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Yet another year has ended successfully for the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which had 722,000 visitors in 2012. This means that the number of visitors has once again increased. More than one third of visitors came from abroad. Highlights in 2012 were the special exhibition "Timeless – 60 Years of the Mercedes-Benz SL" and the numerous Museum events during the summer. The S-Class will feature prominently in 2013."Achieving such good visitor numbers in 2012 after a very successful anniversary year in 2011 makes us very proud," says Michael Bock, General Manager of the Mercedes-Benz Museum and Head of Mercedes-Benz Classic. "In the six and a half years since the opening, around 4.9 million people have experienced the fascination of the automobile in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I am very pleased that last year we were able to welcome even more international visitors than in 2011. This shows that our concept is working. In 2013 we will supplement our permanent exhibition of 160 automotive icons with special exhibitions on fascinating vehicles and – for a museum – unusual events such as the open-air cinema or an open day for disabled visitors."
Visitors from 171 countries
"The Mercedes-Benz Museum has long been a fixture for German tourists," Michael Bock continues. In recent years the number of international visitors has steadily increased: while only 15% of visitors in 2009 came from other countries, this figure has now more than doubled to 35%. In 2011 it stood at 27%. "In an international survey by the German Centre for Tourism, the Mercedes-Benz Museum was the only automobile museum to be voted amongst the Top 50 tourist attractions in Germany." The visitor statistics certainly reflect this.
In 2012 as a whole, China, the USA and France have again established themselves in the leading positions after German visitors. As in 2011, there has been a strong upward trend in visitors from China. There has also been a large increase in the number of Russian visitors. For the first time these have relegated visitors from Switzerland to fourth place in the Top Ten. The total of 171 countries of origin include surprising ones such as the Cocos Islands, Nepal or Qatar. In the record-breaking holiday month of July (easily the most busy month in 2012, with over 67,000 visitors), most of the visitors came from Germany, China, the USA, France and Spain.
"Whereas most visitors from other countries are usually visiting the Mercedes-Benz Museum for the first time, we benefit from a large proportion of repeat visitors," says Michael Bock. "The visitors tour the exhibition for an average of three hours. With our free audio-guide and extensive multimedia content we offer visitors up to 42 hours of information material in eight languages during the tour, therefore many return to quench their thirst for knowledge still further. Naturally many visitors come several times to attend events and special exhibitions, or repeatedly bring house guests to the Museum. Visiting Stuttgart without the automobile museum is hardly thinkable nowadays."
In 2012 the Museum was also able to match the results of the visitor survey in the anniversary year 2011, with visitors assessing the Museum with an average score of 1.5 (where 1 is the highest score possible). Precisely 98 % of respondents said that they would recommend the museum to others, and just under 90 % thought that their expectations had been exceeded.
Popular with tour groups and school classes
3500 guided tours were conducted in ten different languages in 2012. Apart from the classic tour of the automotive exhibits, the architectural tours, evening and children's tours were also particularly popular.
More than 6500 groups with just under 160,000 participants enjoyed the Museum as a shared experience, among them 1600 school classes with more than 50,000 students. More than 10,000 of these and their teachers took advantage of the "School in a Museum" feature in the GeniusCampus area for children and students. Many young visitors also found their way to the Museum in their free time: over 100 birthday celebrations were held for children, and well over 500 young people took part in the summer holiday programme "RoadSense". During this, 13 to 16 year-olds were, for example, able to drive a vehicle under supervision on an enclosed area.
Exhibition and event highlights in 2012
The year commenced with the special exhibition "Timeless – 60 Years of the Mercedes-Benz SL". During this, the Museum exhibited the full model series spanning six decades in the same room for the first time. This exhibition was attended by over 200,000 enthusiastic visitors during its course. This display covering the legendary SL sports car was succeeded by the special exhibition "Mille Miglia – Passion and Rivalry".
More than 140,000 visitors attended this special exhibition covering the Italian 1000-mile road race. For the first time the Museum showed models by competitors in addition to Mercedes-Benz models.
Special events such as the 6th anniversary of the Museum in May, World Children's Day in September or the Collector's Forum in November regularly ensured peak visitor numbers of up to 4800 per day. Last year more than 170,000 visitors experienced the Museum's summer programme, which included the jazzopen stuttgart, the Bertha Benz Days, the open-air Mercedes-Benz Lounge and the Social Media Nights Stuttgart. With more than 9000 spectators on 14 evenings, the open-air cinema also proved particularly successful as one of the major highlights in Stuttgart's event calendar.
