The rest point for our first night is Speyer, a couple of hours south east from Nürburg. Away from the Eiffel region and the going is pleasant but pretty uninspiring on the autobahns. It’s my turn to take the wheel and I manage my trip-best of 139mph during a reasonable length without restriction. We find easy motoring and the drivers seem a little less likely to pull out without warning than I’d remembered. A 100-110mph cruise seems to strike a nice balance between covering ground and experiencing periodic moments of horror as slow-moving cars wander into the outside lane. The Vantage is right in its sweet spot here. The exhaust valves are just closed for quiet(ish) cruising but it’s right on cam and a gentle squeeze on the throttle pedal brings strong, building acceleration accompanied by the car’s trademark thunderous soundtrack.
Speyer is one of Germany’s most ancient cities, with a recorded history dating back two millennia to its days as a Roman camp. Situated on the banks of the mighty Rhine, the city’s name is the result of its striking skyline, punctuated by tall spires. Construction of the lofty cathedral, a stone’s throw from the river commenced in 1030, when the civilisation was already 1000 years old. Today’s it’s a distinctly German town. You can’t expect to find an English menu in a restaurant and there exists a gentle cafe culture-type vibe with locals enjoying the early evening sun with a beer or an ice cream. It’s a side of the country you wouldn’t expect without visiting and it’s rather charming. Naturally, the local pilsner is served in huge glasses with a generous head to tickle your moustache.
As if so much inspiring history and pleasant culture isn’t enough, Speyer is home to an enormous museum of special interest to nerds like us. Paired with a facility in the same vein less than half an hour away at Sinsheim, Technik Museum Speyer is a vast, sprawling collection dedicated to all forms of transport and engineering. You know you’ve found it because there’s a Boeing 747 100 feet up in the sky on stilts just off the autobahn.
The museum is set on land adjacent to Speyer’s small airport, an airstrip which dates as far back as the First World War and features its own hotel. It’s fairly basic but the car parking is safe and there’s a jet fighter set on stilts at the entrance. You may detect something of a theme here…
It seems as if our whole trip is punctuated by museums but we excel ourselves on day two by visiting not one, but two. We kick off with a visit to Hockenheim. Possessing a long history as the venue for the German Grand Prix, the track is an easy 20 minutes’ drive from Speyer so we head over straight after breakfast to sample its museum and check out the historic circuit itself.
We find Hockenheim buzzing gently with preparations for its first major race meeting of the year: for the inaugural time, DTM will be sharing the billing with the World Rallycross Championship and it’s hard not to feel a pang of regret that we can’t be there to join in the fun. The giant corporate stands from the big German manufacturers are slowly being constructed but most interesting of all is the development of the Rallycross layout.
Set in the heart of the circuit’s famous stadium section, it twists back and forth across the macadam and the grassed areas in between. It looks challenging for the drivers and the views for spectators promise to be fantastic. Hockenheim’s stadium is enormous. My nearest frame of reference is the final part of the lap at Circuit de Catalunya, where we joined the wild, local MotoGP crowds in 2012. Hockenheim, however, takes this up a notch. The grandstands are simply massive and offer an expansive view of the climax of the lap. Though, sadly, that lap has now been emasculated, one can only sit and wonder at what it must’ve been like to have seen racing on the ‘proper’ layout. The cars would’ve been out of sight for 90 seconds giving rise to an anxious wait before a fright of colourful, screaming V8, V10 and V12 monsters loomed out of the forests. Running skinny rear wings, they’d have skated through the stadium before blasting back out to into the forest once more…Magic.
Having explored a little of the current race track, we duck into the Motor Sport Museum. This is only a small facility and actually majors on motorcycles ahead of cars. Racing at Hockenheim dates back to the 1930s and today’s layout is one of several which have existed on the site down the years. A tour of the place is available but, sadly, we don’t have time for that today due to our commitments at Speyer.
The museum is fairly small and almost entirely in German. This challenges my translation skills – and my two years of studying German as a pre-teen do little to help with making sense of some of the more in-depth displays. Still, we muddle through and enjoy tracking the development of the racing motor cycle in its many forms. Most fascinating of all is a brace of Bimota Tesi 2Ds, featuring front swing arms and crazy suspension geometry. We ponder these unusual machines for some time, struggling to make sense of the unusual arrangement of coupling rods. And to think I sometimes dismiss motorcycles as mostly looking the same…
There are, of course, cars as well and the displays include four wheeled heroes from the worlds of F1, F2, F3, FVee, DTM and drag racing. It’s easy to forget that Hockenheim’s unique arrangement also created scope for a drag strip – and that’s a form of racing which holds almost as much importance to the place as does road racing and continues to this day.
In spite of the linguistic challenges, we learn plenty about Hockenheim’s history and the displays provide a useful insight into German racing generally. It’s small – don’t go there expecting the Donington Grand Prix Collection – but taken for what it is, it’s a charming place which gives some context to a visit to the old circuit.
