Schlumpf Museum, Mulhouse. Largest car museum in the World

[MikeInWimbledon]

Went along last week. A jaw dropping collection of 520 arcane cars from around the World.

Strongly recommended. For example, have you ever seen a Mercedes W28 ?

While this one seems.... almost routine.

 

[GeeJayW]

^Totally agree. An amazing place with a great back story and way too much stuff to see in one visit. I hope to go again...

 

[Farmer boy]

Fantastic place. So many cars. Took far to many pictures. Some absolutely unbelievable cars.
Visited last September, plan was to do the museum in the morning then on to the nearby Cite De Train. Ended up all day at the cars and ran out of time. So much unbelievably rare stuff to look at.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Did the car museum one day - it seemed almost deserted. We saw about 200 other visitors there during the entire day.
https://www.citedelautomobile.com

Went to the Cite du Train the following day: Can't have been more than 50 visitors there, and it's huge.
Europe's second biggest train museum, second only to York.
https://www.citedutrain.com

 

[GeeJayW]

We were on our way back home from a trip to the Dolomites that we went on with two other couples, all of us in (R171) SLKs. We stayed in Eguisheim (Eguisheim - Wikipedia) for a couple of nights and ran across to the car museum on one of the days.

We also stopped off at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart on the way down to Italy. That's amazing too.

(It was an excellent road trip wouldn't you say @RussJ ?)

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Thought i'd resurrect this one! It's my 50th this year and im planning another Euro tour in the Alfa (i did one for my 40th - 10 countries in 10 days). I realise this is a Mercedes forum but aside from another visit to the Alfa museum and stopping by the Vernasca Hill Climb (on the bucket list) i wanted to also go the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. Then saw this about the Schlumpf Museum! Looks fantastic, so my route is starting to potentially take shape. Just wondered if anyone had any more recent info on the Schlumpf Museum, the Mercedes one in Stuttgart or anything else in the vicinity worth a look?

 

[st13phil]

Just wondered if anyone had any more recent info on the Schlumpf Museum, the Mercedes one in Stuttgart or anything else in the vicinity worth a look?

The Schlumpf collection is stunning and you should give yourself a full day to appreciate it, so pick somewhere nearby to stay. There are plenty of options, but some of my favourites are Colmar, Riquewihr and Ribeauville.

The Chateau at Haut-Koenigsbourg is worth a visit (allow at least 2hrs - 3hrs would be better), the Route du Vin from Thann in the south to Marlenheim in the north can make a pleasant drive and if you feel the need for some harrowing 20th-century history, the Camp du Struthof located in the Alsace should suffice.

The Alsace and the Vosges are areas that most Brit's seem to know little about, but they have some excellent scenery, intriguing history, and great roads.

 

[ChrisHGTV]

The Schlumpf collection is stunning and you should give yourself a full day to appreciate it, so pick somewhere nearby to stay. There are plenty of options, but some of my favourites are Colmar, Riquewihr and Ribeauville.

The Chateau at Haut-Koenigsbourg is worth a visit (allow at least 2hrs - 3hrs would be better), the Route du Vin from Thann in the south to Marlenheim in the north can make a pleasant drive and if you feel the need for some harrowing 20th-century history, the Camp du Struthof located in the Alsace should suffice.

The Alsace and the Vosges are areas that most Brit's seem to know little about, but they have some excellent scenery, intriguing history, and great roads.

Excellent- many thanks! Really appreciate this, look to be some great options. I have a feeling we stayed near Colmar on the last trip as we came up from Liechtenstein on the return leg. We went to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen - that was well worth a visit. They had an old Maybach Zeppelin in the foyer if i remember.

 

[JB052]

If you have not already visited, the Porsche factory museum in Stuttgart is worth a visit

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Thought i'd resurrect this one! It's my 50th this year and im planning another Euro tour in the Alfa (i did one for my 40th - 10 countries in 10 days). I realise this is a Mercedes forum but aside from another visit to the Alfa museum and stopping by the Vernasca Hill Climb (on the bucket list) i wanted to also go the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. Then saw this about the Schlumpf Museum! Looks fantastic, so my route is starting to potentially take shape. Just wondered if anyone had any more recent info on the Schlumpf Museum, the Mercedes one in Stuttgart or anything else in the vicinity worth a look?

