你的奔馳和保時捷誕生的地方

When I stepped off the S-Bahn at the Neckarpark station in Stuttgart on my way to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, I ran into a gaggle of Idaho high school students who nicely summed up the two automotive museums they had just visited.

在從斯圖加特的城市快鐵內卡公園站下車，前往梅賽德斯-奔馳博物館(Mercedes-Benz Museum)的路上，我撞見一羣嘰嘰喳喳的愛達荷州高中生，他們很好地總結了剛剛參觀的兩座汽車博物館。

“Mercedes has more details and has more history,” one of them told me. Porsche, he said, was more about Porsche and its racing heritage.

其中一個學生對我說，“梅賽德斯有更多細節和更多歷史。”他又說，保時捷則更多是關於保時捷以及它的賽車血統。

There you have it. My work is done.

就這些。我的工作完成了。

Stuttgart is home to these two luxury brands, and as a car guy and automotive journalist, I have always wanted to make the pilgrimage there. Germany does not have the sort of geographic center for its auto industry that the United States has in Detroit. But since the companies’ founders got their 19th century starts in Stuttgart, it comes closest.

斯圖加特是這兩個高端汽車品牌的故鄉，作爲一個車迷和汽車記者，我一直都想去那裏朝聖。德國的汽車工業沒有美國的底特律那種地域上的中心。不過這兩家公司都是19世紀在斯圖加特創始的，所以是最接近中心的地方了。

I had heard that the Mercedes-Benz Museum, like the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich., offered an exhaustive history of transportation. I also knew that Stuttgart was a must-see for Porschephiles. I got my excuse to visit when my daughter, Marian, moved to Düsseldorf, an easy train ride away.

我聽說梅賽德斯-奔馳博物館和密西根州迪爾伯恩的亨利·福特美國創新博物館(Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation)一樣，呈現了一部詳盡的交通運輸史。我還知道，斯圖加特是保時捷狂熱分子必去的地方。我的女兒瑪麗安搬到杜塞爾多夫後，我終於有了去那裏的藉口，坐一趟火車就到了。

My first stop was Mercedes, which presents a captivating walk through the birth of the automobile with the kind of historical sheet-metal eye candy that will wow an automotive fanatic. It’s a tale the company is allowed to own because a founder, Karl Benz, is credited with making the first car, and its other founder, Gottlieb Daimler, was not far behind.

我的第一站是梅賽德斯館，這裏提供了一條令人着迷的參觀路線，用養眼的古早金屬片造物呈現汽車的誕生，讓汽車迷大呼過癮。這樣的故事，是這家公司可以據爲己有的，因爲它的創始人卡爾·本茨(Karl Benz)被譽爲第一輛汽車的製造者，而另一位創始人戈特利布·戴姆勒(Gottlieb Daimler)也沒有比他晚太多。

But before I even entered the museum, I was stunned by the building. It’s a double-helix design by the Dutch architects UNStudio and sits like a round jewel on Mercedes Street. It opened in 2006.

不過在進入博物館前，我先是被它的建築震撼了。這是一個由荷蘭建築事務所UNStudio設計的雙螺旋造型，座落在梅賽德斯街上，就像一個圓形的珠寶。博物館是在2006年開放的。

Though Henry Ford made the expensive automobile popular with his affordable Model T in the early 20th century, it was Mr. Benz, an engineer and inventor, who got things started in 1885, when he installed the almost-one-horsepower internal combustion engine he invented into a three-wheel buggy.

亨利·福特在20世紀初用廉價的T型車將昂貴的汽車推向大衆，然而開創這一切的是工程師、發明家本茨，他在1885年將自己發明的一個接近一馬力的內燃機裝進了一輛三輪小車裏。

The building provides a floor-by-floor circular walk through Mercedes history over its nine floors and 177,000 square feet of exhibition space, with the timeline starting on the top floor. There I found a reproduction of that first car, with the real Daimler car next to it. Actually, a horse, thankfully another reproduction, greeted me as I began my tour at the start of the automobile age, when one horsepower meant what it advertised.

建築內有九層、17.7萬平方英尺的展覽空間，觀衆可以沿着環形的走廊逐層瀏覽梅賽德斯的發展史，時間線的起點位於頂層。在那裏，我看到了第一輛車的復刻版，與一輛原版戴姆勒放在一起。事實上在“自動車”(automobile)時代起點迎接我的是一匹馬，令人寬慰的是那也是複製品，在那個年代，“馬力”指的就是一馬之力。

To my jaded 21st century eyes, those cars looked more like contraptions than useful transportation, but the engines were evidence of the true genius of these men. As the technology improved, internal combustion engines got the world moving and quickly ended up in buses, trucks, boats, airships and tractors, some of which are on display here. A descendant of those engines is sitting in your driveway.

