[rst89]

I had an opportunity to visit the Porsche museum on 4th of March, 2017. I had a very busy schedule when I was in Germany on a business trip during the same duration. I had one free Saturday and decided to visit Stuttgart.

Prologue: (It will be very funny)
I had to start from Tuttlingen, a small town in Baden Württemberg state of Germany. I had flight back to Mumbai on the same day from Zürich around 2100 hours. Below map gives you a small idea of where Tutllingen, Stuttgart and Zürich lie on the map.



So if you guys see, I have to travel in reverse direction, first travel to Stuttgart, come back to Tuttlingen, pick up my stuff and travel to Zürich. But for the love of cars, I took a risk.

On Friday Night after a tiring day, the mind was torn whether to visit Mercedes Benz museum or Porsche Museum. It was a tradeoff as time was constraint but my heart said Porsche museum and it was decided that Porscheplatz will be visited at any cost.

Saturday morning of 4th March:
After some planning late night, it was decided that I will take an intercity express (ICE) operated by Swiss Federal Railways at 0800 hours from Tuttlingen as it is the fastest way to reach Stuttgart in roughly 1.5 hours. It is mostly a single line laid track and not a high speed one.

I reached the bus stop in Tuttlingen near my hotel at 0740 hours to find horror that public buses follow a different schedule on Saturday and there was no bus to reach Tuttlingen railway station before 0800 hours. And moreover I had to take a ticket also! So did some brisk walking in freezing temperatures and in the end running to cover 1 km distance.

Deutsche Bahn has a special scheme in Baden Württemberg state. For 25 Euros per day, you can travel through any train in the state, this was my first impression (This statement will be corrected shortly). So if one more person is traveling with you, it will add extra four Euros to original cost of 25 Euros. So if the number of people go on increasing, the cost of ticket reduces per person.

Alas, I was solo and had to pay all the 25 Euros. I just made it to platform with the Baden Württemberg ticket in my hand and the Swiss federal railway inter city express train arrived on time. Boarded a second class coach and quietly settled down.

Now here is interesting part. As we were zipping through the sylvan German country side, the ticket checker arrived and upon showing the ticket, he told me this ticket is not valid. I got the shock of my life! He told me politely to buy ticket on board or get down at next stopping station. On reading the finer print on Baden Württemberg ticket, it was valid only for Deutsche Bahn regional trains and S-Bahn. Already spent 25 Euros on Baden Württemberg and running short on time, I took the option to get down at next stopping station, Rottweil.

I got down at Rottweil and the next train was around 40 minutes after the Swiss ICE train left. I also saw it clearly that the next train I was taking is Deutsche Bahn regional train. I sat again on the cold bench in single digit temperatures and I realised that my planned return train from Stuttgart was also a Swiss Federal railways intercity from Stuttgart to Zurich. Off course with Baden Württemberg ticket, I can't take it! The earlier Deustche Bahn regional train to Tuttlingen was at 1317 hours which was too early for me and the next regional train was at 1517 hours. And the Swiss train which was quick and I had originally planned was around 1429 hours. I settled for 1517 hours train which would make me reach Tuttlingen around 1700 hours, walk one more kilometre to hotel, pack my stuff and take a cab at 1800 hours to Zurich. It was all cut to throat in timing aspects!

But the call to visit the mecca of Sports cars was so strong that I decided to take the plunge. The regional train to Stuttgart arrived at Rottweil and I boarded the same. Regional train are bit slow compared to inter city trains and I arrived to Stuttgart. It was my first time in Stuttgart main central station (Stuttgart Hbf). Quickly figured where the S Bahn station is located for the travel to Proscheplatz station. Below is map of S Bahn network in Stuttgart.



As you figure it out, I have to take S6 train from Stuttgart Hbf to Porscheplatz.
There were no S6 train as I observed the indicators for 10 minutes. It was raining S1 and S4 route trains on the platform. I decided I will take S4 train, get down at Zuffenhausen and walk one to two kilomteres to Porscheplatz. Zuffenhausen is where the actual factory of Porsche is located.