The Museum also celebrated a minor anniversary in the autumn, with the tenth Mercedes-Benz Star Nights. The well-known chefs invited to this series of culinary events in the last four years have included regional stars such as Martin Öxle, Armin Karrer, Claudio Urru and Harald Derfuß, and the internationally active star-rated chefs Mansour Memarian (United Arab Emirates), Ludwig Heer (USA), Gerhard Schwaiger (Spain) and Dieter Koschina (Portugal).
With unusual facilities such as the Casino restaurant with its view of the local vineyards, between Silver Arrows and racing trucks, or the extravagant roof terrace, the Museum has for years been a very popular event location in southern Germany. In addition to the numerous public events, 180 customer events were also held on the premises of the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
Exhibition and event highlights for 2013
"Visitors can also look forward to an exciting event calendar for 2013. We have various new programmes in preparation aimed particularly at families and children – for example we will be holding a special workshop to mark the International Cartoon Film Festival", says Michael Bock. "Just how much young people are interested in our brand is, for example, evident from the 74,000 people around the world who follow us on Facebook, where we are one of Germany's most active museums."
The Mercedes-Benz Museum will be holding its first Star Nights in the New Year from 26 February to 10 March 2013 – with the top-chefs Mario Corti of Restaurant Luce d'Oro at Schloss Elmau and Derry Clarke, chef-de-cuisine at the Dublin gourmet restaurant l'Ecrivain.
"Coinciding with the market launch of the new S-Class, we will be illustrating the long history of this model series with a special exhibition from 4 June to 22 September 2013. For decades the flagship Mercedes-Benz model has set standards for the brand in terms of luxury, comfort and safety. And with the Week of Helpers (25 to 30 June 2013), one of the many highlights for the coming Museum summer in 2013 is already scheduled.".jpg)
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AMG Customer Teams acting around the globe showed a high level of teamwork in the 2012 motorsports season. With 9 titles and 43 successes, the SLS AMG GT3 scored numerous impressive successes on four continents. One of the highlights is the winning of the driver and team title in the FIA GT3 European Championship for AMG Customer Team HEICO-Gravity Charouz, the winning of the driver and team title in the FIA GT1 World Championship by ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport, the driver and team title in the ADAC GT Masters for kfzteile24 MS RACING Team as well as the championship title for PETRONAS Syntium Team in the Japanese Super Taikyu Series.This Sunday, BVA Racing won the driver and team title in the Brazilian GT Championship at Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paolo. The driver duo Cleber Faria and Duda Rosa (both BRA) left its competitors behind in a fight that was commiting until the end and finally won with a lead of just one point compared with the second placed team. Their team colleagues Vanuê Faria and Renan Guerra (both BRA) crossed the finish line sixth. The AMG Customer Team A.Mattheis Motorsport with Sérgio Jimenez and Paolo Bonifácio (both BRA) won the third position in the championship.
The further statistics of the 2012 motorsports year for AMG Customer Sports is impressive as well:
- 43 class victories
- 109 podium positions
- 242 top ten positions
- 27 pole positions
- 48 SLS AMG GT3 started in 28 race series on four continents
Ola Källenius, chairman of the board, Mercedes-AMG GmbH: “We have the right to be proud of the successful 2012 AMG Customer Sports season. With 9 titles on the whole, including the winning of the World Championship, the European Championship and 43 successes we even outmatched the pleasing debut year of 2011. My congratulations go to all AMG Customer Teams which achieved these successes with the SLS AMG GT3 in the highly competitive race series on four continents.”
Uli Fritz, head of AMG Customer Sports: “Winning the title in Brazil is an enormously welcome ending of an exceptionally successful season. In the meantime, we have sold more than 50 units of the SLS AMG GT3, which has established itself by a constantly high performance and reliability in the international motorsports scene. I want to thank everyone participating in our AMG Customer Sports Programme. It is everybody’s turn now to concentrate on the 2013 season, because four race version gullwing cars will be starting in the Dubai 24 Hours already in the beginning of January.” The successes in the individual race series at a glance:
FIA GT1 World Championship: By winning the driver and team rating, ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport crowns the 2012 season in the FIA GT1 World Championship. Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock (both GER) won the driver title with a lead of just one point. The sister car with Thomas Jäger (GER) and Nicky Pastorelli (ITA) ended the World Championship season on the sixth position. ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport quickly established itself in the top group of the highly competitive World Championship and scored two titles through a constant team performance.
