Re: Planning a trip to Germany... where to go (automotive related)? (1Point8T)
Cool. I just did a similar trip.
Places I went:
Autostadt (autocity - and the location of the 2 car-filled towers mentioned) in Wolfsburg - Home of VW. You pay a modest fee for all day access to the "theme" park. Lots of great history and old cars there, like the original VW Bug designed by Ferdinand Porsche just prior to the hieght of WWII, for example, and many others. There is an opportunity to drive the Touareg on the offroad course. I went on their factory tour, which was pretty cool - they had just started making the Touran, a very hot new item apparently (I think it goes for 90k Euro!!
That's almost $100k US, but then they pay a lot of taxes, but still a lot of money - for example the $20k Golf we get is like 30k Euro over there because of either taxes or brand prestige inflation (yes, brand prestige)).
Stuttgart is home of Mercedes Benz; Munich is home of BMW and its museum, both of which you seem to know.
Ingolstadt is a little north of Munich - home of Audi (the whole city is pretty much built around Audi).
I drove to Porsche (headquarters?) near Liepzig - just a big factory complex that I could not get close to, although I was a little delighted to see a group of Porsches and several other competing cars coming in from some road testing, including a Subaru STI. I thought that was kind of interesting. I dont know where there is a Porsche museum.
Definitely Nurburgring - I was lucky enough to arrive there right when they were racing, a race called "Veedol-Langstrecken-Pokal." Passed by the BMW M test center mentioned, but didnt stay long to look - it was raining and late, and I didnt have time.
Hockenheim ring - just south of Frankfurt. Again, I was fortunate (?) to see some racing Porsches in testing (not that exciting really - I guess they just make good use of their tracks).
Too bad you wont be renting (I am not married, but I can imagine - still, you should try to get your wife to reconsider I say
). I think you can rent a new BMW 5 from Sixt rental car.
I rented a VW 100hp TDI PD Golf. It was a great car, and could achieve 120-130mph on the Autobahn. Started great on cold, near-freezing German autumn mornings. I viewed the trip as a great opportunity to try out the latest diesels that you wont be have access to in America for at least a couple more years. Of course, the 100hp TDI PD is what we get this year in the US-spec Golf, but I couldnt afford an expensive, high performance diesel. I did however see lots of diesels on the road, including a V10 TDI Toureg, and plenty of fast diesel on the Autobahn. Also saw lots of other great cars you only get to see in pictures.
One other recommendation: Just NE of Potsdam, which is just outside Berlin, there is a pretty cool Luftwaffe Museum, with all sorts of interesting displays, including relics back to WWII. I am a bit of an aviation buff in line with my car buff tendencies. Detailed displays about the Me 163 (rocket plane) and 262, for example, the airships, the Red Baron and his plane and medals(originals I dont know), a cutaway model of the BMW 003 jet engine, and a lot of old and new aircraft out on the airfield, etc. Note - the museum is free! Definitely worth seeing if you are in the neighborhood.
EDIT: I just saw a show on History channel called "Secret Luftwaffe Aircraft of WWII." It is amazing how many advanced designs the Germans had in WWII - many of their design advances are still being employed and researched today. If not for a very fortuitous set of events and a bit of luck, the war really could have turned out very differently.
I also checked out many of the musical locations - Bonn for Beethoven, Salzburg for Mozart, Liepzig for Bach.
All in all, I was there for about 3 & 1/2 weeks, but I did a lot more than just see car museums. Just too see everything I mentioned would take at least a week, 10-14 days if you really want to relax.
Have a great trip and enjoy the Autobahn driving experience! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif I certainly got spoiled with their highway driving rules.
Modified by RogueTDI at 12:24 AM 1-12-2004