透過我這雙百無聊賴的21世紀眼睛，這些車更像是古怪的裝置，而不是實用交通工具，然而引擎證明這些人都是實打實的天才。隨着技術的改良，內燃機讓世界運動起來，很快被裝入巴士、卡車、輪船、飛艇和拖拉機裏，其中一些在館內就有展出。而你家門口的車道上，正端坐着這些引擎的一個後代。

Within a few years cars started to look like cars instead of horse-drawn carriages — for example the museum’s 1902 40 HP, the oldest-existing Mercedes-branded car. Still, the industry used carriage Types to describe its models, like phaeton (a light, open carriage), shooting brake (a carriage meant for gamekeepers and sportsmen) and cabriolet (a light carriage with a foldable hood drawn by one horse). Even dashboard is a leftover carriage term — it was the board that insulated the driver from rocks and dirt from the road.

幾年下來，汽車已經有了汽車的樣子，而不是像馬車的車身——例如館中展出的1902年產40 HP，現存最古老的梅賽德斯牌汽車。不過業界仍然用馬車車身的類型來描述其出品型號，比如法厄同（phaeton，一種輕型敞篷車），獵車（shooting brake，一種供獵場看守人和狩獵者使用的車身）以及“小羊羔”（cabriolet，一種有摺疊車篷的輕型車身，由一匹馬拉動）。連儀dashboard（儀表盤）都是馬車車身術語的遺存——指的是幫駕車者抵擋路上的石頭和泥土的一種板子。

The walls of the ramps that connect the floors are also part of the show. As I made my way down to the fourth floor, which highlighted safety, I learned that the ramp walls were made of polyamide, an airbag material. Clever.

樓層之間的斜坡也是展覽的一部分。在去以安全爲主題的四樓時，我得知下樓斜坡的牆壁是聚酰胺製作的，一種安全氣囊材料。很聰明。

“It is the only museum in the world that can document over 130 years of automobile history complete from the very first day,” Miriam Weiss, a Mercedes spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

“這是世上唯一一座可以從第一天開始，完整記錄130年汽車史的博物館，”梅賽德斯發言人米莉安·魏斯(Miriam Weiss)在一封電郵中說。

Frankly, the museum can seem overwhelming because there is so much of that history to take in and so many beautiful cars to sigh over, like the 1955 300SL Coupe, known as the Gullwing. You will learn that Mercedes was the name of an important customer’s daughter, Mercédès Jellinek (interesting that her father, Emil, eventually changed his last name to Jellinek-Mercedes), and that the company’s logo, the three-pointed star, symbolizes earth, water and air.

坦白講，這座博物館有時讓人有些招架不住，因爲有太多的歷史要了解，太多美麗的車輛要看，比如1955年產300SL轎跑，也就是人們所說的“鷗翼”(Gullwing)。你將瞭解到，“梅賽德斯”這個名字得於一位重要客戶的女兒默希迪絲·耶利內克（Mercédès Jellinek，有意思的是，她的父親埃米爾後來把自己的姓改成了耶利內克-梅賽德斯），公司的三叉星標誌象徵着水、土和空氣。

I traveled to the museum by train, but left with a strong urge to drive, something from the AMG performance division preferably, but alas, there was no opportunity. I went to the dealership on the bottom floor, but was told test drives must be scheduled about a week in advance.

我是坐火車去博物館的，但離開時產生了強烈的駕車慾望，最好是奔馳旗下高性能車廠AMG的出品，可惜沒有機會。我去了底層的銷售大廳，但被告知試駕需要提前一週左右預約。

There is no such problem at the Porsche Museum, about seven miles away from Mercedes. The Porsche building, which sits on three V-shape columns, is striking and seems to float above the ground. It was designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects of Vienna and opened in 2009.

距離梅賽德斯大約七英里的保時捷博物館(Porsche Museum)就不存在這個問題。它的建築以三組V形柱支撐，看上去十分驚人，彷佛是懸浮在地面上。它的設計者是維也納的德魯甘-麥斯爾聯合建築事務所(Delugan Meissl Associated Architects)，於2009年開放。

Representatives in the lobby will let you drive, say, a 911 for about $165 an hour and up to about 60 miles, but be aware you have to leave a $3,000 deposit.

大堂的銷售代表可以讓你開到911，每小時大約165美元，距離最多60英里，不過要注意，需要交納3000美元押金。

No matter — see the museum first. It’s more straightforward than Mercedes’s, with everything on one floor and a loft. It contains more than 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, and the displays are spread out. You can follow the development of Porsche’s models, from the design ultimately used for the Volkswagen Beetle, first created by Ferdinand Porsche, the company founder, to the car that defines the company, the 911. You can see how the sleek Type 64 racecar from the late 1930s led to the beloved Porsche 356 and then to the 911.

沒關係——先看看博物館吧。它比梅賽德斯的更簡單明瞭，所有內容都位於一個樓層和一間閣樓裏。展覽空間佔地超過6萬平方英尺，展品分散在各個位置。你可以追溯保時捷車型的發展，從該公司創始人費迪南德·保時捷(Ferdinand Porsche)最初創造、最終被大衆甲殼蟲(Volkswagen Beetle)採用的設計，到定義了這家公司的保時捷911。你可以看到1930年代晚期線條明快的64賽車(64 racecar)如何啓發了廣受喜愛的保時捷356，以及後來的911。

And for fun, there’s an area where you can press buttons to hear the engines of several cars, like the Panamera GTS and 911 GT3. Also impressive is the case that displays dozens of trophies from the company’s 30,000 motorsport wins. If you love the brand, especially its racing history, you’ll love this museum.