Took the S4 train and got down at Zuffenhausen. And then I realised that the main terminating station for S6 line at least on the day I visited Stuttgart is Zuffenhausen. I was happy that I don't have to walk and took S6 to Porscheplatz.
Finally I have arrived in Porscheplatz!

Apart from that Stuttgart is beautiful city with vine yards bang in the middle of the city. Now starts the main visit.

Porsche Museum

A magnificent building built by Porsche! Looks stunning from outside. It was opened in January 2009 to public.



I have tried to recollect the Porsche models as far as my memory stretches and given them the correct model names but if you find a model name wrongly tagged, please notify the same in comments section.

Few Porsches like 911 were parked outside which are used for Porsche drive, a rental scheme where you can experience driving a Porsche. You can book a Porsche online. They have some strict rules in place if you want to rent one of those beauties. They are:
1. Driver has to be at least 27 years old.
2. A credit card with 2500 Euro limit and same will be blocked and the rent will be charged from the same card. (At one point, I regretted not taking an American express credit card with INR 5,00,000 credit limit)
3. An international driving permit with a valid driving license is required.
4. Passport or valid ID card.

Spent time admiring those beauties available for the drive.




Entered the main lobby of the museum and ticket costs around eight Euros. You also get a free audio guide with the ticket.

Once you get to main level of the museum, you eyes are treated to a feast of Porsche cars. The interiors of the museum are all white and the cars in different colours stand out. The start to the museum is chronological. They first display one of the few vehicles that Porsche built in early start of their company. Also the walls are adorned with the generation of Porsche family members who led from the front for the development of the company. The Audio guide was a good way to experience the museum.

Let the flow of pictures start. All are clicked using OnePlus 3T phone.

One of the first buggy like car made by Porsche


They even manufactured fire tendering vehicle.


Next, we have a Porsche tractor. It has become a collectors vehicle.




The Porsche 356 is known as the first model sold by the company after World War two.


The coupe variant of 356


Next we have the 911 lined up

This is a porsche 911 Carerra 4S Cabriolet




Next one is Sally, a light blue Porsche 911 Carrera from movie Cars.


Below one is 911 Speedster




The rear wheel drive Cayman


And next we have the Panamera GTS.


Porsche raced a lot, be it Le Mans or rally racing


The blow one they call it as 'Pig' and have even labeled the car outside with the pig meat areas. They raced this car in the Le Mans


The rear of one such racing car.


Next all are various models of Porsche lined up for display.









There was a projector in the museum which showed how the Porsche have evolved over the course of time by showing the outer sketches of each model.



They have one section on museum where they have simulated the cranking sound of few Porsche models like Panamera GTS and even the Porsche tractor.

Link to cranking sound of Porsche

There a lot more simulations in the museum.

They had an exhibit car where you can actually sit and feel a real Porsche. It was 911 Cabriolet Turbo model. It was my first time sitting in a Sports car and you sit planted in the seat which is very low. Below are few pics of the car.





It took me a total of two hours to complete the visit. It was around 1330 hours that I decided to take train and see little bit of Stuttgart. Stuttgart is the capital of Baden Württemberg. One of the most prosperous areas in Germany. The unemployment rate is very low here. I saw very few or none homeless people on streets in major cities like Konstanz, Stuttgart in state of Baden Württemberg. Even after influx of so many refugees, I hardly saw them on streets. In contrast, I saw refugee tents bang opposite the central station in Strasbourg, France and loads of homeless people.

Few pics of Stuttgart.

Below is Schlossplatz, or main square of Stuttgart.



The main central station of Stuttgart is dug up for some renovation work or extra lines to be added with the Mercedes logo rotating on the top.