FIA GT3 European Championship: Maximilian Buhk (GER) and Dominik Baumann (AUT) from HEICO-Gravity Charouz secured the driver title in the penultimate race ahead of time. Their team colleagues Max Nilsson (SWE) and Mika Vähämäki (FIN) ended the FIA GT3 European Championship on the sixth position. Additionally, the AMG Customer Team succeeded in defending the team title it had already won in 2011. The Czech-German team won seven out of twelve races and thus showed a confident performance during the season.
ADAC GT Masters (Germany): With their victory in the commanding final race on Hockenheimring, Sebastian Asch and Maximilian Götz (both GER) won the driver title. The driver duo of kfzteile24 MS RACING Team was the most constant team of the entire season, winning eight podium positions and achieving the pole position two times. At the same time, in the last race of the season, the team achieved the first victory of a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the highly competitive ADAC GT Masters 2012. The sister car with Daniel Dobitsch and Florian Stoll (both GER) won the 22nd position in the championship.
HEICO Motorsport with Dominik Baumann and Hari Proczyk (both AUT), ended the championship on rank nine. Andreas Simonsen (SWE) and Maximilian Buhk (GER) from HEICO Junior Team finished eleventh. Alexandros Margaritis and Lance David Arnold (both GER) from Schöner Wohnen Polarweiss Team HEICO came 18th. Christiaan Frankenhout and Kenneth Heyer (both GER) from HEICO Motorsport achieved the 25th overall position.
Super Taikyu Series (Japan): Championship title for PETRONAS Syntium Team with the drivers Nobuteru Taniguchi and Dominic Ang (both JPN). Six class and overall successes each, six pole positions and 13 top ten positions confirm the good performance of the Japanese customer team. For the dominant team of the Japanese race series, this year’s winning the title was the fifth in a row.
Australian GT Championship: Winning of the runner-up spot for Peter Hackett (AUS) from Erebus Racing. With three victories and six further podium positions, Hackett was the best driver of a SLS AMG GT3 in the Australian GT Championship. His team colleague James Brock ended the season on the ninth position.
Iberian Supercars Trophy and Portugese GT Championship: Runner-up spot for José Pedro Fontes and Miguel Barbosa (both POR) from Sports & You team.
VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring (Germany): ROWE RACING scored two overall victories in nine races on the Nordschleife (“north loop”), three further podium positions and on the whole ten top ten positions. With these successes, the AMG Customer Team evolved into the best SLS AMG GT3 team of the series. The Black Falcon team achieved a victory in the VLN.
Blancpain Endurance Series: Black Falcon won the ProAM-Cup with the drivers Oliver Morley (GB), Steve Jans (LUX) and Sean Edwards (GB) in the race at Nürburgring and ended the season on rank twelve. KRK Racing won the tenth position in the Blancpain Endurance Series.
British GT-Championship: The twins David and Godfrey Jones (both GB) from the team Preci-Spark achieved five top ten positions.
DMV-TCC (Germany): Land Motorsport scored three class victories and three podium positions with Christian Land and Stefan Eilentropp (both GER). ANTeam with Bruno and Edwin Stucky (both SUI) won seven top ten positions.
Special Touring Car Trophy (Germany): A podium position for Norbert Janz (GER) from Seyffarth Motorsport.
Touring Car and GT-Cup Austria: One overall victory, a class victory and a pole position for Mario Plachutta (AUT) from Lechner Racing.
International GT Open: Kenneth Heyer and Jan Seyffarth (both GER) from Seyffarth Motorsport won the class GTS twice.
Super GT (Japan): Haruki Kurosawa, Hironori Takeuchi (both JPN) from the team GREEN TEC & LEON with Shift ended the races five times among the top ten and once on the second position.
Spanish GT Championship: The Vodafone Team with António Coimbra, Luis Silva, José Pedro Fontes (all ESP) won two top ten positions.
Italian GT Championship: Two top ten positions for Gianluca De Lorenzi and Piero Necchi (both ITA) from GDL Racing.
