Porsche Museum Stuttgart Overview & Guide
The new 100 million euro Porsche museum was built a 1 minute walking distance away from the old tiny museum that was located on the factory plot. The new museum project was announced in 2004 and the museum was opened on January 31, 2009. It has space for 80 cars and 200 additional exhibits in a 5600 m2 / 60,300 square feet exhibition area. The museum has actually more than 500 cars and they are rotated from storage to museum and to events around the globe. So, you should visit the museum frequently to see all the treasures they have. The museum’s underground garage has 260 parking spaces for visitors.
Chronology of the New Porsche Museum
- 2004 July 30: The Board of Management of Porsche AG announces the decision to build the new Porsche Museum
- 2004 October: The final competition for the new Museum is held among ten renowned architects’ offices from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In all, 170 European architects’ offices had applied for the project.
- 2005 January 31: The jury awards the first prize to the Viennese architects’ office Delugan Meissel
- 2008 October: The displays and small exhibits are positioned on the Exhibition Level
- 2008 November 3: The first twelve exhibition cars are moved to the second upper level of the new Museum. Painting the ceiling and walls goes with the cars under covers, but already fitted on their places for the lighting specialists to be able to set the correct lighting for the cars
- 2008 November 5: The Porsche brand name highlighting the Porsche Museum is fitted in position on the glass facade
- 2009 January 31: The Museum is opened for visitors
- 2015 August 31: “Inspiration 911”, a sculpture by Gerry Judah, launched on Porscheplatz.
The Porsche Museum Is Massive
The Porsche Archives located at the new museum, extend along a total distance of over 2 km / 1.3 miles spread out on shelves, displays, steel cabinets and vaults. As one of the largest picture archives in the automotive industry, the Porsche Archives comprise more than 3000 car books, over 1500 hours of footage and more than 2.5 million photos. And counting! A further highlight is the comprehensive collection of written documents on the history of Porsche products, racing activities and the Company as such.
Events & Conferences
The Porsche Museum is also available as an event location for other purposes, for example for conferences, film screenings or concerts, quite independently of the usual exhibition activities.
We visited the new museum already in the end of 2008, when it wasn’t open for the public yet and since then couldn’t wait to get back there – to see it finished. The New Museum was opened on January 31, 2009 and we were there on May 29, but the building was not 100% finished. Approximately 200,000 Porsche-fans had already visited it. That is a lot compared to the old museum, which was visited by around 80,000 persons a year.
Porsche Museum Videos
The Porsche Museum in Stuttgart displays a rare wealth of Porsche cars that have shaped the company since 1948. However there is more. There is a wider collection of very special and important cars that belong to the Museum, that up until now, have sat in separate locations. Recently a new storage space was found to hold all of these wonderful cars together allowing them to be maintained and cared for all under one roof. Go behind the scenes of this exclusive new facility and learn more about some of the hidden treasures contained within. Explore the future of our history.
In this second part of the Porsche ‘Museum Secrets’ mini series we take a look at some of the special editions contained in the collection including a prototype 928 and bullet proof 911 (type 996). Go behind the scenes of this exclusive new storage facility and learn more about some of the hidden treasures contained within. Explore the future of our history.
More Information
Porsche Museum visit information: porsche.com/museum
Porsche Museum Image Gallery
928 Cabriolet prototype
911 Turbo Cabriolet prototype shown at the 1981 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show
911 G-model
1969 Targa Florio was completely wiped by 908/02 K Spyders: 1. #266 Gerhard Mitter/Udo Schütz, 2. #270 Vic Elford/Umberto Maglioli, 3. #274 Rolf Stommelen/Hans Herrmann, 4. #272 Willy Kauhsen/Karl von Wendt
997 clay model showing how a body prototype is created
The 1987 4-door 928 prototype was called as the “H 50”. There are many interesting things about that car. Firstly, the rear-winding rear doors (Mazda started using the same idea on their 2003 RX-8). Then the modified front seats which incorporate seat belts as there are no B-pillars anymore.
1997 Porsche 911 996 GT1 Street-version
Tiptronic gearbox in a police 911
Porsche gave police a car with the lazy Tiptronic gearbox, so the police could only catch the people who bought Porsche with Tiptronic. That’s OK, because buying a Porsche with automatic is a felony and you must be caught for a felony.
Rallye version of the 959. Two 959 took the 1-2 win in 1986 Paris-Dakar Rallye.
Twin-turbo system of the most powerful Porsche, the 1973 917/30
Fleet of the 917 racing cars. There were more than 10 versions of racing cars called 917. The one in front is 917/30, the most powerful Porsche ever produced and the most powerful race track car ever (5.4-litre 12-cyl. bi-turbo, ~1200 kW). It basically competed only one season (1973) as the fuel consumption limit was introduced after they saw this beast.
Although marinized 928 S4 engines were marketed by Wizeman Marine, this 928 off-shore race boat engine (type M28/70, 5.0V8 bi-turbo, 551 kW) is made in Weissach. Two such engines were installed in one racing boat.
1974 EA425. This VW sports car designed by Porsche between 1972-1974 evolved to a 1975 Porsche 924 after Volkswagen chose the Karmann-designed Scirocco to be their sports car. 924 then became the first Porsche with engine in the front and gearbox in the rear. It had the 50/50 weight distibution. It was the beginning for the 924-944-968 series – these cars were said to be the best handling cars in the world at the time of production.
PORSCHE-lettered tyres on the Boxster prototype
The 1993 Boxster prototype was even better-looking than the production car that came out in 1996
The 1993 Boxster prototype was even better-looking than the production car that came out in 1996
1970 Porsche 911S prototype with extended wheelbase (called type 915) – another study trying to make more space for the rear occupants. The wheelbase was extended by 35 cm / 14″. We saw this car first time in July 2006 when visiting Porsche’s Restoration Department in Werk 1.
One of the 911 prototypes, the type 754 (2-liter 4-cylinder 130hp). Fortunately this shape didn’t go into production because Ferry Porsche thought that appealing design is more important than practicality and he had the full size rear seats deleted.
Hollow-spoke wheel prototype. Hollow-spoke wheels were used in 993 Turbo and 996 Turbo
911 Speedster concept car shown at the 1987 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show. The production 911 Speedster came out in 1989 and looked more similar to the 911 Cabriolet.
959 and 911 964 Turbo S 3.6 Flachbau
911 964 Turbo S 3.3
Carrera GT, 911 996 GT1 street-version, 911 993 Carrera police car
Type 915 long wheelbase 911S prototype, Panamericana show car, Boxster prototype
356 no.1 and 360 Cisitalia
The recreation of the body of the 1939 KdF Berlin-Rome race car (Porsche type 60 K10)
The recreation of the body of the 1939 KdF Berlin-Rome race car (Porsche type 60 K10)
Old Porsche Museum in Stuttgart (1976 – 2008)
The original Porsche factory museum was established in 1976 and was located beside the factory until the new museum was opened. Compared to the new museum, the old one was really tiny, with just one hall.
Good to see the museum but its sad to see how Porsche has turned to making profits by appealing to the masses and does not cater to the purists anymore. They ditched the hydraulic steering, increased wheelbase, increased overall dimensions of all the sports cars, added touchscreens, removed analog buttons and dials on PCM & Speedos and made the cars look ugly as hell. They don’t make sports cars anymore but luxury tourers. Even BMW and other luxury brands were doing the same, Porsche was the only sports car brand that used to be true to it’s name. I was hoping the Porsche family takeover might change things but it only went on to get worse. The prices have increased and the number of cylinders have reduced in some models now even featuring turbos. Porsche is no longer the purist Porsche it used to be. Shame really!
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