We went to Stuttgart (pronounced 'Stut gart' not ‘Schtutgaart’ as our newsreaders seem to think) about 3 years ago.

MB & Porsche Museums in Stuttgart are excellent. There was a factory tour (need to book) of the Porsche Factory available a 2 minute walk from the museum (and the two can be easily done in a day) and of course the (need to book) AMG factory is <1 hour drive from Stuttgart.

 

[ChrisHGTV]

We went to Stuttgart (pronounced 'Stut gart' not ‘Schtutgaart’ as our newsreaders seem to think) about 3 years ago.

MB & Porsche Museums in Stuttgart are excellent. There was a factory tour (need to book) of the Porsche Factory available a 2 minute walk from the museum (and the two can be easily done in a day) and of course the (need to book) AMG factory is <1 hour drive from Stuttgart.

Thanks (and JB052) - i think i'm going to need to balance looking at cars with some more Wife-centric stuff, seems to be a lot of nice opportunities! Saying that, my wife is very understanding - and she actually really enjoyed the Ducati factory tour we had as part of our honeymoon! She was even accommodating when i wanted to drive to the Alfa factory at Arese, when it wasn't even open to the public! (This was also before the museum had re-opened so all we could do was stand outside the gate!)

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Thanks (and JB052) - i think i'm going to need to balance looking at cars with some more Wife-centric stuff, seems to be a lot of nice opportunities! Saying that, my wife is very understanding - and she actually really enjoyed the Ducati factory tour we had as part of our honeymoon! She was even accommodating when i wanted to drive to the Alfa factory at Arese, when it wasn't even open to the public! (This was also before the museum had re-opened so all we could do was stand outside the gate!)

My wife enjoyed the whole trip (and she has no real interest in cars). She really enjoyed the nice hotels and dinners .

Your’s is lucky she had a honeymoon. 1978 - Got married on Saturday, went water skiing with friends on Sunday, flew to a remote construction site in Malawi on Monday (part of which was flying in a little 6 seater Bonanza V tail for 3 hours & landing on a bush runway & she is terrified of any sort of flying). Got to set the bar low from the beginning then it is easy to do better & we’ve been together for 50 years now (met in 1972).

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

All good fun - if your wife is obliging. I'll reinforce the comments above with these nuggets:

1. Loved the Mercedes Factory tour at Boeblingen, not just for the cars but also for the case study of scale and logistics. You can see videos of the production line on Youtube but visiting it you realise how huge and immaculate it is. Watching the punters collect their new cars is a curious ambivalent pleasure. There are some strange new owners out there. Could easily spend a day there

2. Next to the MB factory is the Motorworld and the V8 hotel, a car themed hotel and enormous complex housing an arrange of car dealers, both modern and classic. Again could easily fill a day: V8 Hotel-Motorworld Stuttgart

3. The Mercedes Museum is again worth a day, and is everything that you'd expect from MB

3. MB Classic also operate in Fellbach. An arcane choice. They specialise in renovating anything, of any age. Mind-blowing.
Mercedes-Benz Classic Center.

4. If you're an AMG owner, the AMG factory tour at Affalterbach is well worth the half day. Short drive outside Stuttgart and they treat you like a King. It's strictly engines and the most extraordinary bespoke builds, not "normal" AMG builds
AMG Factory Tour

5. Porsche Museum: obvious. Even more crazy history and money about. A day would be easy, but many will just split a day between the museum and the factory tour.

6. Porsche factory tour. Exceptional if you have the chance. Again a logistics tour de force. Very disciplined tour - wander off and they'll set the metaphorical dogs on you. "We must be disciplined in walking through the factory."

7. BMW in Munich - haven't been but intend to soon.

8. VW Autostadt, Wolfsburg - said to be the biggest tourist attraction in Germany - those crazy fun-loving Germans. Find that hard to believe, but that's a claim I've heard. Everything from VW bread, through VW sausages to even cars. Currently partially closed due to some health pandemic thing but will be open again later in the Summer.
Current News

9. Apparently there's a company called AUDI at Ingolstadt which does tours and has a museum. Can't say that I've ever heard of them. Sounds like some kind of VW spin off but apparently they have an interesting history.

