When work took me to Germany, I realized it could fit well allowing me to re-visit the Audi & Porsche museums. I recently released the gallery of 10 year lookback to visiting these, and when working through those photos, the Porsche museum felt a bit unfinished business. With that in mind, I wanted to start and secure Zuffenhausen first and hopefully also make it for Audi Forum Ingolstadt, as I knew there were less Quattros at display.

Porsche Museum, Zuffenhausen

White, bright, and astonishing!

Starting the day at Porsche, at the very opening of the Museum was great! I had a really late arrival in Zuffenhausen the night before in pouring rain, but starting off with an almost empty museum made sense for the photography – and also the tight time schedule.

At the current time, the museum featured a 50 years of Porsche development at Weissach, carrying some design ideas coming out over the decades. Personally my heart would anyhow be with the 80s and early 90s works and semi-sports builds, so I was curious as what to expect.

Entering the lobby, Porsche had lined up some of their Le Mans racers. As someone coming from the VW/Audi side of things, it was a pity realizing the amazing 924 GTP racer was put aside. Stepping off the stairs takes you directly into the more vintage selection. A few of these cars felt like what was also seen at the Hamburg prototype museum, which is really impressive with the aluminium hand-shaped craftsmanship. Several racers were lined up, in a colorful variety.

At the back of the line was the first of two personal highlights, the Schmidt Motorsport prepared 924 for rallying. Maybe it’s the similar concept as for the rallye Quattro, where the basis is kept and engineered for endurance. Again, coming from the Audi side, Schmidt Motorsport is well-known for their immaculate offerings of SMS Revo and SMS Revo S Audi S2/S4/S6s, and are actually the ones to credit the creation of the Audi S2 to begin with.

Then, straight after, was the second highlight of mine. Any reader with the fascination of Group Bs knows that even Porsche came to play with their engineering delight in the shape of their 959. In my mind, these are mainly connected with the Paris-Dakar endevaur alongside some snazzy ROC Quattros in the 1985 run.

Seeing the 1982 development car, merging production chassis into all the strange lightweight materials and shaping, was really, really great fun!

Audi Forum, Ingolstadt

Audi Sport Quattro and Audi Quattro
A Sport Quattro and urquattro at Audi Forum.

Entering the piazza it was clear there was a laidback and calm atmosphere at ‘the round tower’, with only a few visitors inside. Planning my day, I had gotten SoMe response about what to expect. Sure, this was a disadvantage, but at least I had the time to make the most of stopping by Ingolstadt.

Looking at this site, most readers should understand where my interest is, and why I want to visit the museum. I will not go as far to say it is a bad display. But… Is it disappointing? Yes, I am sorry to say it at least felt a little so.

Many of the exclusive sights – alike the Quattro A2 Röhrl took to the AvD Histo Monte which have been standing here for years – are stored at Audi Tradition’s garage, leaving the museum to now feature almost all of their race cars on the paternoster.

These are of course highlights when visiting, but it makes them somewhat unavailable to the public. There was no chance of closer inspections or even getting the smell of an old racer or two. It sure makes me wonder, if Audi now wants their fanbase their 80s and 90s icons to only experience them through YouTube…

So without any exclusivity alike Mr. Block, and very little rotation on the other items displayed, it makes the display at Ingolstadt feel a bit dull. It was nice for me which had the time, but probably not something worth making the time. At least if already having been there or beeing on a tight schedule.

The ‘few new’ from HanSport

The 1985 Sport Quattro, and first winning Audi at Pikes Peak ‘race to the clouds’.

There is one big upside though, and that was to see the additions coming from the HanSport collection. Some years back I had planned to visit them in the UK, which sadly didn’t come through due not paying attention, so these were the main reason for going. More specifically, the display now features the 1981 Group 4 Algarve zero-car in beautiful execution, and the 1985 Pikes Peak winning Sport Quattro of Michele Mouton (who has also put her signature on it!).

To some degree, they are (almost) at opposite ends of the Quattro legacy. One in classic tricolor, the other ‘new age’ HB yellow…if one can call a 1984-1986 Quattro such. One is the start of the brand iconic legacy with its modest 320 hp at 10V, the other a 550 hp 20V beast. Europe and the U.S.

Attention to details in the restorations were marvelous, and I especially found the Algarve Quattro a real delight. Hat off to Mr. Hanlon & co!