Museum

While traveling on business to Germany I found time to make a quick stop in Stuggart to visit the famous Porsche Werks. On a quiet Sunday, I drove into the city of Stuggart with hopes of seeing the famous buildings of the Porsche Facilities. Luckily, the factory museum AND the factory dealership were open for my enjoyment! Captured here are pictures of some of the fantastic cars.

Note: Graphic Intesive display (sorry 56kers). All pictures are linked to their full sized file. Feel free to download (but not link too).

The museum is a small alley of a room next to New Car Delivery and the Porsche Design Store. It holds about 20 cars that depict some of the history of Dr. Ferdinand and his company. There are exhibits of his early work with Benz, some of the early race cars (pre-Porsche Engineerng) and a tractor. All these took place prior to the development of the 356. The exhibits then turn to many of the street cars, and race cars that propelled the Porsche name into the Winner's Circle many times over. Really interesting, but I wished for more information on the cars and their history. In front of most cars was just a brief description including the factory project number, engine stats, and maybe the years of production. Also, may models were noticable absent (like the entire 924/928/944/951/968 line). There is a wall that contains 1:43 models of every project made, but it just wasn't the same! It was definately a great experience - most of the race cars are priceless considering their heritage and records.....

This is the concept car called the Panamericana. It is a one-of-a-kind that was delivered to Ferdinand on his 80th birthday. In my opinion it is hideous! This is why concepts are concepts :) There is a cool feature on the wheels though - look closely at the tread.....

This is the aluminum frame/chassis/body cage of a 917 racer. Just your usual hi-strength aluminum alloy weldment - nothing tricky - umm yeah right! Look at the welds in the second shot - this is welding at the high art. In the third shot you can see a little nipple on the horizontal cross bar. This is to perform a leakdown inspection on the tubes. If you have leakage, you kave microcracks in the tubes or at the welds.

1997 Factory Race Team GT1 Evo - talk about priceless! They shouldn't have left the gull doors unlocked, I was tempted to jump in. Hey look, you can even order carbon dash kits from the Tequipment guys for your Evo at home!

The #23 917 was Porsche's first victory at Le Mans in 1970. This is a 4.5L flat 12 - essentially two 911 engines put together turning over 500 hp. The 917/30 on the right has a jaw-dropping 1100 hp! This car was invincible in the early seventies in the Can-Am series.