Racing Cars, Hub Motors, and a Porsche Made of Lego - The Porsche Museum Stuttgart

Last day of the week. After visiting the Mercedes-Benz Museum the day before, the expectations were clear: Porsche would be different. Probably smaller, certainly more focused, and with a different relationship to its own history. What I hadn’t expected: that the first truly surprising moment would happen right at the very first exhibits - and it would involve electric motors.

Arriving in Zuffenhausen

The museum sits directly next to the Porsche factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, and the architecture itself makes a statement: the building appears to hover above the ground, the entrance leads into a hall that opens upward. Everything very white, very neat, very Porsche.

Compared to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which guides you through epochs and historical moments like through a history book, the Porsche Museum is more gallery than time travel. The exhibits stand in the space, illuminated like art objects. What Porsche has, Porsche shows - and it does so with a self-assurance that you can either find impressive or a bit self-absorbed. I found it impressive.

Between the Lohner-Porsche and Le Mans legends, I spent about three hours - with a coffee in between and a currywurst at the museum restaurant. Not a bad lunch program.

The Surprise at the Beginning: Porsche Was Electric First

Anyone who equates Porsche with boxer engines, rear engines, and the smell of gasoline will be momentarily stopped at the beginning of the exhibition. The Lohner-Porsche from 1900 - an electric vehicle with hub motors directly in the front wheels - is one of those moments where you have to pause and double-check that you read the year correctly. 1900. Hub drive. The principle that is being intensively discussed again today, Ferdinand Porsche tried out 125 years ago.

Right nearby is the air-cooled boxer engine, cut in half and standing freely - as if someone had disemboweled a 911 and put its innards on display. Beautifully unadorned.

The Pig - and Other Le Mans Legends

Anyone who loves motorsport will spend more time in the racing section than planned. The Porsche 917/20 - internally and affectionately called “The Pig” - is simply one of the most iconic racing vehicles in history with its pink and white butcher shop livery. Le Mans 1971, built as an aerodynamic test vehicle, with an extremely wide body and heavily rounded wheel arches. Designer Anatole Lapine decided on pink paint and labeled individual body parts like parts of a pig - snout, tail, belly. The thing looked absurd on the track - and still won the practice session. In the main race, it crashed out shortly before the end. The story would have been rounder with a victory, but somehow the ending fits the machine.

Next to it, Le Mans vehicles from other eras, racing cars whose inner workings you can also examine - cockpit, technology, tubing, everything in the tightest space.

Doris and Edith

Two 911 Carrera 4S models, heavily modified, both with names - and both with a story behind them that is far greater than a display pedestal would suggest. In December 2023, racing driver Romain Dumas drove these two vehicles up the volcano Ojos del Salado in Chile - and set a new altitude world record for motor vehicles with “Edith” at 6,721 meters. Portal axles, 350 millimeters of ground clearance, aramid fiber undercarriage protection, steer-by-wire - and underneath it all, the unchanged production six-cylinder boxer engine, powered by eFuels. That it was precisely a 911 that made it to where no car had been before is actually a typically Porsche story: the vehicle has no business being up there. And it does it anyway.

Technology to Touch - and a Panamera Cut in Half Lengthwise

One of the stronger moments in the museum is the Panamera cut lengthwise. You stand next to it and look into a car like looking into a dollhouse model - seat shells, dashboard, tunnel, floor pan, everything at a glance, as if someone decided to saw an €90,000 car in half. That explains more about vehicle architecture than any brochure.

The Exhibit You Don’t Expect

Somewhere between two actual racing cars stands a Porsche made of Lego. Not a model - but a life-size 1:1 Lego Speed Champions 911 Turbo, on a pedestal. Silver, angular, with those unmistakably pixelated Lego headlights and a Porsche emblem that somehow looks real anyway.

Practical Information

The Porsche Museum is more compact than the Mercedes-Benz Museum, but no less dense. Two to three hours is realistic without rushing. The restaurant in the basement does its job well - the currywurst is appropriately impressive.

Address	Porscheplatz 1, 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
Opening Hours	Tue-Sun 9-6 PM, Mon closed
Admission	Current prices on website
Getting There	S-Bahn S6, Neuwirtshaus / Porscheplatz stop
Website	museum.porsche.com

Conclusion

The Porsche Museum is not a museum that explains what the world was like when these vehicles were built. It explains what Porsche is - and it’s very confident about it. The architecture, the lighting, the way vehicles stand in the space: this is brand presentation at a high level, but with real substance behind it. The Lohner-Porsche alone is worth a visit. The fact that “The Pig” and a sawed-open Panamera stand nearby doesn’t make things worse. Unfortunately, you’re only allowed to sit in a Boxster… The line for photos was veeery long and it’s just a Boxster after all. But otherwise, an exciting visit to Zuffenhausen.

A good week comes to an end. Sinsheim, Speyer, the Hockenheimring, Stuttgart - and in between, more step counter kilometers than in my typical week.