Facebook friends of mine will already know about this, but I've been driving around Germany this week. So I stopped off in Wolfsburg to do the obligatory Autostadt and VW Museum visits.

Excuse the quality, my camera battery was flat so these are from my iPhone. TBH my camera would've struggled anyway without a tripod.

Started the day with a visit to the Stiftung AutoMuseum Wolfsburg. It's in an old mill or something, so the building looks quite industrial, but it's full of the most interesting cars for Volkswagen nerds. :)

The tour starts with a history of the Volkswagen brand:

Then you get out to the show hall:

Saw this, loved it... more later...

Mexican taxi

A panorama of the air cooled end:

This was the basket for a hot air balloon

Lego

An Oettinger creation - enough girth for you?

Stretch on 345/35s! Hardcore.

Wood and wicker oddities

Miniature VW factory

The original Herbie:

Driveable. Built as a wedding car for a couple in Mexico:

Plastered in stamps:

Ghia Aigle Coupe - gorgeous concept car this

Want these for my office! Guess it wouldn't be too hard to make them...

Such a cool chess board. Want.

Passat GTI:

G40 high speed test car:

Interior from the above:

And the other side :)

Passat was wrapped in a transparent vinyl showing the names of all of the Volkswagen employees at the time:

Mk2 G40 Cup Car - used and unrestored judging by the interior

Love a glut of Eighties Volkswagens:

The Polo display:

Germans take winter tyres SERIOUSLY.

Oosh.

Difficult to get them all in one shot otherwise:

Random eco concepts:

Same age as me :)

Now as a kid in the Nineties I remember people wearing clothes like this. And I remember this concept car from VW mags at the time. Looks horrendous now.

Token early and late Mk1 pic:

Prototype version shows how the Mk1 Golf could've looked. Eek.

The Volkswagen Student concept car - it's a bit of Mk3 Polo/B3 Passat up front...

...but at the back, it's kinda Renault 5 but that glass tailgate is a little like the up! too.

This is the Chicco - looks a bit like a Mk2 Polo at the front, with a Derby Grille and back end that's a cross between the Mk1 and a breadvan. Made in 1975 so a preview for the Polo at a guess.

One of the museum's most snapped cars. Corrado Cabriolet:

Weird Passat/Corrado/Mk2 Scirocco cross breed thing:

The first front engined, front wheel drive Volkswagen. It's a bit of a spud...

Back to the Mk1:

Odd slammed Jetta development car

6N2 driven by a robot (hence sticker on the bonnet)

Covered in club stickers - should've taken some. Caroline added a comment on it though :)

Cool wall art:

Golf-a-thon:

Many front ends:

Yeah, you can buy them in the gift shop. I did. :)

Onwards then to the Autostadt. This is the more recent development, opened in 2001. The car park was home to a fleet of Golf Blue-e-motions - electric Golfs - recharging. A production version is due in 2014, but it'll be based on a Mk7. These Mk6 versions are being run worldwide to test the drivetrain:

The iconic chimneys - not much going on in the factory at the moment, as they're changing the tooling ready for the start of the Mk7 production run:

This is the huge reception area, with its shops and restaurants. More later:

The Car Collection centre - this is where German and Austrian families come to collect their new cars. They're stored in the glass towers, brought down on an automated lift and handed over on the ground floor here. Pic taken from the Tacho Meter restaurant, which serves the Original VW Currywurst. If you go, you MUST have one. Little known fact - Wolfsburg produces more Currywurst per year than it does Golfs.

The glass towers - no intro needed really. Full of new Volkswagens.

This is the other museum, the ZeitHaus, which is in the Autostadt. It's a glossier place than the Stiftung, and has a different collection of cars. More expensive stuff, but less of the unusual one-offs.

Blingy Beetle was covered in crystals

Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz coupe. Stunning.

You can imagine this being a real revolution back in the Sixties:

Wing shot of the Caddy

Blurry Mk1

Splittie

Audi 50

No introduction needed (I hope)

Miura

DS

Display showing different interpretations of the sports car. E-Type, Capri, Miura and 914.

Nardo W12. Still LOVE this.

And the Golf W12 650 - a Worthersee special which again shouldn't need an intro

Stunning box-fresh Rallye

Lime green Mk1

The museum has a mirrored ceiling

The Beetle, in concept form

Porsche Diesel long before the Cayenne

Me being arty with those mirrored ceilings

The entrance to the Autostadt

Clay up!

And a small clay up! which you could touch

Next room had some jigsaw pieces...

...which you could use to build a car, and they'd talk you through your creation on the screen.

Inside the collection tower - that's the lift picking up one of the cars

Neat touch - the road to the Ritz Carlton simulates road surfaces through the ages. We didn't drive up the road - had to press on to Berlin.

Walking out:

Autohaus Wolfsburg is just the other side of the river.

Edited 13 May, 201214 yr by Alex

Really great photos there :) I'm really keen for a visit there myself sometime. Did you cover pretty much evwerything there or was there every vw creation under the sun in there?

I'd like to see the wrought iron wedding bug going for a MOT

Really great photos there :) I'm really keen for a visit there myself sometime. Did you cover pretty much evwerything there or was there every vw creation under the sun in there?

That's the lion share, a few extra Golfs and some concept cars, plus each of the brands has its own pavilion at the the AutoStadt. It's worth a visit, but it's not an exhaustive collection. There is one, somewhere, though.

That looks amazing! Thanks for sharing, I need to get me a see-golf

Awesome!! Those glass towers are amazing! Probably one of the only museums i'd like to visit that wouldn't bore me to death!

Very good. Did you not get to the rolling museum?

Very good. Did you not get to the rolling museum?

No - where's that?

At wolfsburg isn't it? A friend went last year. The factory was closed, but they went around the museum. It's where the polo sprint amongst others is

At wolfsburg isn't it? A friend went last year. The factory was closed, but they went around the museum. It's where the polo sprint amongst others is

The Polo Sprint is usually in the Stiftung, but wasn't there when I went. If you look at the pics of it, you can see the floor and roof of the mill.

There are definitely other cars stored somewhere, not sure where though.

Ah, maybe thats the rolling museum then. I thought it would have been odd to have 3 attraction/museums there.

Looks like the rolling museum is a collection of cars that get shunted around to events around the world. I've driven a Mk1 GTI on Autostadt plates at the Mk6 GTI launch a few years ago, and I know there was a Mk1 convertible (again on Autostadt plates) at the Mk6 Golf Cabrio launch recently.

The cars in the Stiftung - some of them at least - appear to be on a rotation. Makes sense, gives a reason for regulars to keep coming back.

Another geeky fact - the Autostadt is the second most visited theme park in Europe, after Euro Disney!

Edited 13 May, 201214 yr by Alex