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Porsche Musem: The Boxer Show
Our first car trip has had as first stop-overthe Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
This trip was an emotional experience, just from the beginning. From the bistro area, it is possible to see the museum workshop in which the maintenance and restoration of cars take place, making, in that way, drinking a coffee a unique event.
Starting from June 24, to September 13, 2015, The Porsche Museum hosted an exhibition devoted to the 1950’s and, in particular, to one of the most well-known testimonials of that period: the Porsche 356.
However, it is not the end…
The scent of the petrol mixed with that of the typical oil of these palaces is incomparable!!
When the visitors arrived to the floor in which the exhibition started, the Porsche 356 SL (Super Light), which was anything but conventional, greeted the hosts.
The model was arranged by the official Porsche team during the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1951. By driving this highly competitive cardriven by AugusteVeuillet and EdmondeMouche, Porsche was the first Germancar manufacturer able to participate in and finish the La Sarthe race.
Continuing the tour, the human aspect moves the motor world to the background, making the relationship between father and son: Ferdinand and Ferdinand Jr Porsche appeared.
It is here, more than in otherGerman Museums that the story between the Man and his passion emerges. Indeed, at the beginning of the 20th century, Ferdinand Porsche, born in 1875, as 18 years old electrician enthusiast, planned an electric engine inserted in the hub.
In 1931, he moved to Stuttgart, founding the design studio able to realise true masterpieces, such as the Volkswagen Beetle, the following 356, and, during the Second World War, also some military cars.
Ferdinand Jr. (called Ferry) started to collaborate in the design studio in Stuttgart and then, taking his father’s place, when the latter was imprisoned as war criminal because of the design of military cars. Starting from that moment,Ferry had the responsibility of valuing all the cars;however, visiting the Porsche Museum it could be said that the generational passage has had positive outcomes.
Concerning the cars, there is also another “one-off”, the Porsche Typ-64, also called Berlin-Rome Wagen, planned in 1939 in order to take part in a race that started from Berlin and arrived to Rome. The car is magnificent and endowed with spatial forms, also enhanced by bare metal, it is inspired to the Beetle.
However, the Porsche brand is tightly related to Italy, in particular to the Piedmontese manufacturer Pietro Dusio, Cisitalia (which stands for CompagniaIndustrialeSportiva Italia) patron, who in 1947 commissioned a race car to Ferry Porsche: the Typ. 360 Cisitalia.
The story of this car is linked to the financial collapse of PieroDusio’s company and to the Porsche upswing, which, thanks to the revenues of that project, could invest in its future and also, as told by different sources, pay for Ferry’s father freedom, who was imprisoned in France.
Concerning the other floors, it is represented another epoch, that of Porsche 911, the car that did not tire, and that has not enough of renovating itself. The race car, also used in Gran Turismo, is able to stack up thousands of kilometres, thus, a total car.
Starting from the 911 concept, the visitors arrived to Porsche Targa and Carrera 2.7 RS with spoilers. When talking about Porsche, people tend also to talk about the huge, flashy, showy spoilers,which characterize the Porsche and that give to turbo version a unique aspect.
From the beginning, Porsche is linked to the race field; although its presence in F1 was registered starting from 1957 to 1962, and as turbo engine supplier in the 1980, it took part above all in the endurance race, in particular in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the Carrera Panamericana.
Concerning the French competition, unique cars are linked to it such as the Porsche 935 in 1978, also called Moby Dick because of its dimensions, necessary to control a 3.2 Boxer.
However, the car that has made history and that is considered as an exaggeration is the Porsche 917/20 used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1971. It had such exaggerate dimensions that it obliged the organization of the event to supply the car with an exceptional transportation because of the transferral to Le Mans. It is told that a Porsche technician while looking at it said: “it appears a sow waiting for the lunch”, and because of that assumption, the car was painted in rose identifying the different part of the pig.
The Porsche museum is also that: tradition, technique and passion at the visitors’ disposal.
Edited by Vita di Stile
Words and Photos by Raimondo Castaldo
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