Where to begin. I went to Europe to photograph a wedding but thought I'd make an adventure out of it. I drove to Maranello, Italy to visit Ferrari but that's not really the point of this post. I headed up North through the beautiful Swiss Alps to Stuttgart, Germany to visit both Mercedes Benz and Porsche. I stayed at the Achat Hotel Stuttgart directly down the block from the Porsche factory. In fact, this was the first thing I saw when I drove up to the hotel.
A good sign! Since it was on a Sunday afternoon, the production line was stopped. I went to visit the Mercedes Benz Zentrum because it would be closed on Monday. Pictures from that can be found here:
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/mbzentrum.
Afterwards I took the time to walk around the Porsche factory taking a number of pictures:
Here you can see that they're hard at work building the new Porsche Zentrum directly across the street from the dealership. This museum is set to open in the summer of 2007. You can bet that I'll be coming back then. More on the reasons why later.
Rest of the images around the factory can be found here:
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/porschefactoryarea
One of the first things I noticed was Porsche had a very small facility compared to some of the other car factories I'd visited in the past. What's interesting is that they've managed to make efficient of the space allocated to them. Nothing was left to waste. More on that later.
On the following day, I took the time to visit the Porsche dealership which was also located next to the factory. I spoke with a salesperson who was only too happy to fill me in on how things worked. If a customer were to walk in their dealership to order a car and there was an open allocation slot available, he/she could literally get a car within 1-2 weeks time. That was mind boggling for me, especially since I'm in the states and it'd take me some time before my car arrives after it's built.
The dealership was a very slick setup:
They even had a cutaway Turbo on display for all to see. I took quite a few pictures.
Dealership pictures:
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/porschedealership
I also took the time to ask about a few things related to my car such as whether or not Cobalt or Lapis blue was a standard vs special order color. They referred me to someone over at Porsche HQ a couple blocks down, a Peter Frashka who was in charge of Customer Customization and the Tequipment section. He was only too happy to clarify that he thinks that Cobalt is standard only in Germany but still a special order color in the States. We also spoke about how his job allows him to come up with a number of different special color scheme cars. I thought this was a cool job!
One of the many cars he put together for a customer was a special 997TT in Fountain blue with a custom Maserati/Sea blue leather interior.
It really is an eye popping color:
More pictures of this car here:
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/997ttspecial
I was also able to go on a brief factory tour. I saw how they built a number or different Porsche models on one assembly line which spans several floors. This setup takes advantage of the limited space. I believe that they build the 911, Boxster and perhaps the Cayman all in one assembly line. The highlight of the trip was seeing the 997TT engine fully assembled at the end of the tour! I wasn't able to take any pictures during this tour but trust me when I say that it was eye opening! A few things I learned from this tour were:
-150 built a day with 2 shifts.
-90 stations with 2-3 men per
-A car comes off the assembly line every 5 minutes.
-4800 employees
-Takes a week to build a car
-Each Cayman/Boxster engine is built in 2 hours by one man -Each man moves with the engine to each station as it's built.
-All the other parts such as dashboard assembly, the men stays at a single station as the sections move along. They rotate thru different stations.
-Only manufacturer in the world to put each individual motor thru 10 minutes of real world intensive testing. If it fails, it's taken off and rebuilt or rejected altogether.
-Not much space so they built their assembly line vertically over several floors. They use elevators to transport each car between floors. -One assembly line built different types of 911s, Caymans and Boxsters. Only the Cayenne is built in Lepzig (sp?) -Each car is built to order -Each car has exact options built to specifications which would be why a car gets delayed if option changes are made.
-Every car has some hand painted parts
-Each car is signed in an area hidden after assembly.
Afterwards, I also visited the very small museum and took a number of pictures.
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/porschezentrum
The next day just before leaving town, I took the time to stop by TechArt out in Leonburg just outside of central Stuttgart. Axel was happy to give me a tour of the facility showing me all sorts of cool toys that they have for various Porsches. I asked about the Turbo specifically because that's what I'm really interested in. They're planning to release a body kit for the Turbo fairly soon. It will look somewhat like the body kit available for the 996TT but have it's own distinctive look. Axel promised that we would not be disappointed. I'm planning to order the steering wheel with carbon fiber/leather so that's what I was shown. They make most if not all their things in-house. A pretty impressive operation if you ask me. What I also asked was whether they have any other performance mods available for the Turbo. Two that immediately came up were the progressive lowering springs and an exhaust system. The springs will be available in about two months' time but there's no release date yet for the exhaust system. I also wasn't too convinced about the TechArt Formula wheels until I saw them in person. I'm a little bit more convinced.
Check out how good the seatbacks look when painted in aluminum look!
Porsche offers the same thing but they don't paint the whole seatback. Only the large section but not the airbag nor the release cover.
The steering wheel looks good doesn't it? Mine will be like this except that the top section will be CF and it won't have the "TechArt" logo.
They had some very nice cars in the shop. Check out the rest of the pictures at:
http://jasontang.virtuality.org/techart
Overall, it was a good visit for me.
