*Insert witty title here*: Pics from Autostadt, Porsche Museum, MB Museum and the Autobahn

[NoDubJustYet]

I have now officially been to every German manufacturer's museum... Well, not Opel but who cares? Here is my thread from BMW Welt and the Audi Museum last fall: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...plus-some-more) It didn't get much traffic, but I thought I'd put a thread together for this trip.

My brother, ErikGTI, was in town last week so we ran all over Germany... We saw a ton of cars and some F-4F Phantoms (thread to follow in the Aviation Forum). Here is an assembly of pictures that I found interesting - it's way too much work to add captions, sorry.

Now that I have seen all of the museums I rank them as:

1. Porsche
2. MB
3 (Tied) BMW
Audi
5. VW Museum
6. Autostadt

The Autostadt is severely underwelming... The architecture is amazing but the selection of cars is lacking. The Zeit Haus has an excellent collection of all sorts of cars, but the brand specific pavillions are lacking. The R8 GT Spyder was cool, but the rest of the place was a little boring. It wasn't really any better when I was there in 2008, other than having the Bentley building then. The Speed 8 has now been replaced by the Oil Sheihk/Russian Gangster Veyron.

If you've never been to Germany before and you reall want to see car stuff I suggest skipping Wolfsburg. Stick to Bavaria (BMW and Audi) and Baden-Würrtemberg (MB and Porsche) with a foray into Rheinland-Pfalz to hit the Nürburgring. Niedersachsen is too flat and boring... the beer sucks too.

An observation: German tourists love touching stuff that they shouldn't. At Autostadt a bunch of guys decided it would be cool to open the door of the W12 Nardo car. At Porsche some lady thought it would be a good idea to open the door of an original 356. And at MB another lady felt it she really needed to lean over the display to touch an old SL. WTF?

Anyway, here are the pics - let's see how long my Photobucket account can handle this:

AUTOSTADT





















































Audi Ball!

[NoDubJustYet]

PORSCHE




needs moar lower


speed holes































































RIP


Porsche Design




Butzi's personal cars























At the dealer across the street

[NoDubJustYet]

MB











Fangio




F**K YOU







Bad pano... Lighting was awful and I rushed


Designed by Porsche to go over 370mph - it was never driven due to the outbreak of WWII

At the dealer attached to the place

[NoDubJustYet]

Drive Home
What is this?


Eurotrash

Hockenheimring

On the way to an indicated 140mph...

MINI racecar

I hate caravans

Nice antennas

Sinner!

Idiot French guy that cut me off

A traffic jam on the Autobahn in the Summer? Nowai!

WTF?

[NoDubJustYet]

Wow... No one?

[FiveAinOne]

Now THESE are museums worthy of these cars. Puts Lamborghini to shame.

Nice pics.. thanks for sharing! My favorite of the bunch? The mint Rallye..

[windi]

F**K YOU

I was 'flashed' for the first time ever yesterday returning from Italy. Around 120 in a 100...

A traffic jam on the Autobahn in the Summer? Nowai!

In a construction zone no less!

I went to the Porsche and Mercedes museum a week back. I preferred Mercedes to Porsche, I just found it more interesting. Would have loved some more Gs and Unimogs though.

[windi]

Another true European highway:

Last Friday afternoon, approaching the Gotthard tunnel heading south.

Surprisingly, we made it back from Milan on Sunday without a single traffic jam.

[Dr.AK]

Looks like a fun trip! Nice pictures as well

Drive Home
What is this?

It's a Thurner RS. Only 121 were built, they re based on the chassis of the NSU 1200 C with the engine from the NSU TT.

[NoDubJustYet]

Looks like a fun trip! Nice pictures as well



It's a Thurner RS. Only 121 were built, they re based on the chassis of the NSU 1200 C with the engine from the NSU TT.

Wow... Thanks for the info!

[atomicalex]

Totally agree on the brand pavilions. The Skoda one was the best, had the most brand history, etc.

One thing we did was take the driving safety course - this was the best 25€ worth of fun imaginable. You have to book months in advance, but it's worth it. Especially if you go on a weekend when the rest of Germany is in Spain or Greece.....

[Tim@VMG]

That's some pretty cool stuff. All of these museums are on my "must visit" list for when I eventually get back over to that side of the pond.

And I know this is like the one non directly car related thing in the whole thread, but I almost bought a set of those Porsche Design kitchen knives a while back. Our knives at home have a similar handle design, and they're the most comfortable knives ever. I thought having the Porsche ones would be cool, but having duplicate knives was not something I needed to do...

You can get a set of three for about $200, though:


-Tim

[DUBLUV401]

awesome pics thanks for sharing

[NoDubJustYet]

awesome pics thanks for sharing

No problem...

I would imagine Erik will be adding some more pics shortly.

[Ed52]

unbelievakabel quality pics

now, tell us about your camera...point and shoot?

[dubjager]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! Have only made it to the Autostadt.... I agree with you on the lack of things but the delivery center was quite cool as was the tower!

[NoDubJustYet]

unbelievakabel quality pics

now, tell us about your camera...point and shoot?

I am glad you like them...

Camera is a Canon 60D with the 18-200mm kit lens. I mainly shot on the "Auto/no-flash" program. I played around with shutter priority on a few shots, but most were just the auto program.

[j. Kush]

Great stuff, thanks!

[NoDubJustYet]

I forgot... We saw a handful of the new A-Klasse driving around Stuttgart. They also had one in the museum facility.

I'd have to say it looks great in person. I'm surprised at the size; it is significantly larger than the previous model. I doubt it will end up in the US, but I would definitely consider one of these over the A3 or 1er.

