Z356

Just arrived in today to Stuttgart and took the S6 to Zuffenhausen. Staying at the Hotel Neuwirtshaus, just a few blocks away from the factory. Had dinner tonight with Jurgen Barth at his home in nearby Sachsenheim! Informal affair as he cooked dinner for the two of us! Great stories - both about his dad and about his own distinguished career! Coming back to the hotel tonight, the Porsche factory and Museum at night has a magic & color all its own! To be continued...

Saludos,
Eduardo

JSF101

nice! pick me up a new Cayman, please!

David A

Have fun! Please post more photos if you can.

Keadog

Hey Eduardo, my 981S should be in production, though I'm not sure where. Scheduled for completion 4/26.
Maybe you can get some pics for me
Have a great time!

mile2424

Nice! I need to go to the museum for a few days and take pictures! I couldn't even imagine how long I would want to stay in there!

SIXPEED

Great pics. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure you were in heaven.

jon911S

Thank you for sharing. Please post if you learn any information about the upcoming 991 Targa.

Z356

1) 10 AM - Factory Tour at Porsche Zuffenhausen. Cameras are not allowed. In fact they were 'collected' and 'stored' prior to the start of our tour! This is about my 15th visit to Zuffenhausen. First one was in 1981 during a PCA Treffen (first photo...when I had black hair!). I also did a European Delivery on a 944 in 1982 and a 944 Turbo around 1985! Everytime I traveled to Europe I managed to drop by Zuffenhausen for a visit! That is how I met Jurgen Barth in the 1980's - while picking up 'special parts' at Frau Bauer 'in-house' emporium at Werk 1! These were the days we could take cameras inside the factory and photograph at will! Weissach was open to group tours and we were taken on 'hot laps' by factory drivers! Not any more. Weissach is now closed to any visitors while construction takes place...I was last there in 1996...but some think it will never be re-opened to the public! The rest of the attached photos were taken after the tour was completed and from 'outside' the factory fences!

My last Zuffenhausen visit was in 2007 and some of the changes at the factory are dramatic. Of course, the Museum is now finished! The Porsche dealership across the street is open for 'business' (Porsche bought our Hahn years ago, which was the Stuttgart dealership we used to deal with prior to that at their various Stuttgart locations - never in Zuffenhausen). Engine construction is done at a new building! The gate near the 'European Delivery' area has been moved to embark more territory for the factory grounds. More parts are being sourced by vendors via 'just in time' deliveries. Porsche Zuffenhausen is literally an assembly plant - the vendors are the 'manufacturers' of the actual parts that go into the cars! Had the 'pleasure' of seeing a metallic dark blue Boxster assembled with a 'guards red' rear bumper...then pulled off the line to 'correct' the mistake. Never seen that happened. They felt it was better to do this than to disrupt the line...so they put the wrong rear on and then took it off the line to wait for the right part to show up. Why that wasn't picked up earlier by part tracking computers and Quality Control is a mystery to me...and to the tour guide too!

From memory (but remember Alzheimer has set in): Two shifts working at Zuffenhausen at present. Early one starts around 6 am and the other around 2 pm. Around 196 cars being built daily at present. Total time of a 991 in production is around 5/6 days from start to finish. Currently some of the Boxsters are still being built at Zuffenhausen. Maybe up to one third? Caymans and rest of Boxsters are built at the old Karmann plant in Osnabruck. All gasoline engines destined for every Porsche is built in Zuffenhausen (except hybrids or diesels, I think). Road testing a Porsche a thing of the past - although I saw a few 991's drive by on nearby public streets still with protection (hard clear plastic on panels or white plastic wrap), but not the front 'bra' type of olden years! Have no idea why these were being driven in the street...perhaps trouble-shooting!

Today's tours couldn't see the 'mating' of power train to body chassis because two prototypes were in the production lines and were considered 'off limit' to our eyes! 991 gt3? 991 Targa? Who knows. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary when we looked in the general direction of that section of the assembly plant!

Total tour time - 2 hours.

More of my activities today later in the week when I have more time! Need the sleep right now!

Saludos,
Eduardo

Keadog

Greta stuff!

Keadog

Why my ipad changed "great" to "Greta" is beyond me.

pdxjim

better than Greta!!

Z356

that'sa fyn, I Garbo my werds 2!

Saludos,
Eduardo

Keith - I have been looking faithfully for your Boxster S for the past two days! Did you by chance order a rear bumper in a deviating color?

GT9111

Regarding the last pic that you posted of the new car parking lot, did you need permission to enter the lot?

GT9111

Any 911 50Yr Commemorative stickers to pickup from the Museum? My pilgrimage is scheduled for September.

Z356

No, I was outside the fence during all of these shots. Just placed the lens of my camera in between fence's posts in some cases to create better photos!

I didn't see the museum exhibits yet. I did get a one hour personal tour of the historical archives by Dieter Landenberger. More on that at another time. I did ask about the decals & he told me the decals might be available once special 50th anniversary edition 911's is produced! No shortages of them around museum cars, though, in various sizes!

Saludos,
Eduardo