running only three races and seeing the construction of only one car. It was the only all-wheel drive Porsche to start Le Mans.
28 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1987 Porsche 962 C Le Mans
Between 1982 & 1994 Porsche 956/962 cars won Le Man seven times. This exhibit demonstrates that the aerodynamic force generated by the wings and body shape is so great that at top speed it could theoretically be driven on the roof.
29 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1987 Porsche 956
And this equation says so.
30 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1971 Porsche 917 KH Coupe
The two Gulf Oil 917's had 180° V12 turbocharged engines and a top speed of 360 km/h. In the 1971 1000 km Spa-Francorchamps one of these set an average speed that probably will never be beaten: 249.069 km/h. The pink car behind is a 917/20 V12 called the "Pink Pig" .
31 Thursday 17 June, 2010 2008 Porsche RS Spyder
Driven by Roger Penske, the RS Spyder won all four championships in the American Le Mans Series between 2005 to 2008
32 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1987 Porsche 962C Le Mans
The 962 C is based on the 956 but with a wheelbase that is 120 mm longer. It had a twin-turbo engine that produced 680 hp and a top speed of 350 km/h. This vehicle won the 1987 Le Mans.
33 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Harley Davidson V Rod VRSC
To meet changing emissions laws, HD had to design a new liquid-cooled engine. Porsche assisted in the design of the new engine. The VRSC went into production in 2001.
34 Thursday 17 June, 2010,BR>Porsche Engines
V12 double overhead cam cutaway.
35 Thursday 17 June, 2010,BR>Porsche Engines
The engine in front is an air-cooled flat 8 racing engine, probably from a Porsche 908 of the late 60s early 70s. Behind that is an F1 Tag Turbo built by Porsche for McLaren in the mid-1980s and behind that is a Porsche aircraft engine - see the propeller?
36 Thursday 17 June, 2010
My guess is that this engine is from a 911 from 1964 on when the 911 was first produced. It is air cooled with carburettors and a chain driven single OHC.
37 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1988 Porsche 959 Coupe
The 959 was designed for Group B auto racing. It is based on the 911 and 292 were produced. It was priced at DM 420,00 or €215,000.
38 Thursday 17 June, 2010
This interesting exhibit had a Porsche cut into three, longitudinally.
39 Thursday 17 June, 2010
Entwicklung = development or evolution
40 Thursday 17 June, 2010
A view of the museum, but what is a tractor doing here? It is the 1959 Porsche Diesel Schlepper Standard. The tractor was manufactured under licence in Friedrichschafen and by 1963 120,00 tractors had been sold.
For the 911 GT1 to be approved for participation in international motor sports, it required a street-legal version of at least 20 units to be produced.
The road version sold for DM 1.5 Million (about €770,000) which sounds like a steal for a car like this.
45 Thursday 17 June, 2010
It had a 544 hp, 3,163 CC engine and could do 310 km/h.
46 Thursday 17 June, 2010 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe Polixie
This 911 was the one millionth sports car produced by Porsche. It was presented to the German State of Baden-Würtemberg for use by the state's highway patrol
47 Thursday 17 June, 2010 2003 Porsche Carrera GT
The Carrera was originally designed for the LeMans race. It has a very low profile with a 5733 cc 10 cylinder mid-engine and a carbon fibre body - 1270 were produced in Leipzig.
48 Thursday 17 June, 2010 2003 Porsche Carrera GT
The interior is a work of art - not surprising for a luxury car.
49 Thursday 17 June, 2010
This exhibit displays the evolution of the 911 Coupe from the 1976 911 Turbo Coupe to the current model.
50 Thursday 17 June, 2010<1999 Porsche Carrera Coupe
This car was specially decorated to celebrate Porsche's 50th anniversary in Australia.
51 Thursday 17 June, 2010<1999 Porsche Carrera Coupe
The aboriginal artist revealed the secret location of his signature to the Porsche CEO.
52 Thursday 17 June, 2010
53 Thursday 17 June, 2010
When you stand under these domes, you can hear the sounds that various Porsche models make as they accelerate away and at high speed. This one plays the sounds of an RS Spyder.
The Porsche Panamera is a five-door, four-seat luxury sedan with a coupe profile and a rear hatch. It is front-engined with rear-wheel drive, with four-wheel drive versions also available.
The interior is spectacular. It even has wood panelling.
56 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Current model Porsche Boxster Spyder
The Boxster was Porsche's biggest seller from its introduction in 1997 until the Cayenne S.U.V. in model year 2003. In late 2009 Porsche announced the Boxster Spyder, which at 1,275 kg, is the lightest car produced by Porsche.
57 Thursday 17 June, 2010 Current model Porsche 911 GT3
The GT3 is a high performance version of the Porsche 911 sports car. It has a 3.6 litre naturally-aspirated six cylinder engine which is based on the unit used in the Porsche 962 and Porsche 911 GT1 race cars.
58 Thursday 17 June, 2010
Probably an early F1 car circa 1950. It has a Porsche logo on ts steering wheel.
59 Thursday 17 June, 2010
As we head towards the exit, a trophy cabinet displays some of the many trophies won by Porsche.
60 Thursday 17 June, 2010
Friday 18, June, 2010
Jenni buys a green Porsche 911 from the gift store for one Samuel Lucas Reeves.