alexb76

Just noticed there's a Marathon of Ultimate Factories series on National Geographic HD Channel today.

Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Audi, and Porsche.

Porsche is at 1pm PST, make sure you PVR it. Love to know if they show it exactly how I saw when I did a factory tour. No cameras were allowed when I did it.

Chris from Cali

The Porsche one is AWESOME. I was surprised how much of the current 911 is still hand-built.

_Nathan

Rerun.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/530974-ultimate-factories-porsche-911-a.html

KeninBlaine

I sort of agree, although at the same time, you can tell they definitely crank a lot of cars off that assembly line. It isn't like a bunch of people huddled around individual cars putting them together. I really enjoy seeing the amount of engineering that goes into the manufacturing process to make it run so smoothly. The shot of the Targa top assembly being inserted through the windshield opening was quite fascintating. And 5 hours to install the leather on a dashboard starts to explain why "full leather" is so costly.

alexb76

I did a factory tour when I was in Stuttgart last year. It was truly fascinating!

The assembly line is two stories and cars and their respective parts travel together, and stay at each station for 5.2 minutes (yes, that's .2 mins!)

The upholstry shop was incredible, they had hives of leather and said that only they take Austrian and some Italian leather as the Austrian cows run free without fences and hence their leather has least imperfections.

All Boxster/Carrera engines are shipped in from some suppliers, half assembled. They said the assembly of both engines are pretty much the same and you couldn't really tell if they're working on Cayman or Carrera engines.

I highly recommend to take the tour when and if one travels there! No Photography is allowed!

stevepow

I watched a bit of the '10 Camaro one for a comparison / contrast...kind of clarifies the pricing premium these cars bring.

Chris from Cali

If you saw the one about the Z06, the Porsche one is like 100% hand-built. I was impressed with all the quality checks as well (on the Porsches ). I'd love to see the attention to detail the GT cars get.

Mike in CA

alexb76 is right; the factory tour is not to be missed. We were there in June '09 to pick up my C2S. The changes from my visit in 1984 were evident everywhere, not the least of which was the mostly automated engine assembly area. Our guide told us that each Turbo engine was still being built by hand but that they would soon be done on the line also. He was trying to be diplomatic, but it was clear he felt that quality control was superior with the more automated process. One of the more interesting things on the tour, was watching the workers leave the line for 5 minutes on the hour for a beer (yes beer!) break.

Also not to be missed is the new Porsche museum, and maybe a trip to Gmund Austria for a pic of your Porsche at Porsche's birthplace.

Mike in CA

The GT3's are assembled on exactly the same line as the rest of the Carreras, although I can't say for sure if the engines are built in the automated facility.

mstams

Did you guys watch the one on Lamborghini? I thought all the testing done before it ever leaves the factory (engine only, in-car, then on-road) says something about break-in procedures.

alexb76

Yeah, that was very interesting too, they heated up the engine to 8000 RPM at 800 degrees, was pretty cool. The engine (v12) was HUGE!

I loved the way they painted the cars (by hand), one guy does the inside, another outside as they said no matter how trained someone is, their strokes and the way they spray would be slightly different, so to keep it consistent only one person does the whole outside.

Pretty cool all in all, makes you really appreciate what goes into these cars. Audi and Rolls Royce one was also amazing. R8 is all hand-made aluminium body, and Rolls Royce specially was incredible, it takes 2 months for one car to finish, and every piece is hand-made!