The Porsche Technology Development Centre In Weissach
Text/photos courtesy of Porsche AG
In 1971, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG opened its Research and Development centre in Weissach – 25 kilometres to the west of Stuttgart. The “ideas factory”, as the development centre is frequently called, offers an incomparable range of the latest technological activities supported by a workforce of over 2,300 employees, which includes engineers from every field of specialisation who contribute to converting their customer’s visions and innovative ideas to applicable technology. “When the centre was founded, it was a step forward into the future, the right step in the right direction”, explains Horst Marchart, the member of the Porsche board with responsibility for Research and Development.
Having come to an agreement with 125 land-owners to purchase 38 hectares of land, Dr. Ferry Porsche turned the first sod for the original test facility with a bulldozer on 16th October 1961. Just a year later, the access roads and a skid pad were completed. At this stage, the development division with the construction, testing and design department was still located in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and was expanding faster than production. “Zuffenhausen was quickly becoming a size too small”, remembers Horst Marchart. Since the premises in Zuffenhausen could not be expanded any further, there was no option for the development division but to move to Weissach. The test tracks were not even finished when work on construction of the first phase of the current development centre began. In the summer of 1971, the division began to move from Zuffenhausen to what was already seen as the most modern test centre in the world.
With the increase in technological requirements, all the important installations such as the measurement centre, wind tunnel and crash facility followed in rapid succession. The exhaust test division was there from the start. Its roller-type test stands could be set for speeds of up 160 km/h and even at that time there was an exhaust measuring duct to analytical chambers in the control room. By means of punched tape and pneumatic cylinders, the endurance run of the test subjects was controlled by an “automatic driver” which operated the accelerator, brake and clutch pedals as well as the gear-shift lever in the specified drive cycle rhythm.
Three years later, in the wake of the test stands, the workshops and the laboratories, initially three and now four hexagonally shaped Research and Development office buildings were officially opened. Porsche could then concentrate all its development departments in Weissach with a work flow system which was seen as superlative by the standards of that time.
Since not only the company’s own engineers, but also international development customers in the automobile industry in particular were clamouring for greater exhaust measurement and emission optimisation capacity, the “Measurement Centre for Environmental Protection” with its own test facility was officially opened in late autumn of 1982. In an area of 5,500 square meters, an ideal operating environment with high-tech test stands was created for the exhaust technicians. Here micro-processor controlled roller-type exhaust test stands continuously measure the real tractive resistance of the particular vehicle which is driven automatically with a statistically reliable accuracy of measurement which can be reproduced at any time in accordance with the various exhaust test cycles specified for the country. A climate / pressurised steel chamber is used for carrying out exhaust and consumption tests and many other development tests in a wide range of climates and altitudes.
The high standard of exhaust research in the Porsche development centre was also one reason for the decision of Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen to establish a joint “Exhaust Centre for the Automobile Industry” (ADA) at Porsche in Weissach; it commenced operations in January 1996.
