You see them before you see the museum. Three white 911s shooting into the sky over Zuffenhausen on slender steel stelae, as if they had just taken off and had not yet decided where to land. An F-Modell from 1970, a G-Modell from 1981, and a 911 of the generation then current. The British artist Gerry Judah placed the sculpture "Inspiration 911" on the Porscheplatz in 2015, at the spot where the first 911 came off the line in 1963.
Behind it, white and angular, the Porsche-Museum. A building that ought not to be able to stand, and that has nevertheless done exactly that since 2009.
A house that floats
The Vienna practice Delugan Meissl set the exhibition body on only three supports. The building weighs about 35,000 tonnes and still seems to hang above the ground. On 31 January 2009 it received its first visitors. Before that, Porsche had a small museum in Zuffenhausen, with only about 20 vehicles. Today there are more than 80, on 5,600 square metres.
Inside, everything is white. Floors, walls, ramps. The cars stand in it like punctuation, red, yellow and silver on a blank page. You walk a circuit arranged in time, and you soon notice that what is on show is not simply cars, but a way of thinking: light, efficient, clever rather than strong.
Number 1 and Switzerland
The beginning is not Stuttgart, but a sawmill in Gmünd in Kärnten, where the Porsche design office had been moved in 1944. There Ferry Porsche built the 356 "Nr. 1" Roadster, a light two-seater with a mid-engine. On 8 June 1948 it received its registration. The young firm needed money, and so the very first Porsche was sold still in 1948, for 7,000 francs, to the Swiss entrepreneur Rupprecht von Senger.
In those years Switzerland was more than a sales market for Porsche. Aluminium for the body was scarce in post-war Austria; in Switzerland it was there. The roadster was presented in July 1948 in Bern, around the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten. The second Porsche went to the coachbuilder Beutler in Thun, to develop a cabriolet. And the marque's first motor-show appearance was in 1949 at the Genf show, with a Gmünd coupé for 15,000 francs and a Beutler cabriolet for 17,000 francs. Porsche is even said to have considered building the whole series in Switzerland.
Number 1 then changed hands several times, suffered an accident and was modified. In 1958 Porsche brought it back and gave the last owner a new 356 Speedster in exchange. Today it is the most important car in the house. And it still wears its modifications, because, out of respect for its history, it was not converted back.
From the Typ 695 to the 911
At the end of the 1950s it was clear that the 356 needed a successor. One of the steps towards it stands in the museum: the Typ 695, also called T7, a design from 1959. You can already see the line that has remained: the flat nose, the falling roof, the round headlights. In 1963 the 901 came to market, and shortly afterwards it had to be called 911. Switzerland appears here too: at the Genf show in 1964 Porsche showed a light-blue 901 prototype as a Swiss premiere.
Since then the 911 has changed again and again, and yet never in its foundations. That is perhaps the real achievement you visit in this museum: building the same car for sixty years without it growing old.
Racing as a laboratory
Racing is given a lot of room in the museum, and there is a reason. At Porsche the track was always a test ground as well. The Group C cars of the 1980s stand here, in the colours known from Le Mans. Beside them a Formula 1 car from McLaren, whose TAG turbo engine was developed by Porsche. With this engine Niki Lauda won the world championship in 1984, and Alain Prost in 1985 and 1986.
A museum that drives
What sets this house apart from many others: a large part of the exhibits can be driven. Porsche speaks of the "rolling museum". Cars leave the exhibition for races, rallies and outings, and others take their place. If you come twice, you do not see the same thing twice. Through a pane of glass you look into the museum workshop, where the vehicles are maintained.
Sometimes something is there that was never meant for the public: test mules with the technology left open, pipes and silencers where there would otherwise be paint and chrome. Such cars do not tell of the shine. They tell of the work behind it.
Why the journey is worth it
From Zürich you are in Zuffenhausen in about three hours by car. The drive is worth it, also for anyone who does not drive a Porsche. The museum does not only tell the story of a marque. It tells how a sawmill in Kärnten, a Beetle parts bin and a Swiss buyer with 7,000 francs in his pocket became one of the world's best-known sports cars.
And when you step back out onto the Porscheplatz at the end, the three 911s are still up there. As if they had been waiting for you.
The Porsche-Museum in brief
- Address: Porscheplatz 1, 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
- Getting there: S-Bahn S6 to Neuwirtshaus (Porscheplatz); from Zürich about 3 hours by car
- Exhibition: more than 80 vehicles on 5,600 m², exhibits that change
- Opening hours and prices: porsche.com/museum
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