Comments
A ‘James Bond’ aluminium-capsule-lift takes us up to the third floor. As lift doors open, we distinctly become aware of the background score that followed us all the way up - whirring sports cars, the roar of a car start and finally, the trotting horse-hooves.
Come again, the trotting of horse-hooves?
By then the lift doors open to a circular room, and there stands a life-size model of the horse, the world’s first mode of transport.
The journey at the MB museum begins at the top, on the third and last floor, and you spiral your way down to the ground floor. With just a single hour at hand and the audio guide around your neck, you feel quite helpless wanting to see, hear and read everything. The museum has on display models of cars belonging to every decade, photographs and walls lined with information on some of the biggest events in the history of the world.
Some of the most striking pictures are those about a century-old. Black-and-white pictures of families huddled together, standing proudly next to what can only be described as a four-wheeled horse-carriage fitted with an engine (some of them took about four hours to just get started).
Porsche museum
If the MB museum is an elegant, under-stated display of the brand’s place in the history of the world, then the Porsche museum is a brash and proud display of its sporting prowess.
A short drive away from the MB museum, the Porsche museum building looks like a space-ship ready to wrap you up into its world of sports cars and of course, the 911s.
The Porsche museum has more chutzpah, with its white mosaic floors and the grand display of the sports cars. The brand started out as a sports car manufacturer and the museum takes you through the history of racing.
Every few cars, the racing technology on display takes a new leap. Each racing car is stronger, faster and lighter than the one before.
Watch out for the car made to look like a shark to maintain its ferocity on the racing track. Its front view actually resembles jagged shark-teeth.
Then there are the Porsche 917s on display, one of which at 2.21 m wide is called the “pink pig”.
Trivia at the museum say that they were forced to reconstruct and widen its elevators to accommodate this specimen!
Finally, there is the car that defies gravity, literally! The ‘upside-down’ car was designed to be driven upside down, provided the driver can maintain the speed at 321 km.
The penultimate display of the museum is the proud display of the awards it has won. Of the 50,000 Porsche has won, there are 28,000 trophies and medals on display.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.