Audi, VW, Porsche and others have lined up a bunch of online distractions to keep you informed and entertained during your home stay

– Updated April 28, 2020
– First published April 8, 2020

SINGAPORE
Staying at home is good, but nothing can replace going out into the world and doing things. In lieu of the latter, we’ve dug up some car-related activities for you to do online while we wait for the viral storm to clear.

[UPDATE] Porsche has announced that you can now take virtual tours of its Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The Museum is one of the best places in the world for a petrolhead to visit, and you can look at 80 models from the very first Porsche to its huge range of race-winning machines – including LeMans prototypes like the 919 Evo above -, one-offs, and crazy ideas that never made it to production.

Visit the museum at this link – but we warn that you will be very tempted to eventually visit in person. It’s a good thing, since if you ever do that, you can visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum which is very close by, and which you can also visit virtually right here. Both virtual exhibits will likely time sink away at least an hour of your time, if you’re remotely interested in cars.

Porsche has also flexed its fascination power to enthrall the ones driving you utterly insane. Yes, your parents. Kidding, just show them the museum tour, but for tykes, the brand offers a whole range of activities.
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An entire section of the Museum website with minigames and more.
– Porsche Playlist: A selection of entertaining videos, including watching Mark Webber and Patrick Dempsey ‘race’.
– Colouring Pages: Break out the Crayolas

Meanwhile, Audi has ported its usual automotive factory tour entirely online, so that you can take a complete look around the brand’s Ingolstadt production plant in Germany, right from the comfort of your home during the circuit breaker shutdown month of April in Singapore.

Interested fans can book an interactive tour at www.audi.stream and experience a full guided tour, with an Audi specialist narrating from a studio and views of the automotive production process. 

Every tour is slightly different, as the experienced guides at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt determine the route for the roughly 20-minute livestream according to the individual interests of the participants that have logged in. As it follows a schedule, users have to select a desired stream and a suitable time slot in German or English online at www.audi.stream.

Can you still get your car serviced and repaired in Singapore for the month of April 2020?

AudiStream schedule for April 2020
– Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (5:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. SGT)
– Thursday, April 9, 2020, 1:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (7:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. SGT)
– Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (5:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. SGT)
– Thursday, April 16, 2020, 1:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (7:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. SGT)
– Wednesday, April 22, 2020, 3:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (9:30 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. SGT)
– Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 1:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (7:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. SGT)

The feature is not entirely new, as the stream “Audi live at the Ingolstadt factory” has been available since November 2019. However, additional online streaming sessions have been added to the daily roster due to the complete cancellation of the onsite factory tours usually available to visitors at the Audi production plant.   

How the NCOV shutdown will affect car buyers in Singapore.

Besides that, Volkswagen Singapore has also rolled out its #stayhomewithvw campaign on Instagram. It promises to be a virtual motorshow with a series of fun and informative content for petrolheads, so if you’re the type who loves visiting car showrooms for a browse every now and then, this online program could help keep you informed and up to date. 

The famous Petersen Automotive Museum in the United States has shut its doors to physical visitors, but it is live-streaming many of its activities online, offering education programmes for download, as well as fun activities for kids. The latter includes colouring pages for kids, printing out huge, accurate layouts of the world’s famous racetracks (‘Hey Junior, this is the Karousell bend – now let’s go try it in Gran Turismo 5’), and online quizzes, as well as livestreaming its tours – check out this URL.

Here’s another cool option if you’re really handy with paper, scissors, and glue. You can build an entire collection of Super GT Honda NSX model cars, race trailer trucks, and pit lane accessories, all from paper! 

Japanese print specialist Epson and Nakajima Racing have a long collaboration going back more than a decade in publishing free models for fans to print and build at home. These really are top-grade designs that require plenty of time and patience.

Our pro-tip: Plan to build one car over a span of four to five days, and use 120gsm paper to print them out. Regular 70gsm copier paper is too thin for the job. It’s also not an activity for really young children as the designs are quite complex.

Check out the entire printable collection at this link.