fahr(T)raum is a homage to the Austrian visionary Ferdinand Porsche, his team and the role they played in the development of mobility. The World of Experience in Mattsee combines innovation and recent history and presents extraordinary exhibits starting from 1900.
The Austrian history of mobility is extraordinarily impressive and forward-looking. The cars that Ferdinand Porsche’s team developed at the beginning of the 20th century set many milestones and are still remarkable today.
There is the Austro Daimler “Prinz Heinrich”, for example, which was conceived as a racing car from the outset. The ensuing success was enormous. The challenging Prinz Heinrich race in Germany in 1910 over a distance of 1,944 kilometres was won by the first true sports car in the world from Austria. In addition, half of the special prizes went to the factory team headed by Ferdinand Porsche. Fitted with dual ignition on the grounds of reliability the engine’s specific power output was able to compete with the best of the time.
And it’s not even just fans of vintage cars who appreciate the significance of the technical achievements. The young Ferdinand Porsche is also considered the inventor of the first electric and hybrid engines, which more than 100 years later were to become an indispensable and ecological trend of the future.
The cool and functional architecture of an industrial building that once housed a shoe factory is the perfect setting for the fahr(T)raum. The World of Experience, incidentally, should not be seen as a museum that exhibits “old” cars. The cars on loan from Porsche’s grandson Ernst Piëch and his family are fully functional. On request you can book a chauffeured drive in a stylish vintage car through Salzburg’s gorgeous lake district.
In the building’s basement the fahr(T)raum illustrates the mechanisation of agriculture that changed rural life in the nineteen fifties and sixties of the 20th century. The car designer Ferdinand Porsche was involved in the motorisation of agriculture from 1915 and developed the Volksschlepper, of which the first prototypes were built in 1938. Together with the company Allgaier a new development was launched in 1950, the first System Porsche diesel tractor; its many technical innovations such as air cooling system, lightweight construction and oil-hydraulic clutch impressed the agricultural sector.
Many people will be surprised that successful tractors were engineered and sold under the name of Porsche, a brand known for its sports cars. In the Tractor Barn of the World of Experience, Allgaier and Porsche-Diesel models are exhibited as well as vehicles of the vintage cars, tractor and agricultural machinery association of Mattsee.
For young and old alike a visit to the fahr(T)raum will be truly extraordinary and spectacular, an experience that strikes a balance between nostalgia and technological progress in interactive rooms featuring historical and modern racing car driving simulators and a separate area for children.