When I stepped off the S-Bahn at the Neckarpark station in Stuttgart on my way to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, I ran into a gaggle of Idaho high school students who nicely summed up the two automotive museums they had just visited.
在从斯图加特的城市快铁内卡公园站下车，前往梅赛德斯-奔驰博物馆(Mercedes-Benz Museum)的路上，我撞见一群叽叽喳喳的爱达荷州高中生，他们很好地总结了刚刚参观的两座汽车博物馆。
“Mercedes has more details and has more history,” one of them told me. Porsche, he said, was more about Porsche and its racing heritage.
其中一个学生对我说，“梅赛德斯有更多细节和更多历史。”他又说，保时捷则更多是关于保时捷以及它的赛车血统。
There you have it. My work is done.
就这些。我的工作完成了。
Stuttgart is home to these two luxury brands, and as a car guy and automotive journalist, I have always wanted to make the pilgrimage there. Germany does not have the sort of geographic center for its auto industry that the United States has in Detroit. But since the companies’ founders got their 19th century starts in Stuttgart, it comes closest.
斯图加特是这两个高端汽车品牌的故乡，作为一个车迷和汽车记者，我一直都想去那里朝圣。德国的汽车工业没有美国的底特律那种地域上的中心。不过这两家公司都是19世纪在斯图加特创始的，所以是最接近中心的地方了。

I had heard that the Mercedes-Benz Museum, like the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich., offered an exhaustive history of transportation. I also knew that Stuttgart was a must-see for Porschephiles. I got my excuse to visit when my daughter, Marian, moved to Düsseldorf, an easy train ride away.
我听说梅赛德斯-奔驰博物馆和密西根州迪尔伯恩的亨利·福特美国创新博物馆(Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation)一样，呈现了一部详尽的交通运输史。我还知道，斯图加特是保时捷狂热分子必去的地方。我的女儿玛丽安搬到杜塞尔多夫后，我终于有了去那里的借口，坐一趟火车就到了。
My first stop was Mercedes, which presents a captivating walk through the birth of the automobile with the kind of historical sheet-metal eye candy that will wow an automotive fanatic. It’s a tale the company is allowed to own because a founder, Karl Benz, is credited with making the first car, and its other founder, Gottlieb Daimler, was not far behind.
我的第一站是梅赛德斯馆，这里提供了一条令人着迷的参观路线，用养眼的古早金属片造物呈现汽车的诞生，让汽车迷大呼过瘾。这样的故事，是这家公司可以据为己有的，因为它的创始人卡尔·本茨(Karl Benz)被誉为第一辆汽车的制造者，而另一位创始人戈特利布·戴姆勒(Gottlieb Daimler)也没有比他晚太多。
But before I even entered the museum, I was stunned by the building. It’s a double-helix design by the Dutch architects UNStudio and sits like a round jewel on Mercedes Street. It opened in 2006.
不过在进入博物馆前，我先是被它的建筑震撼了。这是一个由荷兰建筑事务所UNStudio设计的双螺旋造型，座落在梅赛德斯街上，就像一个圆形的珠宝。博物馆是在2006年开放的。
Though Henry Ford made the expensive automobile popular with his affordable Model T in the early 20th century, it was Mr. Benz, an engineer and inventor, who got things started in 1885, when he installed the almost-one-horsepower internal combustion engine he invented into a three-wheel buggy.
亨利·福特在20世纪初用廉价的T型车将昂贵的汽车推向大众，然而开创这一切的是工程师、发明家本茨，他在1885年将自己发明的一个接近一马力的内燃机装进了一辆三轮小车里。
The building provides a floor-by-floor circular walk through Mercedes history over its nine floors and 177,000 square feet of exhibition space, with the timeline starting on the top floor. There I found a reproduction of that first car, with the real Daimler car next to it. Actually, a horse, thankfully another reproduction, greeted me as I began my tour at the start of the automobile age, when one horsepower meant what it advertised.
建筑内有九层、17.7万平方英尺的展览空间，观众可以沿着环形的走廊逐层浏览梅赛德斯的发展史，时间线的起点位于顶层。在那里，我看到了第一辆车的复刻版，与一辆原版戴姆勒放在一起。事实上在“自动车”(automobile)时代起点迎接我的是一匹马，令人宽慰的是那也是复制品，在那个年代，“马力”指的就是一马之力。
To my jaded 21st century eyes, those cars looked more like contraptions than useful transportation, but the engines were evidence of the true genius of these men. As the technology improved, internal combustion engines got the world moving and quickly ended up in buses, trucks, boats, airships and tractors, some of which are on display here. A descendant of those engines is sitting in your driveway.
透过我这双百无聊赖的21世纪眼睛，这些车更像是古怪的装置，而不是实用交通工具，然而引擎证明这些人都是实打实的天才。随着技术的改良，内燃机让世界运动起来，很快被装入巴士、卡车、轮船、飞艇和拖拉机里，其中一些在馆内就有展出。而你家门口的车道上，正端坐着这些引擎的一个后代。
Within a few years cars started to look like cars instead of horse-drawn carriages — for example the museum’s 1902 40 HP, the oldest-existing Mercedes-branded car. Still, the industry used carriage types to describe its models, like phaeton (a light, open carriage), shooting brake (a carriage meant for gamekeepers and sportsmen) and cabriolet (a light carriage with a foldable hood drawn by one horse). Even dashboard is a leftover carriage term — it was the board that insulated the driver from rocks and dirt from the road.
