Karmann Musuem/Factory

[jenks 0]

Planning a European trip with a mate, leave this sunday.

 

So getting Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam as we have done in the past, we are heading to Hanover, to get a night there before Wolfsburg factory,etc. We are passing Osnabruck so wonder if there is anything for the Karmann factory/musuem, I know a few of you were there a few years ago?

 

Any info on this at all?

 

Also any input on road trip also?

 

After Wolfsburg back to the ring for third time so dont plan to do too much there apart from the obvious, then Stuttgart for Porsche musuem.

Next onto Strassburg ( Bugatti musuem/factory around here??? ) then onto Nancy - dont know why exactly?

Reim GP circuit, Spa circuit to take in before heading to Brussels/Rottardam via return ferry at Amsterdam.

 

Cant stretch too far off the above as 1 week and car were using is a Supercharged RR, yep thats right, 300miles to £110 of fuel, nuts...yes, but what a vehicle to take it all in! 8)

 

Thanks!

[Jim 1]

Pretty much think the only way you can get in to view the museum is if you have contacts within who can organise it. It's not a publicly viewable collection I don't think :(

[jenks 0]

B****r! Thats disappointing, is it still worth a stop on route?

 

You dont know the contacts Jim?! ;)

[RW1 0]

Theres nothing outside and its inside a locked pound. Defo not public viewing by rolling up. And unless things have changed, they didn't communicate in English and its privately guided tour assisted. It's by invitation only. Bit short notice as well..... You might try (in German) asking if you could visit but with Karmann going bust, not sure who the contact is..... Tempest - any clues?????

 

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[MonkeyVR6 0]

God! I've been living 30minutes from Osnabruck for years now and I never knew there was a muesum there! To be honest, since HM Forces closed Robert Barracks (and the other ones) there ain't a great deal there.

[Tempest 0]

Just been to Karmann about 2 weeks ago (see relevant thread in Events section), so shame that you couldn´t join us then.

 

The Karmann private car collection (as it´s strictly speaking not a museum, never was, just a collection of cars that Wilhelm Karmann put to one side, typically a model of each car that rolled off his production lines) will remain in Osnabrück, now that the factory itself has gone into liquidation and has been sold to VW (who are about to start up production of the new Goof cabrio). The format of visiting this car collection is as yet unknown. The chap who guided us around 2 weeks ago, is about to leave in 2-3 months. He is the last Karmann employee.

 

Visits are by prior arrangement only. The site is indeed a locked compound. You can drive past it, and see the buildings, the signature building no doubt being the Karmann tower (belongs to their multim-million Euro paint line), which now no longer sports the characteristic Karmann-lgo, since VW have on a Saturday some weeks ago at 5 am (when no-one noticed) removed the signs from said tower.

 

All the buildings are currently logo-less, the outlines of where the Karmann logos used to be still visible. New VW flags are dotted around the site, they haven´t seen a drop of rain yet, when we were there. The admin buildings are empty. The factory buildings were a bit like Longbridge: derelict, no soul on-site.

 

Karmann or VW now are about to recruit again, as the chap that organised the meet in Germany 2 weeks ago used to work for Karmann, got made redundant and has now been offered the same job he used to carry out at Karmann with VW again.

 

The 1/24 scale Corrado model that we gave the then guide of the private car collection (back in 2008 for the 20th anniversary of the Corrado) is still within the museum building, locked away in a glass cabinet :clap:

 

We did get to see the basement, too, where there is still a certain 16V G60 Rado, as driven by the first non-Karmann boss, Rainer Thieme (ex Recaro chief).

 

Pics of the whole meet 2 weeks ago (including Karmann visit) are here

 

Tempest

[Portent 0]

^^ Nice pictures and interesting information. I now really miss my old Scirocco GTX.