Stuttgart Porsche Loop: Zuffenhausen, Solitude & Weissach

Porsche has built cars at Zuffenhausen, a northern district of Stuttgart, since 1950, and the 911 is still assembled there. The Porsche Museum opened on Porscheplatz in 2009, across the road from the original works. To the west of the city, the roads of the old Solitude circuit are still public, and beyond them is Weissach, where every Porsche has been developed since the early 1970s. This is not a great driving road in the alpine sense. It is the home trip every owner ends up making.

The drive

Start at Porscheplatz. The museum, a building raised on three concrete supports and designed by the Viennese architects Delugan Meissl, holds a changing display drawn from the company's collection of road and racing cars. Factory tours are offered but must be booked well ahead. The Mercedes-Benz Museum is on the other side of the city if you want to make two days of it.

From Zuffenhausen it is about 15 km south-west to Glemseck, near Leonberg, which was the start and finish of the Solitudering. The 11.4 km circuit, named after the nearby Schloss Solitude, hosted motorcycle Grands Prix and non-championship Formula 1 races until 1965. A lap is still possible on public roads through the forest, by way of Frauenkreuz, Büsnau and the Mahdental valley, and the old race control tower still stands at Glemseck. Then continue west through Leonberg and Rutesheim to Weissach and Flacht, and return to Stuttgart on the country roads through Heimsheim or along the A8.

In your Porsche

Porsche tested its early cars on the Solitude roads before the Weissach proving ground existed, and Porsche drivers including Hans Herrmann raced there. The development centre at Weissach is not open to visitors, but you will usually see cars on test plates on the lanes around it. The loop is suburban and speed-limited, so treat it as a day out. For real driving, the Black Forest High Road is about an hour and a half to the west.