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Located in the shadow of Volkswagen's Wolfsburg factory in Germany, Autostadt is essentially a theme park devoted to cars.
Spread throughout the 70-acre site are pavilions devoted to each Volkswagen Group brand, along with exhibitions to learn about the history, culture and impact of cars – and with plenty of opportunities to try them out. And there’s plenty of cars that don’t have anything to do with Volkswagen – meaning this is a seriously eclectic collection.
Not so long ago Autocar paid a visit. It’s closed right now, of course, but hopefully this will whet your appetite to visit it as soon as you can:
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Autostadt
Autostadt opened in May 2000 featuring a host of attractions, including the GroupForum entrance (pictured), seven pavilions dedicated to VW Group brands and the Zeithaus, a museum dedicated to car design. Around two million people a year visit the site.
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Porsche 911
The grounds of Autostadt are dotted with classic cars (in glass boxes to protect them from the elements), including this stunning Porsche 911.
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Benz Velo Convertible
The Zeithaus is dedicated to charting the design and progression of the motor car – and not just Volkswagens. This 1899 Benz Velo Convertible recognises the pioneering designs of Karl Benz (1844-1929).
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Messerschmitt/FMR KR200
This three-wheeled bubble car was first built by Messerschmitt in 1955, during the period when the company was not allowed to manufacture aircraft. When the firm was allowed to work on planes again, the rights to the design were sold to FMR, which continued production until 1964.
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Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter (1950)
Depending on its form, versions of the Type 2 (the factory designation; the Beetle was the Type 1) are variously called the Transporter, Kombi and Microbus – but you may know it better as the Camper Van.
Whatever you call it, the design, first introduced in 1950, is an enduring design classic, which VW will return to with the forthcoming electric ID Buzz. This Transporter variant promoted Sinalco, a German fizzy drink invented in 1902, and still one of the best-selling brands in the country today. Pub fact: Sinalco is a contraction of the Latin phrase 'sine alcholoe', or 'no alcohol'.
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Volkswagen Beetle (2003)
This isn't just any old, er, old Beetle - it's the very last one. This is the last car to roll off the final production line in Mexico back in 2003, when new emissions rules came in and rendered it no-longer legal to sell.
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Volkswagen Beetle (1938)
…and this is one of the first, dating from 1938. The two stand side-by-side in the Zeithaus as a true celebration of how well the classic design endured. With a total production life of 64 years, it’s by far the longest produced single model ever.
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Volkswagen 411 LE (1970)
The Type 4, for those who like their VW factory line production designations, was the brand's first car with self-supporting bodywork and the last to be based on the Beetle's rear-engine layout. It was launched in 1968 with a 1.7-litre 68bhp engine.
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Volkswagen 1500 (1961)
The 1500, introduced in 1961 (and designated the Type 3), was VW's first mid-sized car – a market segment that would become rather important to the brand. Saloon, estate, cabriolet, coupé and convertible versions were available at launch.In 1968, it also became the first series production car to feature optional electronic fuel injection. More than 2.5 million were made before production ended in 1973.
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Formula Super Vee
An equivalent to Formula Ford racers, Formula Vee was a junior single-seater category that started in the US but quickly headed to Germany. The cars initially featured Beetle engines, gearboxes, suspension and brakes and were limited to 40bhp. That was later raised to 100bhp.In 1971, Super Vee was introduced, featuring 1.6-litre engines taken from Type 3 cars, with more than 120bhp.
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Volkswagen Scirocco Group 2
This was the first successful saloon racing car to be based on a VW model. The Group 1 Scirocco was developed by Eckart Berg in 1974 and went on to dominate the 1.6-litre class in the German Circuit Championship.
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Ford Model T
You couldn't celebrate the design heritage of the automobile without an example of the car that revolutionised mass production. Predictably, Autostadt's Ford Model T comes in black.
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Borgward Isabella (1955)
The Isabella sits in the Zeithaus next to a BMW 1500, and for a good reason: after Borgward went bankrupt in 1961, BMW took many of the design traits of the Isabella that made it appeal to Germany's middle classes and applied them to its new 1500.
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Mini (1956)
Autostadt doesn't ignore British design classics. The Mini is rightly celebrated for its ingenious, endearing and enduring design.
