Stuttgart

After our crazy travels, Andy and I woke up the next morning and decided to head to a couple car museums. We would have liked to see more of the city of Stuttgart, but only had one day for activities. Since the weather wasn't real conducive to lengthy outdoor activities, we settled on museum visits.


Andy and I got passes for the S-Bahn, which is the train system in Stuttgart. Although we didn't have an idea of what most of the signs said, the system was pretty intuitive since it was similar to the Metro in Washington D.C. This station was Universitat since it was at the University of Stuttgart, where we were staying with one of Jenn's friends.


Or so we thought until the train stopped at a platform where everyone had to get off prior to our destination. We had this view of the city prior to figuring out that we had to take a bus to get to the next stop. Between here and the Universitat station, we had the opportunity to see the Behr and Bosch headquarters, located in a district of Stuttgart called Feuerbach. The photos through the train window didn't turn out so great, but they were neat to see anyway.


We finally made it to Porscheplatz in the famous Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart!


The buildings across from the museum are part of the Porsche factory. We didn't have time for a factory tour, unfortunately. Something to save for next time!


A view of the Porsche museum. This is actually the second museum to be built, and was finished in early 2009. The original museum was small and only allowed for about 20 exhibits, so this one is significantly larger. I am not a real fan of modern architecture, but I give kudos to the structural engineer for dealing with the crazy angles and cantelievers.


Although the museum cost was a little steep at 8 Euros (about 10 dollars) a person, it was totally worth it. I felt like I had walked into a Porsche magazine shoot.

A close up of a Porsche emblem on a Boxter. I had never previously noticed that the emblem bears the name of city where the cars are manufactured. Andy and I both got a kick out of the 5 or 6+ times throughout the museum where Porsche denounced the use of a bucking horse as a symbol by Ferrari. Apparently Porsche feels quite passionate that Ferrari copied.

At first I was wondering what the heck the deal was with this exhibit, until I read the sign (all the signs were luckily in German and English).

Sweet.

I took this photo for Pat. Apparently Porsche had a hand in the engine design of the V-Rod.

Variations of the Porsche 917 race car. The 917 was the car that gave Porsche its first LeMans wins in 1970 and 1971, followed by several subsequent wins.

My new car! I wish. This baby, a Carrera GT (aka 980), will set you back a cool 500,000 Euros, or about $650,000. It is powered by a 5.7 Liter V10, which gives you 600 hp. I am sure you wouldn't have any problem passing as you can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds with a max speed of 205 mph. I was amazed that they just let you walk right up to the vehicles, considering how expensive they are.

Although it wasn't really the point of the museum, the lighting and layout made many exhibits quite picturesque.

Andy checking out one of the two halves of different cars on display. These were literally sawed right in half to allow you to check out all the internal parts.

After the amazing experience at the Porsche museum, we got back on the train and headed to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, located just off the Bad Canstatt stop. Like the Porsche Museum, the Mercedes-Benz Museum building was a sight of its own.

Repicas of some of the first Benz vehicles from 1885.

Karl Benz designed numerous types of vehicles besides the motorized carriage. The museum offered examples of different vehicle types in this exhibit.

Mercedes was a brand of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellshaft (DMG) vehicles. DMG was named after Gottlieb Damiler, who was a pioneer of internal combustion engines. Daimler's business partner, Wilhem Maybech, named DMG sports car models after his daughter, Mercedes. When both Benz and DMG fell on hard times in the mid 1920s, the two came to an agreement to become Mercedes-Benz in 1926. These are some of the first Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Dies used for the Benz and Mercedes-Benz emblems.

A 1930's sedan.

Since the Carrera GT wasn't going to fit in my suitcase, I was hoping this 1928 Mercedes-Benz Tourenwagen would!

Andy said he'd take this 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K.

This 1938 Mercedes-Benz 260D Pullman Limousine made me think of vehicles used by the Nazis.

The gull-wing doors were kind of neat on this 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe.

One of the racing displays was setup on a pseudo-track.

The concept car display was one of the last dispays we had time to see, and spanned between two floors.

An F400 Carving would be ok for me, too!

We had a view of the Mercedes-Benz headquarters building with its rotating emblem on top prior to heading back to the train station after the museum closed.

We got a laugh out of this sign before getting on the train to head back (I figured my friend Christina would get a kick out of this too.) We both look forward to visiting in the future, hopefully in the summer, so we can see some WWII historic sites.