I just returned from Stuttgart...

[Rick Lee]

My X-mas vacation was a very cold, snowy trip to see a lot of friends in Germany. Monday I made it to Zuffenhausen to check out the Porsche Museum. The tours do not resume until next week, so I was out of luck there. I will post pix when I get them developed. The museum was small, but had some amazing rides there. I recall a 959, 917, a jacked-up rally 911, one of the very first 911's (all immaculate of course) and some great looking engines. I did a lot of shopping at the various gift shops in the museum, customer center and original spare parts buildings. I wanted to pick up some Euro tail light lenses for my '87 Carrera. Imagine my shock when the guy at the "Original Spare Parts Dept." said he did not have them in stock and would have to order them. I said "Order them from where? I'm at the Porsche factory." Anyway, I had to get to Frankfurt that night and fly out yesterday. So I had no time to wait for the "delivery."

Even more worth seeing than the museum is the Porsche Zentrum dealership across the street from the main complex. They had a GT2, a cutaway of a Boxster -- I mean it was a real Boxster, sawed in half diagonally -- some immaculate oldies, a 904, a 917 and some other great looking 996's. Again, I'll post photos in a few days.

I was in heaven. To see all those 996's driving around, as if it were the only car on the road. I mean I saw hundreds of them, many with plastic covering the panels, just driving from lot to lot. But I have to say BMW has put a lot more into their museum than has Porsche. Anyway, it's worth a trip for any P-car fan.

Since it was so snowy in Germany over the last few weeks, I saw no P-cars really performing on the highways there. I had an Opel for my rental, which did about 120 mph. I saw a few P-cars in Berlin and driving around Leipzig. But not much action on the highways, except for the Audis, BMW's and Mercedes. BTW, the people at the Porsche factory were extremely friendly.

[JuiceMan]

Wow! Wish I could go on a vacation. Great post Richard.

[Mark Howard]

I'm headed over to Germany with my national guard unit on January 17th for the 2002 "Victory Focus" Warfighter exercise with the the V Corps. During my stay, I hope to get out to the P-car museums as well.

Any advice you can offer?

[Rick Lee]

Mark,

The tours should be back in full swing when you're there. Call your local P-car dealership and have them fax you the registration form. If they give you the runaround, call the Porsche HQ in Nevada and ask for their foreign delivery (I forget the correct term) dept. Make sure you go to the spare parts dept., as there are a ton of gift items for sale there. It's called Originale Ersatzteile. It a short walk from the Porsche Zentrum dealership and the museum is a few blocks away too. Be sure to stop in the gift shop next to the museum too, though the museum has a lot for sale. There are a ton of signs for everything, so you should not have a problem. If you really have time and patience, pick up one of those "Oldtimer" magazines at any news stand or train station and write down some names of Porsche mechanics and parts suppliers in whichever areas you're traveling. Then pay 'em a visit. If you get to Munich, check out the BMW museum. It's very impressive.

[TJM Carguy]

Sounds like an amazing trip, Richard!

[cegerer]

"Order them from where? I'm at the Porsche factory."

ROFL!

[GIBSON]

I took the tour a few years ago, just when Porsche was getting ready to introduce the 993 Twin Turbo. Of course, it's a great experience. I joined a group from the 914 club, our tour guide was not paying that much attention to where we went so I peeked into every building and under every car I could find. One plain brick building had semi-blacked out windows. I could just see enough to recognize Porsche employees working on a Mercedes Benz line, I think it was the 500E (Porsche tweaked that car for Mercedes if I remember correctly). Then I saw a disguised car in a parking lot, it looked like something unusual so I crawled under to take a look. Sure enough, twin turbos. The tour guide would not admit to what it was. The next day I drove to the Nurburgring (in my rented VW Golf) and hiked through the woods to a great viewing spot. I heard some cars coming through the forest, sure enough, there was the Turbo I had seen the day before going through high speed tests and the Ring. I watched through the day and when the North course opened to regular cars I paid my money and drove a few laps in the VW Golf. Every time I took a fast corner my luggage would shift in the trunk. Funny, I doubt Fangio ever had that problem.
It's a great experience. All my relatives are from Stuttgart, the phone book has 6 pages of Herrmann's. Could not find anyone I knew but it was nice being there for a short time.

