Re: Audi factory visit info

[u3109@calv1.cray.com (Mike W. Young)]

Greetings Scott,

If you are in the Munich area you will be impressed with the BMW
museum. The BMW building is really fantastic looking as well.
It's in the north on the ring road across from the Olympic Stadium.

I'm not certain Audi is open to the public. You might call Audi USA
and ask about tours. There is a Audi tuner in a village ten miles
north from the factory. I think their called MWM. If interested, I
can give you their name/address/phone next week just drop an email.

In the south of Munich there is a tuner called Koenig who makes
a a twin turbo version of just about anything expensive. 
The show room there has around 6000+ hp in the eight car showroom 
at any one time. A 1100+hp Ferrari Testarossa was developed there.
His cars have huge flares and look like cartoons.

If you get downtown by the train station in Munich you might drop into 
the Augustiner Keller for IMHO the best beer in Munich/World. 
If you would like to brush up on your Japanese or English go to the 
Lowenbrau or Hofbrau Haus.

If you are able to get to the Stuttgart area Mercedes and Porsche
will both be wonderfull experiences. The Mercedes museum is very
high tech, and they issue you a small electronic device that gives
you a narative of each car as you wander into it's vacinity. These 
devices are available in three or four languages. Also check out the 
large armoured Exec. sedans parked near the HQ which is to the right 
of the museum. Plan plenty of time for the museum.

After I viewed the Porsche museum for the first time I had trouble 
concentrating on much else. They have accomplished many things while 
remaining quite a small company. 

If you have time for a beer in Stuttgart you might try the "Calwe(sic) Ecke" 
on the Corner of Calwe strasse in the pedestrian zone downtown or "Tu 8" 
which if I remember correct is Tubingerstrasse 8 also in downtown.  
Both are german brew-pubs with good food.
Each brewery is of the micro brewery variety. Just wish I was going...

In Mulheim, France or nearby, is the French National Auto museum which
has more Bugatti cars than anywhere else in the world. They have two
of the six Royales (~US $7M each) and an assortment of the most desirable
Ferrari, Mercedes, and Porsche racing cars. Very much worth the trek
there. The two brothers went to prison because they ran their fabric mill
(Home of the museum) into the ground and defaulted on their business debts
in the pursuit of returning all Bugatti's ever made to france. 

I lived in Munich for a couple for years, and for the automobile interest
impaired, there is plenty to see and do in Germany given enough time.
Plenty of non-car stuff also.

I expanded on your request (By a fare margin) for additional ideas. 

Don't let trivial things like work get in your way if this is a
business trip, That's what the beer gardens are for. :-)

Hope this helps,


Mike Young	(u3109@cray.com)