Endurance Champions Cup Italia, Peroni: A class victory for G-Private Racing with Philip and Manuel Zumstein as well as Jörg Peham (all SUI).
French GT Championship (FFSA): Four podium positions for Sebastién Loeb Racing with Frédéric Gabillon and Gilles Vannelet (both FRA).
Dubai 24 Hours: At the beginning of the 2012 motorsport season, AMG Customer Teams already scored a commanding 1-2-3: In the Dubai 24 Hours, the team Abu Dhabi Black Falcon with Thomas Jäger (GER), Sean Edwards (GB), Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED) and Khaled Al Qubaisi (UAE) achieved the overall victory. The SLS AMG GT3 of HEICO Motorsport (Maximilian Buhk (GER), Christiaan Frankenhout (NED), Max Nilsson (SWE), Andreas Zuber (AUT) and Bernd Schneider (GER) as well as Kenneth Heyer (GER), Andreas Simonsen (SWE), Rodolfo Gonzalez (VEN) and Bernd Schneider (GER) came home second and third.
24 Hours Nürburgring: The gullwing car of HANKOOK Team HEICO Motorsport with the driver quartet Lance David Arnold (GER), Christiaan Frankenhout (NED), Pierre Kaffer (GER) and Andreas Simonsen (SWE), ended the 24-hour classic in the Eifel winning the third rank. The sister car retired from the race 15 minutes prior to end on the third position.
12 Hour race of Bathurst/Australia: The Australian Customer Team Erebus Racing with Peter Hackett (AUS), Tim Slade (AUS), Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED) and Bret Curtis (USA) came home second in the endurance race.
12 Hour race of Sepang: In the 12 Hour race of Sepang, the Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race, PETRONAS Syntium Team achieved a double victory with the drivers Nobuteru Taniguchi (JPN), Masataka Yanagida (JPN) and Dominic Ang (MAS) as well as Tatsuya Kataoka (JPN), Farique Hairuman (MAS) and Melvin Moh (MAS).
Mercedes-AMG in Affalterbach honours AMG Customer Teams
AMG Customer Teams’ representatives from all over the world met at the big end of season party of the AMG Customer Sports Programme. Some 150 guests followed the invitation to Affalterbach in order to review the achievements of the 2012 season. After the official salutation by Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, the most successful teams of 2012 were honoured: from the award for the “Best Looking Car“ (Premium Motorsport Poland) to the awards for the championship titles in various race series. The presenters, among them five-time DTM Champion Bernd Schneider, repeatedly underlined their high respect for the Customer Teams’ achievements. The winners of all nine categories at a glance:
“FIA GT1World Championship“: ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
“FIA GT3-European Championship“: HEICO-Gravity Charouz Team
“ADAC GT Masters“: kfzteile24 MS RACING Team
“Best Looking Car“: Premium Motorsports Poland
“Best Newcomer“: BVA Racing
“Best Gentleman Performance“: ANTeam
“Best Endurance Race Performance“: ROWE RACING
“Best 24h Performance“: Black Falcon
Lance David Arnold now member of AMG driver pool
As already in the 2012 season, AMG Customer Teams can also be strengthened through professional pilots from the AMG driver pool. Apart from Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jäger and Maro Engel, Lance David Arnold is from now on also part of the fast troop of Mercedes-AMG. The 26-year-old is another compassionate racer with gullwing car experience and endurance know-how who will assist the teams on request. The newest success of the driver originating from Duisburg, Germany, was the third rank in this year’s 24 Hours race at Nürburgring for the AMG Customer Team HANKOOK Team HEICO Motorsport. To participators of the AMG Driving Academy, Arnold is furthermore known as instructor.
Lance David Arnold: “Being part of the AMG driver pool is a great honour for me. A group, which one of my big role models in sports is also part of - the five-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider. I am already looking forward to my operations, in which I want to provide the customer teams not only with driving but also with technical knowledge in order to optimally develop the individual SLS AMG GT3 vehicles adjusted to the individual requirements of the respective teams.”
Uli Fritz: “I am very pleased about Lance David Arnold joining the AMG driver pool from now on. I am sure that his great know-how will be very helpful to our AMG Customer Teams. Due to his operations in the AMG Driving Academy, he has been part of the Mercedes-AMG family for quite some time.“.jpg)
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