Bruce Herrmann

[howie944]

Just a bit of help here. PCNA is no longer in Reno Nevada. Hasn't been for a few years now. They moved to Atlanta. I miss it being in Reno..Used to have an event that was usually sponsored by Porsche called "Sports Cars and All That Jazz". Great event. Had some pretty great cars..(not only Porsche) and some super jazz artists (One of which, Joyce Cooling from the Bay area, won the upcoming Jazz artist of the year a couple of years ago).

[jluetjen]

I'm lucky also to have relatives in the Stuttgart area as well as near Munich. During my visits I've come to the conclusion that Germany has a lot of good car museums.

* Porsche's Museum: When I was there it wasn't much more then a big room with lots of awsome cars crammed inside and historic posters on the walls. In summary: There is nothing here that isn't associated with speed.

* Mercedes' Museum: A history of the automobile with some airplane and ship engines thrown in for good measure. Oh, by the way, there are also a lot of neat race cars. You don't have to look hard to see some of Dr. Porsche's early work, such as the SSK. You get the sense that in spite of the size of the place, Mercedes has more in the back room then what they are showing.

* BMW: It's like they were thinking: We're going to make this a BMW experience with the best materials and the neatest design. When I was there the best description of the place was "Pop Art". It was as much a study of the transportation culture in Germany as it is a museum. They have some cool cars (such as the M1, 2002 Turbo) stuck in some unusual places such as on the wall. Keep your eye out for Marilyn Monroe and the Isetta. It was right between the soldier in the sidecar and the airplane engine. It was that kind of place.

Each was definitely worth the visit.

Now I want to go back!!!!! I wonder what VW, Audi and Opel have?

[Rick Lee]

That reminds me -- while staying with friends in Halle, one of whom is a big shot at Siemens, I was told Porsche and BMW both are planning huge production facilities in or near Leipzig, to be up and running sometime in 2003. This will not only be a huge boost to that region's terrible unemployment, but it will likely boost tourism (foreign delivery) there and will hopefully spawn another car museum or two. As I'm sure they'll be super, state-of-the-art facilities, touring those places will be excellent. One of the best-kept secrets of eastern Germany it that most of the roads are totally new, having been recently renovated. So it's nice to drive fast there.

Another tidbit I forgot to mention. At the Porsche Zentrum dealership in Zuffenhausen they had a huge wooden crate with "Cayenne" stamped on it. Of course, it was empty. But it was just a teaser. Some of my friends there said they were really looking forward to it. Having seen few SUV's there and driving in horrible snow conditions almost every day, I can see why the Cayenne has a ready and waiting audience.

[GIBSON]

Porsche's Leipzig plant is up and running as far as I know, doing pre-production work on the Cayenne. I think that plant sucked up all of Porsche's racing funds.
BTW, Audi has a great tour and museum, VW is very high-tech
and worth a visit, don't know about Opel. You could spend 3 weeks just visiting all of these manufacturers.

Bruce

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

"Order them from where? I'm at the Porsche factory."

Yes thats fact at the factory they build new cars and don´t stock all the parts for the old cars. Those are at the big warehouse in Tammerfeld ( Just some 25 km´s North BAB exit Ludwigsburg North. Look to the right and you will see the Porsche neon script now the buildings are hidden by a IKEA ).
If you order before 9.00 the parts will come with the truck late noon. If you order after 9.00 you have to wait for the next day. Normaly you can pick your parts at 8´30.

Grüsse

When I visit the staates I will have a factory tour at Ford Flint and after that ask them for some german Tailights from a 87 SC ( T-Bird ). I guess they even don´t knew that such a car is still existing

[Drago]

There's a lot of cross-pollination between the Geman auto manufacturers. They all seem to sit on each others boards (and marriage binds them as well).

Porsche, of course, is a very desirable engineering office, one that I would love to spend some donated time in.

Edit: damm vB code.

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

I forget the exact numbers

There are no numbers the only number is that every car manufactorer is a costumer from Porsche engeneering services but seem to be ashamed of that and only a very low rate is telling that they had some aid. Not to forget is that Porsche engennering constructs and gives services to all mobile technical aspects from lawnmores to space shuttles.

Grüsse