Coleman

A brief story about checking out the Porsche factory when I was there about 1.5 years ago...


I found myself with three extra hours before my part of the design meeting
commenced in Stuttgart.. I settled into a corner and sat with my G4
powerbook and tried to work on some new emails.. I was thinking about the
keys on the table to my client's Alpha 166.. I could just take it, it was
not more then 20km to Zuffenhausen.. If I could figure out how to get the
navigation system over to english, I could just follow the instructioins
and be there in 20 minutes, traffic permitting. I must have been exuding
this thought as my client devined upon it and asked, "why don't you take the
alpha, here are the keys, I think that zuffenhausen is close, you have a
Porsche? I think that is where the factory is.. " I couldn't argue with that
sentence.

I thought I had the nav system figured out, but when it kept on telling me
"Links" (left) in this kinda seductive German voice and I was at the end of
a gray cul-de-sac, I began again to question Italian technology. Italian and
electronics are things that should never be together.. The system then
crashed and I fiddled with the CD-Rom and managed to get it on-line again. I
got it running in English, yet it failed to load the voice properly, so I
was to follow the visual cues on the flat panel and when my music would
auto-fade down to announce a new adjustment in course or new route to take,
instead of the seductive trans-euro accented English, I would just suffer
through a 10 seconds of a high pinched whine, (which could be modulated with
the accelerator as well, some Italian grounding fault) None the less, after
what seemed to be the longest possible route there, through the downtown of
Stuttgart, I arrived in Zuffenhausen.

I had no factory tour lined up, that would have taken too much timing, and
with my schedule, It's been hard to plan ahead.. I just thought that I would
do a quick trip to Mecca and get back to the office.. I drove into
Zuffenhasen and the first glimpse into this world was a fenced off area with
a few bright green GT-3's and some random parts strewn about the work area
adjacent to a factory door. Taking a right onto "PorscheStrasse" I parked
the car and wandered about the area. First off, they have updated the
buildings quite a bit from most of the photo's that I had seen of "Werks 2"
it was no longer an ochre tone, but now done in a modern stainless exterior
with 3 stainless smokestacks rising from the center. The entire complex of
buildings and production areas are in the middle of a center, with a
roundabout connecting the arterial flow of production. I had an idea that
it would be centralized with a gate, but it's rather sprawling and situated
in the industrial/commercial area of the suburbs.

I edged up to a window along the "Werks 2" and peered through the gate to
the windows of the factory floor. I could see the production models moving
along the assembly line; they moved at an incredibly slow pace, maybe one
foot per minute.. A 996 cab moved by, followed by a boxter, the cars had
most of their panels covered in plastic molded protective panels, or a white
cling-sheet. The laborers, or production mechanics moved deftly around the
creeping cars, adjusting a control unit or installing some part, there were
no real repetitive actions, as each model that was moving down the line was
different.. There were no robots at this stage in production, as most of the
vehicles seemed to be about 60 percent complete.. There also seemed to be an
abundance of hand-tools, each nut to be torqued was dome by hand, without
air assisted tools. The workers glanced at me (with my face glued up against
the gate, more likely there to keep onlookers at bay then to prevent vandals
from stealing 996 wings for their modded out VW's) I nodded hello and they
just went back to torquing bolts and installing ABS brains. The smell of
fresh lacquer was unmistakable and I came to enjoy the sickly-smell which
permeated the premises. There were 996's and a few GT2's in various stages
of completeness in the area along the front of this building, some of the
panels were covered in plastic, giving the cars a random puzzle look. I'd
hear the unmistakable thrumming of the flat six and turn to see another
commencing or returning from a short test-drive, no plates, plastic wrap
shuddering in the wind. I'm looking at the lucky guy who gets to test drive
GT2's all day.

Across the street was the mother of all dealerships, done in glass skin and
steel supports It boasted a PORSCHE logo that was about 200 feet long.
Inside was the entire line of cars, including a GT1, 917, 935 and a 356.
(they had some bikes and sweaters and other random stuff) I looked at a 996
turbo and wandered outside past a massive garage, this was the Porsche
dealership ground-zero. If you were really **** and you wanted your car
serviced by the factory, this is where the work would be performed, not a
bad deal if you lived around Stuttgart, but rather an expensive commute if
you lived in Boise. There was a spacious amount of room in the shop
though.. It took up to thirty cars easily and was almost as deep as it was
long, there were also four dynos and two were capable of C4's..

Wandering out into this lot, I came face to face with a GT2 and a GT3. Odd
facing one of your goals in a simple manner. I just need to own this car.
Here it is in front of me, I could steal it and save all the work of earning
the extra money to purchase it.. (or I could just set lower goals... Nah)
the GT3 was nice, but looked like a blistered-out turbo.. The excessive
rocker panels and cheese style early headlights made it look like a joke
compared to the stance of the GT2. (lower goals never really work) This car
is brilliant. The low stance, the aggressive front end, the subtle
engineering and design on the wing, the slit to allow air to pass through
along the "smile" area on the front, all of this made the car so incredible;
for me, this is the first 996 that I actually like. The front end has a
different shape then the long shape on standard 996's, it's more like a
993.. . The discs for the brakes were almost as large as the 18" rims, but
they were not the carbon/ceramic brakes, I guess they are having trouble
with manufacturing and they are shipping the cars with the standard discs...
There were no rear seats in the car, just a "GT2" plaque bolted to the area
where the seats would have been that stated you were in fact the GT2. (in
case you forgot)

I wandered into the museum and took a quick peek at some of the cars that
were there.. It had a good selection of what you may expect, some early
356's, the gumunden coupe, a police 356, a 917, Cistalia, 959, 904, a
"Galendenwagen" kind of a kubalwagen, (AWD) (please excuse my German) the
cutaway of the 996 that they had was rather amazing as well. I looked for
the Panzer tank turret that they built during the war, maybe it was stashed
in the back room though...

I drove back to Kongen, listening to the whine of the nav. system, trying to
figure out how to make enough money to rationalize getting a GT2. I think I
may be eating Ramen for the next few years.


Coleman.

srgolub

Toured the Zuffenhausen factory back in 95 I think it was. They were just gearing up for Boxster production and actually had to detour the tour group because they were moving a pre-production sample through and didn't want anyone seeing it.

Quite an amazing place and a great experience.

This was before I actually owned one but at the time i actually got to see them building 993's which was pretty cool in retrospect. I know there's been some debate on this board and others regarding the degree to which the 993 (vs. the 964 and 996) is hand built. From my recollection, almost all the assembly i saw was being done by humans, not machines. The machines I did see were mainly for moving the car from station to station through the assembly process.

If you're ever near Stuttgart I highly recommend a factory tour.

Monique

Our fleet is completely Teutonic; my wife beleives no cars are built south of Munich.

Hence your navigation problems; BTW Alfa is known for their s*** nav system.