BMWBLOG was in Berlin recently and had the opportunity to tour one of the most amazing collection of automobiles at Classic Remise. Located slightly off the beaten path in an older industrial part of Berlin, the collection ranges from classics to the newest hyper-cars such as the LaFerrari. Set in a restored 1899 Berlin Streetcar repair shop, I was blown away not just by the cars but also how perfect the setting is itself with a ton of natural lighting and gorgeous 1800s era architecture.
In 2002, the current owners bought the dilapidated, war damaged 1899 building which use to be Berlin’s trolley repair shop and restored it perfectly into a classic car center. At the Classic Remise, owners can store their classic cars in one of 88 glass boxes which keep them sealed from the weather and yet still allow their beauty to be viewed by visitors. The old trolley car building also a houses a collection of workshops that specialize in taking care of rare cars as well as specialty parts stores and exotic car sales.
These fascinating work shops all have at least one vantage point that affords views of the craftsmen plying their trade. In these, they can completely restore your classic car, or if you have the means, sell you a fully restored one. As I perused about, many car windshields had signs that requested you not touch the car, a given as this place feels like a museum.
There are quite a few cars for sale. I really wanted to know the story behind the orange 70s CSL BMW race car which had a sold sign in the window.
One of only 1,259 BMW 1600 Glas GTs. What a story could this one tell. I had to query our own Hugo Becker to find out what I was looking at. Glas was an automobile manufacture located in Dingolfing Germany, but was bought out by BMW in the mid 1960s and the last run of Glas GTs were BMW badged. Now Dingolfing Germany is home to one of BMW’s biggest manufacturing centers producing 350,000 cars a year
Classic Remise is your place to catch a ton of modern day exotics too. Never seen a LaFerrari, Bugatti Veyron or Porsche 918? They are all lined up right with two Ferrari F12 TDFs. Not kidding.
Want an 2012 V-12 Aston Martin Vanquish? A mere 152,800 Euros and it is yours.
Classic Remise has locations in Berlin, and Duesseldorf Germany. They frequently host car club events and the Berlin location also has an excellent restaurant and beer garden located in it. There is no entry fee and they are open until 8pm every night.
Lurking in the back of a lift is a VW prototype. The VW XL1 was a plug-in hybrid electric with a super low drag co-efficient of 0.186 and crazy good gas mileage. VW promised to make a ton of these but unexpectedly quit after making just 200 of them between 2014 and 2016. They were purportedly to be lease only cars.
While I was there, a lady with grey hair who looked to be in her 60s pulled in and parked this 1950s red Corvette. It was still hot an ticking when I took this picture.
Perhaps Classic Remise sums it up best when they state that the it is a living museum of fine automobiles. I have seen many awesome collections of cars, this one with its old industrial architecture may just be my favorite. If you can ever spare an afternoon when you visit Berlin, you won’t be disappointed.
Enjoy our photo gallery.
