I first visited Autobau back in 2018 while photographing one of their Supercar Sunday meets. The event had a unique format; spectators could not only look at supercars, but also ride in them on Autobau’s small racetrack situated in front of the main building. Little did I know at the time that the supercars being used on track actually belonged to Autobau and had come out of their museum. I had thought the large, nondescript building in a small industrial zone was one of those private supercar storage facilities, as you could see a few cars from the outside. It turns out I was wrong.
Winter without any car events really got to me, so at the beginning of February, I started searching for automotive museums to visit. The obvious choices were the Porsche Museum and Mercedes-Benz Museum, but I’ve visited both many times before, so I kept looking. What’s this Autobau Erlebniswelt museum in Switzerland? Well, I’ll be damned – it’s the place from the supercar meet! I immediately reserved a ticket online for the very next day.
Owned by Swiss sports car racing legend Fredy Lienhard, the Autobau museum has a permanent collection of around 120 cars – mostly from Lienhard’s own collection – and at least a few thousand pieces of automotive memorabilia. There’s also a special Sauber F1 display celebrating the team’s 50th anniversary and, if that wasn’t enough, another building on the other side of the site houses Swiss Formula 1 star Clay Regazzoni’s F1 machines and a couple of his road cars alongside numerous scale models.
The main entry to the museum is something special: a large room with a reception area that doubles as a bar. Move through the space, and you’ll find yourself in the Racing Hall. Here in front of me were the red cars I had spotted through the window. I couldn’t have been happier.
The Racing Hall is really a nice warm-up. A few Alfa Romeos greet you, and further inside, you come eye-to-eye with a Porsche 917. To the left is a Lola, and behind it a mighty Porsche 962. The walls are filled with beautiful racing images.
I immediately noticed how everything was perfectly laid out for viewing and photography – the lack of barriers was a welcome change. Many car museums don’t get this right, prioritizing quantity over the quality of placement. I was really surprised by this, and as the day’s first visitor, I had my photography dream come true. In the end, I spent just over three hours shooting in the museum, and I feel like I could’ve gone on for another two.
From the Racing Hall, you can head down to the floor below for some classics, or continue on the same floor into the 11-tonne Steel Tank with three floors of racing history on display. Guess where I went…
Inside the Steel Tank is the full Sauber F1 collection – cars raced by the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, Kimi Raikkonen, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen – all there for you to take in.
On the next floor, you’ll find a mix of LMP1 and LMP2 cars, as raced by the museum’s owner. Lienhard was the winner of the 2002 Daytona 24 Hours and many other sports car endurance races. Once you are done with that, you are still left with a wonderful supercar/sports car side of the museum and the aforementioned – and breathtaking – Clay Regazzoni Honor Room collection, which was gifted to Autobau for display.
I highly recommend a visit – just don’t wait as long as I did.