几年下来，汽车已经有了汽车的样子，而不是像马车的车身——例如馆中展出的1902年产40 HP，现存最古老的梅赛德斯牌汽车。不过业界仍然用马车车身的类型来描述其出品型号，比如法厄同（phaeton，一种轻型敞篷车），猎车（shooting brake，一种供猎场看守人和狩猎者使用的车身）以及“小羊羔”（cabriolet，一种有折叠车篷的轻型车身，由一匹马拉动）。连仪dashboard（仪表盘）都是马车车身术语的遗存——指的是帮驾车者抵挡路上的石头和泥土的一种板子。
The walls of the ramps that connect the floors are also part of the show. As I made my way down to the fourth floor, which highlighted safety, I learned that the ramp walls were made of polyamide, an airbag material. Clever.
楼层之间的斜坡也是展览的一部分。在去以安全为主题的四楼时，我得知下楼斜坡的墙壁是聚酰胺制作的，一种安全气囊材料。很聪明。
“It is the only museum in the world that can document over 130 years of automobile history complete from the very first day,” Miriam Weiss, a Mercedes spokeswoman, wrote in an email.
“这是世上唯一一座可以从第一天开始，完整记录130年汽车史的博物馆，”梅赛德斯发言人米莉安·魏斯(Miriam Weiss)在一封电邮中说。
Frankly, the museum can seem overwhelming because there is so much of that history to take in and so many beautiful cars to sigh over, like the 1955 300SL Coupe, known as the Gullwing. You will learn that Mercedes was the name of an important customer’s daughter, Mercédès Jellinek (interesting that her father, Emil, eventually changed his last name to Jellinek-Mercedes), and that the company’s logo, the three-pointed star, symbolizes earth, water and air.
坦白讲，这座博物馆有时让人有些招架不住，因为有太多的历史要了解，太多美丽的车辆要看，比如1955年产300SL轿跑，也就是人们所说的“鸥翼”(Gullwing)。你将了解到，“梅赛德斯”这个名字得于一位重要客户的女儿默希迪丝·耶利内克（Mercédès Jellinek，有意思的是，她的父亲埃米尔后来把自己的姓改成了耶利内克-梅赛德斯），公司的三叉星标志象征着水、土和空气。
I traveled to the museum by train, but left with a strong urge to drive, something from the AMG performance division preferably, but alas, there was no opportunity. I went to the dealership on the bottom floor, but was told test drives must be scheduled about a week in advance.
我是坐火车去博物馆的，但离开时产生了强烈的驾车欲望，最好是奔驰旗下高性能车厂AMG的出品，可惜没有机会。我去了底层的销售大厅，但被告知试驾需要提前一周左右预约。
There is no such problem at the Porsche Museum, about seven miles away from Mercedes. The Porsche building, which sits on three V-shape columns, is striking and seems to float above the ground. It was designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects of Vienna and opened in 2009.
距离梅赛德斯大约七英里的保时捷博物馆(Porsche Museum)就不存在这个问题。它的建筑以三组V形柱支撑，看上去十分惊人，彷佛是悬浮在地面上。它的设计者是维也纳的德鲁甘-麦斯尔联合建筑事务所(Delugan Meissl Associated Architects)，于2009年开放。
Representatives in the lobby will let you drive, say, a 911 for about $165 an hour and up to about 60 miles, but be aware you have to leave a $3,000 deposit.
大堂的销售代表可以让你开到911，每小时大约165美元，距离最多60英里，不过要注意，需要交纳3000美元押金。
No matter — see the museum first. It’s more straightforward than Mercedes’s, with everything on one floor and a loft. It contains more than 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, and the displays are spread out. You can follow the development of Porsche’s models, from the design ultimately used for the Volkswagen Beetle, first created by Ferdinand Porsche, the company founder, to the car that defines the company, the 911. You can see how the sleek Type 64 racecar from the late 1930s led to the beloved Porsche 356 and then to the 911.
没关系——先看看博物馆吧。它比梅赛德斯的更简单明了，所有内容都位于一个楼层和一间阁楼里。展览空间占地超过6万平方英尺，展品分散在各个位置。你可以追溯保时捷车型的发展，从该公司创始人费迪南德·保时捷(Ferdinand Porsche)最初创造、最终被大众甲壳虫(Volkswagen Beetle)采用的设计，到定义了这家公司的保时捷911。你可以看到1930年代晚期线条明快的64赛车(64 racecar)如何启发了广受喜爱的保时捷356，以及后来的911。
And for fun, there’s an area where you can press buttons to hear the engines of several cars, like the Panamera GTS and 911 GT3. Also impressive is the case that displays dozens of trophies from the company’s 30,000 motorsport wins. If you love the brand, especially its racing history, you’ll love this museum.