10. And, of course there's the Nurburgring as well as a number of derestricted motorways to be visited. I wouldn't do Nurburgring, I'm happy to watch the annual crash compendium, but each to their own. But Germany's derestricted motorways will disappear within the foreseeable future, so maybe worth a visit.

11. Loved the Schlumpf museum which takes a full day. An extraordinary story of obsession with a unique set of cars. Stay in Mulhouse if you can. (Pronounced Mul- Ouse, as in the river in York): fascinating border city, that is half German half French, historic but very much off the beaten track.

12. If you're really techie there's a great Auto & Technik museum at Sinsheim. Arcane but all kind of interesting stuff including a Concorde that you can walk through. (If only to horrify yourself that it was still flying commercially twenty years ago)

13. And then there are the annual car shows: Geneva, an easy day trip, Frankfurt, Paris, Retromobile etc etc.

14. Can't talk about Italy, Maranello and Modena and all that - not my kind of motoring - but if you do go down there, note that you can hire a Ferrari for a 10, 20, 30, 60 or more drive. Expensive, naturally, but it appeals to some.

15. If you're in Italy in June, it's worth "dropping by" the Mille Miglia. It's quite a bun fight. 15 -18 June. It's the 40th re-run this year.
1000 Miglia 2022 – 15-18 June 2022 – 1000 Miglia

16. If anyone knows how to get into Bentley or Rolls Royce in the UK, short of ordering one's next Motor, I'd love to know how.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

View attachment 123432

That photo reminded me of living in Johannesburg in the 60s. We had a parking garage that did exactly that but it wasn’t circular. Drove the car in onto a platform, paid your money and off your car went. It was very advanced for teh time.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

That photo reminded me of living in Johannesburg in the 60s. We had a parking garage that did exactly that but it wasn’t circular. Drove the car in onto a platform, paid your money and off your car went. It was very advanced for teh time.
View attachment 123457

The fight for the briefcase sequence in Mission Impossible: Ghost Principle, was based on the Autostadt store but they actually built their own version, unbelievably, in Canada, because of the "things they needed to do" for the sequence.

I'd like to say that "no vehicles were harmed in the making of this movie," but sadly....

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[st13phil]

1. Loved the Mercedes Factory tour at Boeblingen, not just for the cars but also for the case study of scale and logistics. You can see videos of the production line on Youtube but visiting it you realise how huge and immaculate it is. Watching the punters collect their new cars is a curious ambivalent pleasure.

I've been fortunate enough to do Factory Collection from the plant at Sindelfingen twice and the factory tour there is excellent. From memory they do one tour in the morning and one in the afternoon in English language, but it has to be pre-booked. The second time we went we stayed in the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin in Stuttgart which is located opposite the iconic Hauptbahnhof which is crowned with its famous illuminated rotating three-pointed star. The hotel is a fairly typical upscale "international" hotel with multiple restaurants and we were treated like royalty when when chose to be the only Brits eating in their Swabian restaurant. Stuttgart itself (known to the locals as "Benz-Town") is a lesson in the wealth created by manufacturing and worth a nose around. It was a sad day when MBUK stopped the Factory Collection programme.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that if driving the Route des Vins, it's worth a quick stop off in Molsheim which was the location of the original Bugatti factory. There's a bronze statue of Ettore in the Parc des Jésuites, and another of a Type 35 Grand Prix car - not massively interesting, but worth a photo.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

As someone who started life trying to run factories in the UK - at a very low level - the shocker is how big and well-planned these Automotive factories are, compared to the abortions that are Cowley, Luton, and the now demolished Southampton Transit factory.

Germany is a country where they let companies expand and reshape themselves, which they do in a disciplined, tidy and cost conscious way.

 

[st13phil]

Germany is a country where they let companies expand and reshape themselves, which they do in a disciplined, tidy and cost conscious way.

Germany is also a country where professional Engineers are accorded similar societal status to medical doctors and lawyers, and manufacturing is thought of as an honourable enterprise.