Past participant

Porsche's 70th anniversary celebrations are building some serious momentum now, with another special exhibition taking place at the Retro Classics fair in Stuttgart last weekend.

The Porsche Museum had a large, dedicated space at the event, and in this special year they pushed the boat out, displaying familiar favourites from past and present alongside ultra-rare prototypes that rarely see the light of day.

Alongside a perfect 356 Speedster from 1955 was the weird-but-wonderful Type 915, a 1969 design study that explored the possibility of creating a full-blown four-seat version of the original 911.

Every hour at the Porsche stand, visitors were invited to experience a 15-minute journey back in time through the history of the Porsche brand, and the team from Porsche Classic were available throughout for questions about repairs and restoration.

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A particular focus of the exhibition was the topical subject of turbo-charging, and for this the Museum dusted off the Type 961. This was the racing stablemate to the 959, a car that revealed Porsche's remarkable advances in forced induction when it finished seventh on debut at the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Doing its bit for the Transaxle era was rare turbocharged variant of the 944 Cabriolet, while the air-cooled community were kept happy with what many consider the ultimate iteration of its kind, the 993 Turbo. Meanwhile the current 911 GT2 RS made a compelling case for blown performance in the modern era as the most powerful road-legal 911 Porsche has ever built.

Across the weekend there were autograph sessions with luminaries from Porsche's racing past including Walter Röhrl and 1970 Le Mans winner Hans Herrmann. They were joined by current works drivers including Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb, while hirsute Porsche outlaw Magnus Walker popped in to sign copies of his autobiography.

Look out for more coverage of the 70th celebrations as they unfold this summer. It's going to be a big one.