如果想找好玩的，有一个区域，你在那里点一下按钮就可以听到多款汽车的引擎发动的声音，比如帕纳梅拉GTS(Panamera GTS)和911 GT3。另一个让人印象深刻的地方是一个展示箱，里面陈列着保时捷从3万场赛车比赛的胜利中留下的几十件纪念品。如果你热爱这个品牌，尤其是它的参赛历史，你会爱上这座博物馆。
“Racecars have real road grime, dirt and dents,” Achim Stejskal, director of the Porsche Museum and Historical Communications, wrote in an email about some of the museum’s exhibits. “And all the cars actually run and participate in hundreds of events worldwide every year.”
“赛车会留下道路的污垢、灰尘和凹痕，”保时捷博物馆馆长以及历史交流部主管阿希姆·斯泰斯卡尔(Achim Stejskal)在一封关于该馆的一些展览的邮件中写道。“而且所有的车每年都真的会上路，并且参加世界各地的数百个活动。”
Both museums touch on World War II and the roles that Mercedes and Ferdinand Porsche played, with Mercedes devoting part of a ramp wall explaining its use of forced labor and the allied bombing of its plants. Porsche has a brief mention of Mr. Porsche’s work as an engineer during the war, when he assisted Germany with tank design.
两座博物馆都提到了第二次世界大战，以及梅赛德斯和费迪南德·保时捷各自在这场战争中扮演的角色，奔驰用一面斜坡的一部分来解释它曾经使用强制劳工，以及同盟国曾轰炸它的工厂。保时捷简短地提到了其创始人在战争期间作为一名工程师，协助德国设计坦克所做的工作。
But do not, under any circumstance, miss the two-hour factory tour across the street from the Porsche Museum. (You need to book about a month in advance.) I was able to watch workers hand-make these precision sports cars, with 911s, 718 Caymans and 718 Boxsters teasing me as they crawled by on the assembly line. My tour group was full of Porsche owners who were being schooled on why their cars cost so much.
无论什么情况，千万不要错过在保时捷博物馆对面街道上的时长两小时的工厂参观活动。（你需要提前大约一个月预约。）我看到了工人们手工打造那些精密的跑车，在装配线上缓缓移动的911、卡宴718和718 Boxsters不断地挑逗我。我跟随的参观团里满是保时捷车主，他们得到了“为什么你的车那么贵”的教育。
Fun factory facts: It makes about 240 cars a day; 15 percent of the work force is women; it takes 4.5 hours to make the famed boxer engine; and, the tour guide said, most of the leather comes from Austria.
关于工厂的有趣事实：它每天生产240辆车；15%的劳动力为女性；制造著名的boxer引擎需要4.5个小时；以及，据导游所说，大多数的皮革来自奥地利。
Many of the cars being built that day were headed to China and the United States. I watched as a powertrain arrived on an orange cart under a 718 Boxster for what my tour guide called its marriage into the chassis. A worker hit a button, and the powertrain rose precisely into the chassis. It was a beautiful thing to see.
许多在那天制造的车会被运往中国和美国。我看到一辆橙色手推车载着一套动力总成，将它送到一辆718 Boxster的下面，我的导游把这称为它“和底盘结婚”。一名工人点了一下按钮，动力总成精准地升高、与底盘合并。那个场景很美。
I would have liked to have followed that car to its new owners, telling them I saw their baby being born. And if their baby grows up and also moves to Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, after all, isn’t too far away.
我希望能跟着那辆车，直到它到达新主人的手中，告诉他们我见证了他们的宝贝的诞生。如果他们的宝贝长大后也搬到杜塞尔多夫，毕竟，斯图加特离那里不算太远。
Mercedes-Benz Museum, Mercedesstrae 100, 70372 Stuttgart. mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/museum/
梅赛德斯-奔驰博物馆：Mercedesstrae 100，70372 Stuttgart。网址：mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/museum/
Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
周二至周日，9 a.m.——6 p.m.
Adults: 10 euros, or $12. Children 15 to 17: 5 euros. Children up to 14: Free.
成人：10欧元或12欧元。12-17岁儿童：5欧元。14岁以下儿童：免门票
Porsche Museum, Porscheplatz 1 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. porsche.com/museum/en/
保时捷博物馆：Porscheplatz 1 70435 Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. porsche.com/museum/en/
Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
周二至周日：9 a.m. ——6 p.m.
Adults: 8 euros. Children up to 14, accompanied by an adult: Free.
成人：8欧元。14岁以下儿童，有成人陪伴：免门票
The museums offer a 25 percent discount if you present a ticket from the other museum.
如果你有梅赛德斯博物馆的门票，可以获得25%的折扣。
Porsche factory tours start at the museum; the factory is across the street. Available Monday to Friday. Advance reservations are a must. They can be made at factorytours@porsche.de
保时捷工厂参观项目从博物馆开始；工厂在街道对面。周一至周五开放。必须提前预约。预约地址：factorytours@porsche.de
Adults and children (must be at least 12 years old): 6 euros.
成人和儿童（12岁及以上）：6欧元。