"It's kinda cool the way she's always looking at me." - Jake Ryan, Sixteen Candles Okay, maybe "Jake" was a bit of a narcissist lol. Back in the day I had a wardrobe of sweater vests, polo shirts, and tight acid washed jeans. I also had a Porsche 944 Turbo nicknamed "Jake Ryan". A name taken from the pretty boy jock in John Hughes classic, Sixteen Candles, staring Molly Ringwald as "Samantha Baker" and little known Michael Schoeffling as "Jake Ryan". Molly became a Generation X icon and "Jake" slipped into obscurity. I actually purchased my Porsche used (2nd owner) years after the movie came out, but I remember it like yesterday, back in the 1990's when Grunge was now the rage. New Wave now an afterthought. I saved enough on my own to target a German sports car... at first, I was leaning towards a classic 914 or 912, since the vintage 911 Carrera and the James Dean 356 were out of my price range at the time. Nope I sure wasn't a yuppie LOL! After paying in full... It was time for me to clean-up and customize my new baby. Then I remembered... wait... Sixteen Candles... the sports car "Jake Ryan" drove... the one "Samantha Baker" sat in! Well let's not get carried away it wasn't the actual car, but it was a similar model, in fact my Porsche had more horse power! As crazy as it sounds the movie convinced me to keep it as original as possible. Though Jake had a '85 and I had the '89 Turbo. I guess the spirit of "Jake Ryan" lived in me LOL! And now he's a cabinet maker! Oh that freckled Samantha Baker! As the years rolled on, as time flew by, I still drove my Porsche, in between other cars. College went. I moved on to other jobs and jobs, and the girlfriend, ex-wife, fiancé, next girlfriend all moved on too, lol. Yet, my reliable "Jake Ryan" stayed with me through thick and thin... and before you know it a decade passed on, and then two decades. Finally after about 22 years of being w/ "Jake" the engine finally died. "Jake's" heart stopped beating:( And like all cars, there's a time when we just must let go. In the end, I honestly can't recommend a Porsche to just anyone. And that's why I'm posting this in the Porsche Factory Tours in Stuttgart, Germany. It takes someone who appreciates the intricacies of German engineering, or a dude who just fell in love with "Samantha Baker" and wanted to be "Jake Ryan" if only for a minute, or in my case for over two decades. And with all the cars I have owned over my lifetime... the one car I'll never forget is my dragon-red Porsche... called "Jake Ryan". "...But just like the rain i'll be always falling, yeah only to rise and fall again..." - Sixteen Candles What a handsome car. The End. read more

Porsche Factory Tour - I've had "Jake Ryan"'for 20 years & counting, if you know, you know. She still hums on the autobahn, sans my sweater vest... - Tours Near Me - Stuttgart, BW

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TOOK THE FACTORY TOUR ON MONDAY APRIL 20, 2026 ============================================== My husband is a Porschehead if that is a word. If it isn't then I just created a new word. I convinced him to take a trip to Germany with the promise I would book tickets to the Porsche Factory. The only day available for us to go was on a Monday. The sad thing about going on a Monday is that you cannot go to the museum or the Gift Store. So while we were waiting to start the tour my husband could see all these little model Porsches in the Gift Store that he wanted that he could not buy. I would say that if the Porsche Factory Tour is running on Mondays it would be really nice if the museum and Gift Store were open too. I was happy with the tour because it was for 911's which I love. I am surprised I didn't start drooling a few times. The colors and different types were amazing. No photos are allowed unfortunately. Personally I felt most areas of the assembly line process were included in the tour. My husband felt that a lot of things that a Porschehead like himself wanted to see were not included. To get there it should be easy, but there is a lot of construction going on at the Stuttgart Train Station. To get there from Munich we took the S Bahn to the Munich Train Station and then took an ICE trains to Stuttgart. It was a two and a half hour trip each way. read more

