Stuttgart Trip October 2019 Gallery
A long weekend visit to the Porsche Factory and Museum
Stuttgart Trip 11th – 14th October 2019
Whilst the Club organise many factory visits, we recognise that not everyone can afford the time out of their busy lives for such long trips. After a trial run, using public transport last October, the fifteen spaces for this year’s R3 factory tour were snapped up as soon as they were announced.
Fourteen members flew out of Edinburgh to Stuttgart on the Friday, meeting another couple who had gone out early to explore Stuttgart on their own for a few days. Lucky for us that they did, as checking into our chosen hotel, they discovered that the hotel chain’s customer services had booked us into Dusseldorf! Finding 9 hotel rooms at short notice in Stuttgart, during the annual beer festival and an international gymnastic championship wasn’t easy. Using his best organising skills, ably assisted by some of our committee, our panic was over and a hotel was found in Zuffenhausen, rather that our planned Stuttgart city centre one.
Catching the train from the airport, we located our hotel (which turned out to be a good find) checked in then searched out a Chinese buffet restaurant that could accommodate all sixteen of us at short notice.
Staying in Zuffenhausen meant we only had a short stroll to the Porsche Museum on Saturday morning. Having spent several hours admiring the thousands of horsepower on display, all charting the history of Porsche, from the early technical advancements of Ferdinand Porsche through to the latest Le Mans winning cars. This year the emphasis was on 50 years of the 917 and electric Porsches, including an electric wheel hub motor from 1900. After a Porsche themed lunch in the Museum’s Boxenstopp, most of us decided to take the train to Bad Cannstatt for a walk through Cannstatter Volksfest, Stuttgart’s beer festival. After battling the crowds of locals dressed in their traditional Dirndl and Lederhosen, we headed into town for our evening meal.
The Sunday morning was spent in the Mercedes Museum. Even Porsche enthusiasts can’t fail to be impressed by the extensive history of the marque. We then played tourist on the open top busses, exploring the best Stuttgart has to offer, before finding a pavement café to regroup before an al fresco evening meal together. Our choice of restaurant turned out to be an interesting one. Firstly, we spotted our very first Taycan “out in the wild”, even before the Barcelona dealer launch. By the time we noticed it, recognised it as a Taycan, and reached for our phones for a photo, it had gone. We then became unwitting bystanders of a Turkish protest march accompanied by scores of armed and mounted police, not quite the relaxing meal we had envisaged.
Monday morning was our eagerly anticipated factory tour. Last year we missed out most of the production line, as the 992 was still veiled in secrecy. This year we got the complete tour, including countless Speedsters, all in various stages of completion. Once our tour was over, it was back to the airport for our flight home. Everyone was agreed, it’s a definite tick off the bucket list for any Porsche enthusiast.