A Day At The Museum… Porsche Museum

Enjoy a close-up experience of the history of Porsche. Encounter legendary racing and sports cars, fascinating production models as well as unusual prototypes. More than 80 vehicles will take you from the early years all the way to the present days of Porsche’s history.

Welcome to the Museum

A vision becomes reality. Immediately next to the headquarters of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, you can today find one of the most spectacular car museums in the world. The Porsche Museum. Be inspired by over 80 vehicles on our 5,600 square metre exhibition area.

The building designed by Delugan Meissl is a bold statement. Supported on just three V-shaped columns, the museum’s dominant main structure seems to float above the ground like a monolith.
This bold and dynamic architecture reflects the company’s philosophy. It is designed to convey a sense of reception and approachability in order to welcome visitors in a friendly manner.

The building visibly translates the dynamic nature of the Porsche brand into architecture. From every angle, the shapes of the monolith and base building look different thanks to their polygonal, avant garde forms and the variation in the structures and windows. The glazed main façade of the 23 metre high museum adorned with the Porsche logo faces north, greeting those heading into the city centre by car. The architect has succeeded in creating an eye-catching complex that nevertheless blends well into its overall setting.

“The Porsche Museum creates a space that gives architectural expression to the company’s confident outlook and discerning standards, while also capturing Porsche’s dynamism. Knowledge, credibility and determination are as fundamental to the philosophy as courage, excitement, power and independence. Every idea is treated as an opportunity actively to tackle fresh challenges and probe the limits, yet still remain true to yourself. This museum endeavours to reflect all that,” declares architect Delugan Meissl in his dedication.

Amazing journey through the Heritage of Porsche

More than 80 vehicles and many small exhibits are on display at the Porsche Museum in a unique ambience. In addition to world-famous, iconic vehicles such as the 356, 550, 911, and 917, the exhibits include some of the outstanding technical achievements of Professor Ferdinand Porsche from the early 20th century. Even then, the name of Porsche stood for the commitment never to be satisfied with a technical solution that fails to fully meet or exceed all of its requirements, including opportunities for further improvement.

From the lobby, visitors ascend a spectacular ramp to the entrance of the spacious exhibition area, where they can gain an initial overview of the impressive collection.

Here the visitor can choose whether to start with the company history before 1948 or head directly into the main area of the exhibition which represents Porsche`s product and motorsport history in chronological order. Both areas are interlinked by the “Porsche Idea” section, which forms the backbone of the exhibition.

The Idea section explains what makes the various themes and exhibits so unique. It tells of the spirit and the passion that motivate the work at Porsche, and pays tribute to the company as well as the people behind the product.

As a living automobile museum, the Porsche-Museum annually presents numerous special exhibitions on specific topics or meaningful anniversaries. Due to that special anniversary you might miss your personal favorite car in the exhibition. As a result, exhibits must be changed in the exhibition from time to time.

Museum On Wheels

Unlike many other museums, the Porsche Museum stands for joie de vivre and variety. It will retain its commitment to the long-established philosophy of the “Museum on Wheels” and will utilise, enhance, and expand the newly designed exhibition in Zuffenhausen.

Instead of a conventional static exhibition, the Porsche Museum is thus a constantly changing feast. The regular re-arrangement and re-combining of exhibits reflect the self-image of a modern company which thrives on the tension between tradition and innovation.

With the “Museum on Wheels” Porsche is taking a route no one else has traveled. Even the classic vehicles in the museum’s collection are serving the purpose for which they were built in the first place: driving!

Archives

The Porsche Museum houses a Central Department offering all the historical and contemporary knowledge about Porsche. The Historical Archive of Porsche AG moved also into the edifice, where portions of it are visible through glass walls from the lobby.

As the company’s “memory,” the Porsche Archive collects all important information concerning business, technical, social, or cultural matters relating to Porsche AG and its subsidiary companies. The archived items include anything worth saving about the unparalleled Porsche success story, from the beginnings of Ferdinand Porsche as an automobile designer to the engineering office established in 1931 all the way to today’s Porsche AG.

The Historical Archive with its accumulated knowledge is available not only to internal departments but also to external users, such as journalists and scientists. Many thousands of inquiries annually are handled here in a professional manner by the Porsche archivists.

Visitors to the museum can obtain a view of the user zone with library through a glass partition. Those suitably inspired by this sight will find various books about Porsche in the museum shop, carefully selected from the huge range of works already written about Porsche.

The Porsche archive’s holdings now cover some 2,000 metres of shelf space – stored in bookshelves, showcases, steel cabinets and safes.

A workshop at the Museum

Porsche keeps its history very much alive so that its customers can share in it. To enable it to maintain and look after classic racing and sports cars fittingly, Porsche has created a dedicated museum workshop. Here, the museum workshop personnel prepare all classic vehicles for appearances worldwide, regularly service them and perform any necessary repairs. Because however immaculate the classic cars in the “Museum on Wheels” may look, they need regular care if they are to remain permanently ready for action.

The unique feature of this workshop is that its master craftsmen and mechanics do not work behind closed doors. Visitors can watch them working on the full array of classic Porsches at first hand. On their way into the exhibition, they pass a glazed partition in the lobby that affords a perfect view into the museum workshop. Such openness is quite unprecedented even on a world scale, and only to be experienced at the Porsche Museum.

The workshop team comprises one master craftsman, three mechanics and a leatherworker. They all possess a wealth of experience in Porsche vehicles of all model years, both production and motor sport models. After all, they are ultimately responsible for correctly adjusting the sensitive high-performance engines of classic racing cars such as the twelve-cylinder turbo engine of a 917 in the manner that they require. There are two vehicle hoists, lathes and cutting machines at their disposal.

That equips them to handle virtually every service, repair or restoration task. They can even make replicas of simple mechanical components if necessary. Minor body repairs are also part of their task area. The workshop team can call upon the entire Porsche infrastructure for any tasks they are unable to complete on site.

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Original source: Porsche Museum Website. Retrieved on April 8, 2015.