Stuttgart  - A striking new museum which celebrates German sports car manufacturer Porsche is to open in Stuttgart on January 31.

The finishing touches are currently being made to the landmark building close to the company's head office in the suburb of Zuffenhausen.

A VIP inauguration is planned for January 28 and the doors will be thrown open to the general public three days later. The triangular building on stilts was designed by Austrian architect Roman Delugan and houses around 80 immaculately-kept Porsche cars. The complicated construction led to frequent delays, boosting the total cost to
100 million euros (around 130 million dollars).

"The geometric lines of the building have been deliberately chosen as a contrast to the curvaceous shapes of Porsche's products," company spokesman Anton Hunger told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Organizers say the cars should "speak for themselves", with only the pure white walls of the museum as a backdrop. They expect visitor numbers to top 200,000 a year.

Exhibits include a reconstruction of the original Type 64, a racing car body shell built by Ferdinand Porsche in 1939. It marks the beginning of the famous Porsche design language which led to the iconic 911 model which is still in production.

Sharing the display space are numerous legendary Porsche models from road and track. Many of the classic cars exhibits are used regularly on the road and visitors can expect exhibits to be rotated.

Porsche is one of the world's most profitable car companies in and the firm was keen to trade its cramped old museum premises for a building to rival the popular Mercedes-Benz museum in the Untertuerkheim district of Stuttgart which is home to the peer marque symbolised by the three-pointed star.

The Mercedes building has attracted 2.2 million visitors since 2006. Both Volkwagen and BMW maintain prestigious factory museums which showcase their history and products.

Internet: www. porsche. com/germany/aboutporsche/porschemuseum Address: Porscheplatz 9, 70345 Stuttgart, Germany. (dpa)