如果想找好玩的，有一個區域，你在那裏點一下按鈕就可以聽到多款汽車的引擎發動的聲音，比如帕納梅拉GTS(Panamera GTS)和911 GT3。另一個讓人印象深刻的地方是一個展示箱，裏面陳列着保時捷從3萬場賽車比賽的勝利中留下的幾十件紀念品。如果你熱愛這個品牌，尤其是它的參賽歷史，你會愛上這座博物館。

“Racecars have real road grime, dirt and dents,” Achim Stejskal, director of the Porsche Museum and Historical Communications, wrote in an email about some of the museum’s exhibits. “And all the cars actually run and participate in hundreds of events worldwide every year.”

“賽車會留下道路的污垢、灰塵和凹痕，”保時捷博物館館長以及歷史交流部主管阿希姆·斯泰斯卡爾(Achim Stejskal)在一封關於該館的一些展覽的郵件中寫道。“而且所有的車每年都真的會上路，並且參加世界各地的數百個活動。”

Both museums touch on World War II and the roles that Mercedes and Ferdinand Porsche played, with Mercedes devoting part of a ramp wall explaining its use of forced labor and the allied bombing of its plants. Porsche has a brief mention of Mr. Porsche’s work as an engineer during the war, when he assisted Germany with tank design.

兩座博物館都提到了第二次世界大戰，以及梅賽德斯和費迪南德·保時捷各自在這場戰爭中扮演的角色，奔馳用一面斜坡的一部分來解釋它曾經使用強制勞工，以及同盟國曾轟炸它的工廠。保時捷簡短地提到了其創始人在戰爭期間作爲一名工程師，協助德國設計坦克所做的工作。

But do not, under any circumstance, miss the two-hour factory tour across the street from the Porsche Museum. (You need to book about a month in advance.) I was able to watch workers hand-make these precision sports cars, with 911s, 718 Caymans and 718 Boxsters teasing me as they crawled by on the assembly line. My tour group was full of Porsche owners who were being schooled on why their cars cost so much.

無論什麼情況，千萬不要錯過在保時捷博物館對面街道上的時長兩小時的工廠參觀活動。（你需要提前大約一個月預約。）我看到了工人們手工打造那些精密的跑車，在裝配線上緩緩移動的911、卡宴718和718 Boxsters不斷地挑逗我。我跟隨的參觀團裏滿是保時捷車主，他們得到了“爲什麼你的車那麼貴”的教育。

Fun factory facts: It makes about 240 cars a day; 15 percent of the work force is women; it takes 4.5 hours to make the famed boxer engine; and, the tour guide said, most of the leather comes from Austria.

關於工廠的有趣事實：它每天生產240輛車；15%的勞動力爲女性；製造著名的boxer引擎需要4.5個小時；以及，據導遊所說，大多數的皮革來自奧地利。

Many of the cars being built that day were headed to China and the United States. I watched as a powertrain arrived on an orange cart under a 718 Boxster for what my tour guide called its marriage into the chassis. A worker hit a button, and the powertrain rose precisely into the chassis. It was a beautiful thing to see.

許多在那天製造的車會被運往中國和美國。我看到一輛橙色手推車載着一套動力總成，將它送到一輛718 Boxster的下面，我的導遊把這稱爲它“和底盤結婚”。一名工人點了一下按鈕，動力總成精準地升高、與底盤合併。那個場景很美。

I would have liked to have followed that car to its new owners, telling them I saw their baby being born. And if their baby grows up and also moves to Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, after all, isn’t too far away.

我希望能跟着那輛車，直到它到達新主人的手中，告訴他們我見證了他們的寶貝的誕生。如果他們的寶貝長大後也搬到杜塞爾多夫，畢竟，斯圖加特離那裏不算太遠。

Mercedes-Benz Museum, Mercedesstrae 100, 70372 Stuttgart.

梅賽德斯-奔馳博物館：Mercedesstrae 100，70372 Stuttgart。網址：

Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

週二至週日，9 a.m.——6 p.m.

Adults: 10 euros, or $12. Children 15 to 17: 5 euros. Children up to 14: Free.

成人：10歐元或12歐元。12-17歲兒童：5歐元。14歲以下兒童：免門票

Porsche Museum, Porscheplatz 1 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.

保時捷博物館：Porscheplatz 1 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.

Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

週二至週日：9 a.m. ——6 p.m.

Adults: 8 euros. Children up to 14, accompanied by an adult: Free.

成人：8歐元。14歲以下兒童，有成人陪伴：免門票

The museums offer a 25 percent discount if you present a ticket from the other museum.

如果你有梅賽德斯博物館的門票，可以獲得25%的折扣。

Porsche factory tours start at the museum; the factory is across the street. Available Monday to Friday. Advance reservations are a must. They can be made at

保時捷工廠參觀項目從博物館開始；工廠在街道對面。週一至週五開放。必須提前預約。預約地址：

Adults and children (must be at least 12 years old): 6 euros.

成人和兒童（12歲及以上）：6歐元。