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If you come to Zuffenhausen for a visit to the Porsche museum I highly recommend planning the factory tour if you can get in on one. Book online in advance. We were fortunate as a German colleague/friend was able to get us booked in for one English tour. You get to see and walk out in around the different areas of the factory where Porsche makes their iconic sports cars pretty much from start to finish. It's one of the coolest Factory tours I've been able to witness. Usually a tour shows you a generic video to start and you only see a glimpse of what goes on. The Zuffenhausen factory tour is 2 hours of walking through experiencing how Porsche makes their cars with detailed explanations and open for questions. Absolutely unbelievable! One day I hope to do the European delivery program. A new found respect for this manufacturer and brand! read more

Porsche Factory Tour - We were 718 Cayman group - Tours Near Me - Stuttgart, BW

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I wanted to find some automotive-related things to do while in Stuttgart, so, on a whim, I decided to email Porsche a couple weeks before my vacation, and to my surprise, they easily set me up with a tour of their Zuffenhausen factory (in English, too!)!! They emailed all the information to me directly, since there is zero info about Zuffenhausen tours on their website, ... the email said not to park in the dealership, so I just found street parking about three blocks away. (There was an underground garage for the museum, but it seemed to be closed on Mondays). The meeting point for the tour group is in the museum lobby, and once there, they will take your cell phones and cameras from you - not surprising, but disappointing still. Only 8 people were in our tour group - a very comfortable size. Our tour guide, Jeff Salut, was a well-informed, long-time Porsche employee, and he led us through several areas of the factory, and even had some humorous anecdotes along the way. We saw the logistics area, where all the parts come in and are sent to the assembly line; the upholstery area, with all that super nice leather being cut up and sewn together; the engine assembly lines (both V8s and flat-6s); and, of course, the final assembly line. It was impressive that their single assembly line had the capacity to build four different models at the same time -- Cayman, Boxster, current 997 Carrera and next-gen 991 Carrera (the Cayenne and Panamera are built in Leipzig). We got to walk right down through the factory, just feet away from the production line. We even got to see them working on a Carrera Cup Car off to the side (roll cage already built-in!). Didn't really get to see any of the metal stamping, body welding, plastics or paint shop, though. According to our tour guide, they are going to be able to increase production to 200 Porsches in a day (2 shifts). A lot less than my old NUMMI factory could build, but Carreras and Corollas are quite different, haha! One hugely awesome thing - it was completely FREE!! read more

Porsche Factory Tour - meet at the museum; you'll walk through several different buildings on the tour - but no photos are allowed =( - Tours Near Me - Stuttgart, BW

Factory tour was great. Sadly, no pictures inside factory. Come prepared to walk a lot. So cool to see how everything is made. I love that there are still so many people in the process and not just a bunch of robots. Tour guide spoke English well enough. Very organized though. Super cool. read more

Great tour, well worth the time. Our guide was excellent. Fascinating part was the upholstery prep and assembly.

Really enjoyed it! I've been to many construction equipment factories but never an automotive. I thought the place would be full of high tech robots doing precision assembling but no. There were hardly any! One of the only robots on the assembly line was used to apply the adhesive to the windshield, since it could do a more consistent bead than a human, then 3 workers placed the windshield on the chassis! 3 people just to install the windshield! That's why these cars cost so much! Never saw so much manual labor in a factory before. The other thing that shocked me was that every car going down the line was different. They don't make the same model one after the other, then change production to another model. They are custom built in the order they are received. There's a green 911 cab then right after is a black targa then right after that a white turbo and so on. I'd be so confused if I worked on that line but as a visitor it was awesome to be able to see so many 911 models coming down the line. Found a little screw and a nut on the factory floor (no I didn't steal it from one of the bins) and joked with my tour mate I had about $50.00 worth of parts in my hand. The tour guide overheard and laughed and said you're probably right! As a Porsche owner I thought it was a great tour and would recommend it to any car enthusiast. read more