[guy022077]

It is funny to see someone else's pictures of the places you've been. Porsche was closed/under construction when I was there, so was BMW. I did manage the rest while I was there though. Did you make it to any tracks while you were there? I loved all of the factory tours, pretty sweet.

[NoDubJustYet]

Did you make it to any tracks while you were there? I loved all of the factory tours, pretty sweet.

I live here...

None this trip, but I've done the Nürburgring a few times. I'll be stopping through on the way to Trier for Rallye Germany in August.

[Fritz27]

Pictures are great.

I love that watch collection. A lot of beautiful pieces in there.

[guy022077]

I live here...

None this trip, but I've done the Nürburgring a few times. I'll be stopping through on the way to Trier for Rallye Germany in August.

Ah, cool, I did the ring also it was very nice and the people were very civil. I was lost for a little while on my way to the track, we showed up when they were about to close, we ask the guy if we can still run...." is possible" and I got to do a lap. If that had been America and a foreign person showed up to the track at 4:59 I don't think they would have been as accommodating. It wasn't like being in another country it was like being on another planet.

[NoDubJustYet]

Ah, cool, I did the ring also it was very nice and the people were very civil. I was lost for a little while on my way to the track, we showed up when they were about to close, we ask the guy if we can still run...." is possible" and I got to do a lap. If that had been America and a foreign person showed up to the track at 4:59 I don't think they would have been as accommodating. It wasn't like being in another country it was like being on another planet.

To be honest, that doesn't sound very German of the track worker.

You should have know when the track closed and been at the entrance in a proper amount of time.

[HASSELHOF]

That's some pretty cool stuff. All of these museums are on my "must visit" list for when I eventually get back over to that side of the pond.

And I know this is like the one non directly car related thing in the whole thread, but I almost bought a set of those Porsche Design kitchen knives a while back. Our knives at home have a similar handle design, and they're the most comfortable knives ever. I thought having the Porsche ones would be cool, but having duplicate knives was not something I needed to do...

You can get a set of three for about $200, though:


-Tim

I have a set of the 301's and they are my favorite set of knives i've ever owned. So much so that i get a bit disappointed when i go to grab one and find that they're dirty and i have to use something else.

Thanks for the pictures.

[guy022077]

To be honest, that doesn't sound very German of the track worker.

You should have know when the track closed and been at the entrance in a proper amount of time.

That's how lost I got, we were driving around the track and all over the place watching cars speed by for about 2 hours but couldn't find the entrance. I had no gps phone and my German is.....lacking. Then a guy at the go cart place said " you go under the bridge" and that allowed us to find it. It was pretty stressful. Imagine flying over there and driving straight to the track, get lost for 2 hours then not be allowed to run, all this on the first day of your trip. It would have been trbl.

[corrago]

Very much want. Thanks for posting!

Love all the mint condition oldies.

[NoDubJustYet]

That's how lost I got, we were driving around the track and all over the place watching cars speed by for about 2 hours but couldn't find the entrance. I had no gps phone and my German is.....lacking. Then a guy at the go cart place said " you go under the bridge" and that allowed us to find it. It was pretty stressful. Imagine flying over there and driving straight to the track, get lost for 2 hours then not be allowed to run, all this on the first day of your trip. It would have been trbl.

You got quite lucky... Normally they shut down the entrance 15 minutes before closing time!

Very much want. Thanks for posting!

Love all the mint condition oldies.

No problem. It was truly amazing seeing these cars... The extreme rarity as well as importance to the history of the automobile was awesome to behold. The 917s at Porsche gave me goosebumps.

[Harv]

That R129 was Princess Diana's. The first British royalty to own a non-British car.

[NoDubJustYet]

Pics are back up...

[VadGTI]

Awesome stuff!

I was wondering who that 190E belonged to. Googled the plates, Ringo Starr:

AMG, which is now the official performance division of Mercedes-Benz, has a long history of producing high performance derivatives of Mercedes' standard production vehicles. The Affalterbach-based company offered tuning packages for the new Mercedes-Benz 190E from its introduction in 1983, and these improved versions soon attracted a huge following worldwide, prominent figures of the motorsport, entertainment, sport and business communities being counted among fans of this exciting 'pocket supercar'.

This right-hand drive AMG 190E 2.3 was supplied new by Strattons of Wilmslow, UK AMG agents, to Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. During the latter's ownership the vehicle has been registered in his various company names and in the name of his actress wife, Barbara Starkey, née Barbara Bach. Finally the car was registered in the name of his son Zak, from whom it was directly purchased by the vendor. 'B13 LAA' comes with Strattons' supplementary invoice relating to its AMG up-grades that include 'wide' body kit, 2.3-litre engine, 8"x16" alloy wheels (x5), exhaust system, lowered suspension, boot badge and steering wheel. An automatic transmission model finished in black with matching interior, the car is described as in good condition throughout and offered with MoT to April 2005 and Swansea V5 registration document. Prohibitively expensive when new, 'wide-body' AMG 190Es are very rare, there being only a handful in the UK and none with this provenance

[NoDubJustYet]

Good detective work guys!

[EternalSunshine]

Another true European highway:

Last Friday afternoon, approaching the Gotthard tunnel heading south.

Surprisingly, we made it back from Milan on Sunday without a single traffic jam.

Do they still ban the trucks on Sunday? I used to go for Sunday drives between Stuttgart and Nuremberg.

[NoDubJustYet]

Do they still ban the trucks on Sunday? I used to go for Sunday drives between Stuttgart and Nuremberg.

I wish! You won't see them on holidays at least... Actually, the day we drove back was a holiday, but only one celebrated in the Catholic areas - so we saw more and more trucks the further north we drove!

[hinshu]

You need to post pics of your ratrod beetle project