The return journey was uneventful and I reached back to Tuttlingen at around 1700 hours and a cab picked me at 1800 hours to travel to Zürich. The cab driver was a old Vietnamese guy with little knowledge of English. In some broken German and English, I understood he had fled South Vietnam in 1975 during the civil war and living in this small town of Tuttlingen since 1975. He even said there is a Vietnamese take away restaurant in Tuttlingen and I visited the same during my next trip to same town. He also showed me some hacks like how to cross from Germany to Switzerland on country roads instead of autobahns without the notice of Swiss customs and avoiding the long lines at border. Yes there are two to three kilometre lines on weekends on the border and I had personally seen them. After a tiring day and so much of travel, promptly dozed off in the flight.

Hope you all enjoyed the tour of Porsche Museum.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the International Car Scene. Thanks for sharing!

[redbaron91]

Here is the time lapse video of the projector showing the evolution of 911 taken during my last year’s visit to the museum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nfgz9lchJs

It’s a wall with the outlines of 8 models of 911s overlaid. The projection fills in one outline at a time, and you can watch the evolution between the models.

It’s interesting to see how things tweaked & expanded over the course of it’s lifetime.

[revvedup]

Great report man, do you have more pics of the Le Mans cars ?

BTW, the silver Le Mans car in your post is the Porsche 904; fibreglass body. You also have the white and green Porsche 917,the first Porsche Le Mans prototype to secure an overall Le Mans win in 1970. The pink pig car is also a variation on the 917. Porsche built the 917 in both short tail an along tail configuration with the long tail being the faster of the two; albeit slightly unstable.

A bit of a snippet on the development of the short tail from the autoweek website; highlighting the aerodynamics of the long tail vis à vis the short tail

While testing at the Osterreichring in October 1969, chief engineer John Horsman noticed something odd: a pattern of dead gnats, sprinkled against the bodywork. Where the bugs splattered was where air flowed over the body -- but the long tail itself was devoid of insects. No gnats, therefore no airflow, therefore no downforce. In the paddock, Horsman improvised a shorter tail using nothing more than aluminum sheets and tape. Brian Redman went back on the track. And when he returned to the pits, 10 laps later, he walked up to Horsman and declared, "That’s it -- now it's a racing car."

Thus, it was christened the 917 Kurzheck -- the "short tail."

http://autoweek.com/article/car-life...#ixzz58u7tBWtE

[rst89]

Hi @revvedup,
from your Avatar and info given, it looks you follow Porsche a lot.

Originally Posted by revvedup

Great report man, do you have more pics of the Le Mans cars ?

Yes, I do have one more pic. The car numbered 64 is Porsche 908 LH which raced in LeMans. As you can see in below pic.



There is also one more car Porsche 910 but is a racing car. Below pic.

[Skyline GT-R]

I had visited Stuttgart in January specifically to visit Porsche & Mercedes museums. For Porsche fans the museum is a must see. Mercedes museum offers a storytelling method of world history & role of their engineering.

[srivatsahg]

Excellent report @rst89 and on this one of a kind museum in Porscheplatz Neuwirtzhaus. Your pictures of the City Train map and Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof(Main Railway Station) entrance taken from the Konigstrasse side brought back the nostalgia associated with my stay in this beautiful city between 2009-2012.

It is a pity you were running short of time or else you could have covered the stunningly beautiful Mercedes Benz Museum which was hardly 20 minutes and 3 Euros away from Porscheplatz with a change one train i.e. S4 to reach main staion and S1 from there.

Next time if you get a chance to visit Stutti(as we endearingly call it) this link might just be handy for your travels within Stuttgart
www.vvs.de

P.S: By any chance did you see Mission E models on display?

[rst89]

Originally Posted by srivatsahg

Excellent report @rst89 and on this one of a kind museum in Porscheplatz Neuwirtzhaus. Your pictures of the City Train map and Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof(Main Railway Station) entrance taken from the Konigstrasse side brought back the nostalgia associated with my stay in this beautiful city between 2009-2012.

P.S: By any chance did you see Mission E models on display?

There were no Mission E models on display when I visited the museum.

I have never been able to give justice to Stuttgart. Second time I visited Stuttgart, I again had to rush through it. When I get next opportunity, I plan to stay few days over here.

Königstraße is very busy place with street performances happening on weekends.