A quick tour of the Porsche Museum

I’ve always been a bit resistant to the idea of actually liking Porsches for some reason. Maybe it’s because a few friends of my dad had Porsches when I was a kid and they were all pretentious a-holes. LOL. But as a motorsports fanatic and an admirer of high quality engineering, it’s hard not to succumb to the excellence that is Porsche, and after the tour I took this summer of their brand new museum in Stuttgart, Germany I have to admit I’ve got a serious hankerin’ for a “Porch” (as the rednecks pronounce it) of my own. Maybe a flared out 930 with a whale tail and a 3.6-liter engine swap.

Anyway, on to the museum tour. This brand new state-of-the-art facility was built with very clean and futuristic styling. Clearly the anal-retentive geeks at Porsche put a lot of thought into how to light each car too, because it was hard to take a bad photo in the place.

Even the underground parking garage is spotless and housed a few cool cars including this Targa Tasmania 911 that was still sporting some dirt on it from the race. So sweet!

In the main lobby there’s a glass wall that gives you a look inside their on-site maintenance shop where some super clean vintage and more modern Porsches were getting a tune up.

Inside, the museum is designed like a rising spiral, so you work your way thru it in a circular walk that climbs a few flights in the process. It’s laid out in more or less a chronological order, starting with the really old stuff that I don’t really know much about but can certainly appreciate from an aesthetic point of view.

I especially liked the leather hood straps on this old Spyder.

But what really turned me on was all the old race cars. My favorite was the Dakar Rally winning 959, which just looks so damn funky. Porsche took the top two spots on the Dakar podium in 1986 with these bad boys.

The road racing version of the 959 was also a real eye catcher.

The Martini cars weren’t too hard on the eyes either.

There were also tons of old LeMans winning machines on display.

Love the long streamlined tail on this beast.

There were also some nice technical displays at the museum including engine and chassis cutaways and such. Here’s a GT3 engine and an old paintless LeMans tub.

The museum walk then comes to an end with tons of super clean street cars, like these Whale Tail Turbos and the infamous 959 that Bill Gates spent 10 years trying to import into the U.S. as a road legal vehicle.

This GT1 is just siiiiick. Makes the “plane Jane” GT look like a sissy’s car :p

Across the street from the museum there’s a huge Porsche dealership that is almost as impressive as the museum itself. Check out this work of art they had in their lobby.

And here’s their workshop. 997 GT3 in white? Yes please!

And check out this matte grey GT they had parked up on the second floor. Darth Vadar approved!

Go on. Admit it. You hate Porsche owners but you want to own one someday too