Emotive automotive brands like Ferrari, Lotus, Bugatti, or Porsche would not exude the charisma that they do without a magical place to call home. For generations, eager customers have strolled through the simple, yet dramatic red brick archway at Maranello to collect their new Ferrari. In the Norfolk countryside, Lotus engineers complete endless laps of the company’s Hethel test track. Thus, ensuring the firm’s cars still boast unparalleled driving dynamics. For nearly sixty years, Weissach has played an integral role to Porsche’s success on the racetrack and in the showroom. Furthermore, the memories created during these six decades command a deserving role in Porsche folklore.

Since Porsche’s relocation to the Stuttgart area from Gmund in Austria, testing and development had mostly taken place at Malmsheim airfield. However, with the firm growing quickly and the introduction of the 911 imminent, a more purpose-built facility was required. Initially, Dr Ferry Porsche acquired a 103-acre plot in a triangular area between the villages of Weissach, Flacht and Monsheim. Little did Dr Porsche know, this humble site would grow into a pillar of Porsche’s engineering prowess.

A year after Dr Porsche himself broke ground, Weissach began life as a proving ground on the 15th of October 1962. Immediately, a gaggle of 356 road cars hit the track and the never-ending pursuit of excellence has rumbled on ever since. In 1970, new workshops and production facilities transformed Weissach from a test track and proving area, to a world class centre of engineering excellence. With the Zuffenhausen works at capacity and unable to expand, Porsche’s design, engineering and testing departments relocated to Weissach in 1971. The cost for the expansion? Eighty million Deutschmarks.

Porsche’s investment in the Weissach facility gave a competitive advantage in both motorsport and winning engineering contracts. Countless projects have been entrusted to Weissach's boffins, including the Vauxhall Zafira and the Lada for the Soviet Union. Rival manufacturers have always looked upon Porsche’s centrepiece with envy.

As Porsche’s new centre of motorsport development, fibreglass bodywork for the firm’s racing cars could be constructed on site at Weissach. However, this manufacturing nimbleness didn’t stop with race cars like the 917. For the upcoming Carrera RS homologation special, Weissach’s fabricators produced five hundred ‘ducktail’ spoilers which were fitted to the road going machines fifteen miles to the east in Zuffenhausen.

From Mark Donohue and Helmut Flegl’s tireless tinkering with the 917-10 and 917-30 Can-Am monsters, right through to the genesis of the infinitely complex Porsche 919 hybrid, Weissach has played a vital role in the success of Porsche’s racing cars. Yet, there is also an emotional property of a site set in this humble area of the Stuttgart suburbs that captures the imagination of Porsche’s loyal band of works racers.

Ask any Porsche factory driver from past or present, and they all have vivid and meaningful memories from trips to Weissach that hold an emotional place in their racing story. Curiously, many young drivers arrive at Weissach for the first time with a broken dream of Formula 1 stardom shattered in their rear-view mirror. However, when Porsche’s “pearly gates” open, there is no need to look back in anger.

Five-time Nurburgring 24-hour winner, Timo Bernhard, has fond memories of walking through the gates and joining the path to a stunning career. “When I went to Weissach for the first time, I started to get a taste of what Porsche means. It gave me the impression that I was absolutely on the right path. It was like winning the lottery. I understood very quickly what it means” recalls the double Le Mans winner. “It was a lot smaller than today. If you’re from a small village in Germany and you’ve mainly been to karting tracks and run with your own Formula Ford team, then you go to Weissach, it’s like another world. It’s something you don’t forget. You really want to go back there. That first day had a real impact. I can still recall the pictures in my head.”

For Porsche’s only American works driver, Patrick Long, a call from Porsche and a first trip to Weissach provided a hangover cure after missing out on a berth in the Red Bull young driver program. “Porsche called me on a Monday. I had a raging headache because I’d got the note that I hadn’t been chosen. Phil Giebler and I hitched a ride to Monaco from Paul Ricard and gathered our thoughts at the bar with Nico Rosberg. We danced the night away and even had some Monte Carlo police involved by the end of the night! I then woke up with a pretty bad hangover and Porsche called and said ‘Don’t get on a plane to California yet. Come over to Weissach and we’ll show you around.’ It’s strange how fate works, but eighteen years later I wouldn’t trade it for anything” recalls the Long.

Shortly after joining the Porsche family, Long soon discovered the endless heritage of Porsche and the significance of representing the brand on track. Once again, Weissach was pivotal in this discovery. “You realise this is bigger than just going racing” explains the four-time ALMS champion. “At that time, I was going to the library at Weissach. It was like a middle school library! I remember grabbing books off the shelf and sitting at the table, thumbing through them to try to understand some of the history and some of the different names and numbers that I’d heard in all these conversations around the team. I knew that I had a lot to learn about the history. That was the beginning of why I’m so into ‘Luftgekult’ (Long’s superb vintage Porsche car shows) these days. It’s just all around you in that company, the past is the present.”

For Romain Dumas, the son of a Porsche fanatic and rally driver, the lure of Weissach was too much to resist. After sitting in an Almeras owned Porsche 962 as a young boy, Dumas’ addiction to motorsport and driving has grown exponentially ever since. During a secondment from a season with Toyota Team Sard in Japan, Dumas enjoyed his first taste of the 24 hours of Le Mans at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3-RS. A second-place finish grabbed the attention of Porsche and subsequent one-off drives followed. When the offer of a Porsche contract arrived, the Dumas household erupted with excitement. Despite reservations of closing the chapter on a single seater career, Romain delighted his Porsche mad Father by joining the ranks at Weissach.

On arrival at his new workplace, Porsche motorsport frontman, Roland Kussmaul had a surprise for the latest recruit. Unbeknown to Kussmaul, Dumas had one too. “The first time I arrived in Weissach, I was so happy to be there” smiles Dumas. “Roland had good relations with French drivers. He told me ‘OK, I want to show you the track in Weissach.’ So, we took the Carrera GT. He was driving because Roland is a very good driver. We did three laps and he showed me the track. Then, we stopped. He told me ‘OK! Now you need to drive.’ I didn’t know the track and the Carrera GT is not an easy car to drive” laughs the Pikes Peak record holder.

“I clearly remember the last corner. When I arrived at this corner, I had a slide that if I wanted to do it, I couldn’t do it so perfectly! Let’s say it wasn’t on purpose, but it was really good on control. On the second lap, Roland told me ‘Ok, you can stop!’. I think after this day, he really trusted me.”

Although Porsche’s ‘Weissach Development Centre’ may have modernised and expanded to a gargantuan facility, the infectious soul lives on. Not only do world beating machines continue to emerge from within Weissach’s strictly guarded walls, but so do drivers who represent the Wuttemberg coat of arms with pride.