Porsche offers a peek at its secret museum of misfit toys

German automakers place a high priority on remembering their history, and one of the better stops in Stuttgart for any Porsche fan for years has been the Porsche Museum. A recent consolidation of the museum's spare vehicles into a new warehouse led to a video showing some of the more unusual projects Porsche has built, including a few that were never shown publicly -- like the idea borrowed from IBM of a "Porsche Junior."

While Porsche has become a wildly successful company over the past decade, and now belongs to the sprawling Volkswagen conglomerate, for much of its history it struggled to balance building race cars and vehicles for the public. Doing so required taking on engineering contract work for other automakers, rarely with any credit. The video below ranges from things Porsche should have done -- a 928 convertible -- to oddities such as the FLA concept, an early '70s partnership with the German government for a car that could last 30 years.

And yes -- if you look closely at the video, you'll glimpse a red Porsche-Diesel tractor, a segment Porsche sadly gave up.