ATLANTA — The new North American headquarters of Porsche is officially open near the Hartsfield Jackson Airport.
Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Jim Strickland spent Thursday at the old Ford plant, which Porsche chose to convert to its new U.S. headquarters.
Porsche designed the new campus for the people who love to drive their cars.
The Porsche museum is on the campus of Porsche headquarters. It has some of the most expensive sports cars in the world, which will be rolling around a test track next to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
“We are manufacturing sports cars in Germany. We have two factories,” said Porsche Cars North America President Detlev von Platen. “Here, we are manufacturing experiences.”
One of those experiences is a 1.6-mile demonstration track. Drivers can pay to take a spin on the test track, built to mimic winding country roads.
Roswell native Brian Cunningham is the head instructor. He took Strickland for a ride in a 911 GT3.
“I’ve had other occupations before, but I certainly appreciate what I’m able to do now,” said Cunningham.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says the building also serves as a symbol.
“Ninety-five million people are going to look out their window and see the crest of Porsche Cars of North America, and it’s going to associate the city of Atlanta with the best,” said Reed.
The new North American headquarters of the German-built Porsche is a $100 million investment with 400 employees and big plans to bring in $30,000 from visitors each year.
"(We're) offering to visitors to the corporation a different way to know about Porsche to experience to feel, to smell, to listen to our cars and to learn about our history," said von Platen.
WSBTV