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EMPI Imp dune buggy (1968)
The first dune buggy built on a Beetle chassis originated in the US in 1960. Eight years later, American firm EMPI followed suit with this design. Dune buggies proved popular with those seeking thrill-seeking motoring, but less so with US safety regulators.
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Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet (1980)
A successor to the Beetle Cabriolet, the first drop-top Golf was revealed in 1979, with a full reveal – complete with 70bhp engine – at the following year's Geneva motor show. Based on the Golf 1 body, this cab stayed on sale when the second-generation Golf was introduced and was only replaced when the third generation arrived in 1993.
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Volkswagen Golf Country (1990)
And you thought small crossover SUVs were new… the Golf Country went into production in Austria by Steyr in 1990, complete with an extra 60mm of ground clearance over a regular Golf, a skid plate and fold-out spare wheel. It proved a popular niche vehicle in alpine regions of Europe; 7735 examples were sold over just two years.
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Volkswagen 181
This design, which definitely puts the 'utility' into SUV, was developed in the 1960s for the West German army but quickly become a popular choice for fun-seeking civilians. It was built in Germany and Mexico, and was marketed in the US as The Thing. In total, 90,883 units were produced with various engine sizes, with around 18% of those sold to the German army.
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Oldsmobile Toronado (1966)
The Toronado is on display at Autostadt to recognise the design work of David North. The American was born in Montana and joined the General Motors design studio in 1958 after studying at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles.North began work on the Toronado design in 1962 but it was only when GM's upmarket Oldsmobile brand decided to develop a luxury coupé that his design was attached to a model. North also designed the Pontiac GTO. The model was America’s first major front-wheel drive car since the ill-fated Cord 810/812 died in 1937.
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Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz (1959)
Less a car, more a motorised definition of 1950s Americana, the Cadillac Eldorado is recognisable thanks to those outlandish, stunning fins rising at the rear of the car. Look at them. Really, just look. Lovely.From 1956 until 1960, Cadillac produced both hard-top and convertible versions, adding the nameplates Seville and Biarritz respectively. Biarritz was later used as the name of a higher-level trim package on the 1977 car.
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DKW SS600 (1930)
Autostadt isn't all about cars: a handful of bikes are featured too. This fine example was built by Dampf-Kraft-Wagen (DKW; it translates as steam-driven car) and features a water-cooled SS600 two-cylinder two-stroke engine that produces 22bhp.Notably, versions of that SS600 engine were also used in Germany's first mass-produced front-wheel-drive car, the DKW F1 in 1931, and an aerobatics aircraft.
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Porsche 911 (1982)
First introduced in 1963, the Porsche 911 is another enduring design classic that has changed remarkably little over time. Which is good: there wasn't much wrong with the rear-engined two-door sports car when it was first introduced all those years ago.
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Volkswagen Golf W12-650 (2007)
The 650 in the title refers to the car's PS output, so that's 641bhp to many of you. However you like to chart your power output, it's a big figure for a Golf – and makes this the most powerful Golf ever produced.The W12-650 was first shown at the Worthersee VW GTI festival in 2007, with a mid-mounted W12 engine purloined from colleagues at Bentley, a six-speed automatic gearbox, a carbonfibre roof and a downforce-producing diffuser. It was capable of 0-62mph in 3.7sec, with a top speed of 202mph.This is the only W12-650 built, doubtless making this rather valuable. We'll have to guess, though: in the space reserved for price, the information plaque simply says: "Prototype, not for sale."
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Chevrolet (1954)
We're not normally fans of white-walled tyres. But on a 1954 Chevrolet, they just look oh-so-right.
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Audi Quattro (1981)
This groundbreaking four-wheel-drive beast attracted a huge number of fans while reinventing the world of rallying. This is one of the early production Quattro examples.
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Volkswagen Up (2012)
What car do you put on display next to the Quattro? Well, the Autostadt curators chose the VW Up, the city car sold in many markets outside North America. We'd wager the Up won't be as fondly remembered as the Quattro is 35 years down the road, but the impact of small city cars on design has been substantial. So we'll let them have it.
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Lamborghini Countach (1975)
Classic wedge shape. Mid-mounted V12 engine. Rear-wheel drive. Captivating performance. Stunning, outlandish design. Need we say more?
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Lamborghini Countach (1975)
From every angle, it's clear why the Countach graced many a bedroom wall and topped many a 'dream car' wish list.
