Facts From The Porsche Museum Tour Even Diehard Fans May Not Have Heard Of

The Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart is a must-visit for Porsche fans. Here are the most interesting facts we learnt from our short tour.

OneShift Editorial Team

14 Jul 2022

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The Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart is a must-visit for Porsche fans. Here are the most interesting facts we learnt from our short tour.

1. The Porsche crest has a horse within, which is a symbol of Stuttgart.

The Stuttgart name originates from ‘stutengarten’, which stands for Horse Garden. Within the crest are also two distinct colours - black and red - which are representative of Baden and Wurttemberg respectively, with the state being Baden-Wurttemberg. The crest was created after Max Hoffman, an American importer of Porsche on the east coast, related complaints from his customers that Porsche cars had no crest. The first crest ever to be placed on a Porsche car was not on the hood - but instead on its steering wheel!

2. The first-ever 911 actually had the model code 901. Peugeot held the copyright for 901, and so Porsche switched its name to 911.

3. The Turbo S Exclusive Series is officially available as a coupe, but only in North America it is offered as a Cabriolet.

4. The “Nr 1” Porsche 356 is the only mid-engined 356 in the world.

It was sold to a wealthy Swiss customer, but Porsche bought it back due to its immense rarity and value to Porsche heritage. How did they convince him? They offered to trade him up to a brand new 356, in exchange for his then-10 year old car!

5. The Speedster was created because Americans found the Coupe too expensive. Therefore the Speedster was priced US$9,990, below the US$10,000 psychological mark.

6. The Porsche 917/20 “Pink Pig” was painted as a joke, but it eventually became one of the most photographed Porsche race cars ever.

7. The Porsche 956 race car has more downforce than lift near its top speed, and can be driven upside down safely.

8. The Mercedes-Benz 500E was a project Mercedes assigned Porsche to do, which was a win-win - it made Mercedes a serious competitor to the BMW M5, while Porsche who was then in dire straits financially needed the revenue to keep its factories open. Talk about being good neighbours.

9. For LHD Porsches, the ignition key slot is to the right of the steering wheel because, we all believe, it would be easier and quicker for the driver to close his door and start his engine at the same time.

This much is true, but it was originally designed this way because it was more economical to wire it that way. The racing convenience dovetailed nicely with this, hitting two birds with one stone!