As a Lotus owner and enthusiast, no trip to Hockenheim would be complete without paying our respects to Jim Clark. The great Scot, who died in a still-unexplained accident deep in the forests, remains revered in all quarters. The spot where he died is now buried in deep woodland and not easy to find but, since the construction of the current layout, a new memorial has been built for him, just behind the current turn two.
We drive half-way out there before taking to our feet. It’s a warm day and the short stroll is no hardship. The memorial is unpretentious but provides a fitting tribute to one of the titans of the sport, who was lost while still at the absolute peak of his powers. Adjacent is a smaller memorial to German driver Bert Hawthorne, who also lost his life racing here. The site is well-maintained and we pause in silence to pay our respects. It’s peaceful out here and reflection comes naturally. Our sport can carry grave penalties.
Behind the memorials, the old circuit once carried drivers in a flat-out blast between the trees. Gently curving ‘straights’ hurled drivers at terrific speed towards nadgetty chicanes. The mists would hang among the trees. This was once a unique and special place. Today, the only clue that racing formerly took place here is the immaturity of the trees on the line of the old track. The macadam has been torn up and forestation planted in its place; even the museum justifies this move on ecology. I have a lump in my throat.
We head back to Speyer as preparations for the forthcoming DTM / World Rallycross weekend continue apace; not much time for sentimentality – these guys are making race history today.
Technik Museum Speyer is a crazy kind of museum; in fact the only place I can compare it to is its brethren at Sinsheim. Occupying a number of former military and manufacturing units adjacent to Speyer airport (a slightly grand term, though apparently it does receive the odd commercial flight), the air buzzes constantly with the gentle drone of light aircraft. The sound is broken only once when a jet fighter takes off just out of our sight, rattling the windows as it goes.
There’s an undeniable sense of fun about both Speyer and Sinsheim; it’s hard not to experience a kind of vague amusement at the sight of a fighter plane, speared up the exhaust, pointing skywards outside the place, giant yellow letter behind spelling out ‘WILLKOMMEN’. It’s kind of serious and kind of fun at the same time.
The collection is simply enormous and it’s spread out over an huge area. Outside are the serious units: aeroplanes; boats; trains; military vehicles; a u-boat. Inside, all available halls are stuffed from front to back and top to bottom with exhibits. It’s a cerebral overload; chewing gum for the eyes. Every form of transport is on display, either resting on the ground, swinging from the rafters or climbing the walls. And if you love fire engines you’ll be in heaven.
It’s not worth trying to list even a fraction of the exhibits but there are cars, bikes, trains, planes, fire engines, buses, funicular railway carriages, boats, submarines, racing trucks, maglevs, tractors, dragsters, luna buggies and even a ruddy space shuttle (or the Eastern equivalent). It’s hard not to ponder how all of these objects – each of which is fascinating in its own right – have ended up in this corner of Germany.
The star exhibit is the ex-Lufthansa Boeing 747. It sits in the middle of the main courtyard, way up in the sky and gently tilted to give the impression of circling in to land. It’s undeniably impressive and a lengthy set of steps leads visitors into the fuselage to explore. Those crazy Germans have even created a walkway on the wing which is at least 15 times as scary as it sounds. Near the top of the stairs, boisterous visitors can hop on a sack and ride a slide to the bottom. Like I said, this place mixes fun with its engineering geekery.
The listing 747 is fascinating, as various areas have been deconstructed to enable you to see the construction of the plane and its various components. Its tilt also makes navigation slightly treacherous; it’s amazing how disorientating it is to guide oneself around a plane which isn’t in level flight or on the ground. I cannot imagine how much red tape would need to be cut in order to permit such a ludicrous, interactive installation in the UK today.
At ground level we’re excited to find a display celebrating 20 years of Team Rosberg. It’s easy to forget that Keke Rosberg has enjoyed a successful second career in motor racing, since hanging up his helmet. A pair of DTM Calibras reminds us of happy days at Donington Park during the golden era of Class One DTM and ITC weapons. Several cars from the career of Keke’s son, Nico, bring the story more up-to-date.
Just a few feet away sits the Buran space craft – Russia’s answer to the Space Shuttle. Even by space voyages standards, this example is pretty well-travelled, having been displayed in Sydney ahead of the Olympic Games before passing a couple of years in Bahrain. It was delivered to Speyer by water along the Rhine and now sits in pride of place among a series of spacey exhibits. As with everything at Speyer, it has been opened up to display its workings, with a walkway to allow visitors to see inside. Essentially a lorry intended to travel into space; it possesses a large cargo area, while the skin comprises thousands of ceramic tiles – just like the Space Shuttle.
Even a whistle-stop tour around Technik Museum Speyer will last half a day and thoroughly learning the identity and history of each item might take a lifetime. It’s an overwhelming place but an absolutely essential visit if you treasure transport, technology and engineering.