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Volkswagen K70 (1970)
The K70, designed by NSU, was all about maximising space. Doing that marked a shift in VW design from air-cooled rear engines to water-cooled, front-wheel-drive models and a move from boxer to inline engine designs.
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Volkswagen Rometsch (1952)
Rometsch was a German metalworks that specialised in high-end coachwork models, taking the chassis of a major car and replacing the body with a custom design. This was one of the first true luxury cars built on a VW platform, and we reckon it looks marvellous.
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Volkswagen V30 prototype (1937)
No, this isn't a Beetle. Well, it's not quite a Beetle. Based on the Porsche Type 60, the V30 prototype is the design that ultimately became the Beetle. Thirty prototype machines were built, covering a combined 1.5 million miles of testing – far beyond the usual testing standards of the day.
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Volkswagen Golf (1977)
VW launched the Golf in 1974 and the front-engined front-wheel-drive small car quickly became a big hit; more than 35 million have been produced since. This first-generation example on display in Autostadt's Zeithaus dates from 1977; the firm is currently on the seventh generation, and the eighth has just been unveiled. It's been called the VW Rabbit at various stages in North America.
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Rally cars and design classics
When Autocar visited, a celebration of Walter Rohrl (born 1947), the 1980 and 1982 World Rally champion, featured on the ground floor of the Zeithaus, with the design classics on show on the levels above. Rohrl is today the senior test driver for Porsche.
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DeLorean DMC-12 (1982)
From a business perspective, the DeLorean DMC-12 could never be called a classic – it was the only model produced before the company went bankrupt.Still, its design endures, from the fibreglass body structure and stainless steel body panels to the gull-wing doors – probably helped by its starring role in the Back to the Future films. And, of course, no car will ever match the DeLorean's performance at 88mph.
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Volkswagen Beetle Type 14 (1949)
This Beetle variation was the result of VW asking coachworks special Hebmüller to develop a 2+2 convertible on the Beetle platform in 1948. The contract called for 2000 examples to be built, but production was slowed by a fire at Hebmüller's factory in 1949. The firm went bankrupt in 1952, by which time 696 examples had been built.
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Volkswagen XL1 (2013)
Based on an earlier L1 concept (and sitting on basic Lupo architecture), the XL1 set a world record for fuel efficiency. Powered by a plug-in hybrid mating a 47bhp 800cc diesel engine with a 27bhp electric motor, the XL1 is capable of 280mpg. VW has built 250 examples so far.
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Lamborghini Diablo GT (1999)
This model is the first product of two VW Group brands working together. The 1999 Diablo GT was the first Lamborghini to be produced after the firm was taken over by Audi the previous year. It was a heavily reworked version of the Diablo, first launched in 1990, and capable of passing 205mph.
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Opel Ascona 400 (1982)
A temporary display on the ground floor of the Zeithaus during Autocar's visit featured several cars driven by double World Rally champion Walter Rohrl. This is the Opel Ascona 400 the German used to secure his second world title in 1982 – a great achievement in a rear-wheel drive car against powerful four-wheel drive rivals.
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The AutoTurme
The two glass Autoturme – car towers – are perhaps the most notable attraction of Autostadt. Each tower can hold 400 cars, which are accessed by two high-speed robotic car lifts. One of the lifts can be converted into a passenger ride, giving members of the public the chance to zip up and down the tracks.
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The AutoTurme
The cars in the AutoTurme are new models ready to be delivered to owners. VW Group buyers around Europe can choose to come to Autostadt and collect their cars from one. Well, it's more exciting than popping to your local dealer…
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Volkswagen Polo (2017)
Every VW Group brand has its own pavilion on the Autostadt grounds, which are usually filled with motor show-style features and attractions. When Autocar visited, the Polo GTI hot supermini was on show in the VW pavilion.
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Porsche pavilion
The Porsche pavilion contains a particularly notable feature – a brushed-metal version of every previous Porsche model sweeps down to an assortment of the brand's current line-up. Can you spot your favourite Porsche in there?
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Autostadt
There's plenty more to Autostadt beyond old cars, including driving experiences, restaurants and all sorts of temporary exhibitions. For more information, go to the official Autostadt website. Obviously, the museum is closed right now, but after reading this feature we hope you’ll think about paying it a visit when it – and the world – gets back to normal. We can’t wait…
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