Inside Porsche's secret warehouse

In 2009 Porsche opened a museum in Stuttgart. Inside are a hundred cars, from the very first Porsche in 1898, up to the latest 919 LeMans hybrid. But it's the anonymous grey concrete building a few streets away that holds the real treats: over 300 rare and one-of cars racked up and stored under covers.

The warehouse doesn’t look like anything from the outside - it’s just an anonymous grey concrete block with no Porsche branding. Inside it’s like an Aladdin’s cave for Porsche fans, with prototypes, design shells and retired racing cars.

And there aren’t just Porsche’s own vehicles in the store. There are also cars from other brands, like an Audi 80 which Porsche engineered for Audi into an early forerunner to the RS6.

The warehouse also has racks of ‘mules’. Mules are secret prototypes for new sports cars hidden under the shell of an existing car so that observers can’t tell what technology is being tested.

This is the place that cutaway display models from car shows are stored.

The warehouse isn't open to the public, but the Stuttgart Porsche museum is, and is certainly well worth the €8 admission fee.