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Bennett makes it his mission to be in Gmünd for Porsche’s 70th Anniversary. He’s glad he did

Highlight of this issue? Well, for me it’s a personal one. Turn to page 48 and you can join in as we take a Boxster 718 to Gmünd on June 8th, 2018. The date is important, because 70-years ago on June 8th 1948, the first Porsche was road registered in the picturesque Austrian town. This is the date officially adopted by Porsche for the 70th Anniversary celebrations. To be in Gmünd, then, on that date was something of a no-brainer and to be honest we were expecting something of a media scrum, but it seems that Porsche’s own celebrations at its Stuttgart museum, on the same date, had diverted attention from Porsche’s true Genesis moment and we had the run of the place.

And what a glorious place Gmünd is, seemingly untouched by the passage of 70-years and mindful of its place in Porsche history, thanks to Helmut Pfeifhofner’s Porsche museum and his foresight to buy and renovate the small wooden building that acted as Porsche’s design office at the entrance of the huge timber sheds converted for use as Porsche’s temporary factory. Helmut can remember Porsches testing in and around Gmünd as a boy and today there is still that palpable sense of Porsche’s time here, backed up by archive photography, that allowed us to plant the Boxster into history.

And while Gmünd charmed, the Grossglockner Pass, where Porsche 356/1 tested, simply awed with its scale and alpine grandeur. Driving the same roads 70-years on, in a mid-engined, four-cylinder Porsche, was again touching history. As a Porsche fan, make it your mission to visit Gmünd in Porsche’s 70th year. Or any year for that matter.

As a Porsche fan, make it your mission to visit Gmünd