(FORTUNE Magazine) – Okay, so times are tough for Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech, what with his discovery that, after spending $790 million to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, VW doesn't get to use the Rolls-Royce brand name. At least he'll have Autostadt.

Autostadt is VW's effort to turn Wolfsburg, the company's sleepy hometown, into a throbbing tourist mecca. It'll take some doing; Wolfsburg (pop. 100,000) is hardly known for its charm. In fact, the only thing it's known for is VW's factory, the largest in the world. But Piech sees that as his drawing card: He intends to build a $400 million, 62-acre amusement park smack in the middle of that factory. Plans include the usual attractions and rides, plus a museum, two large glass towers displaying 400 VW cars each, a place for customers to pick up cars, and a Ritz-Carlton hotel.

"Wolfsburg is a huge production and manufacturing facility, but there is nothing live and emotional here, nothing close to the customer," says Otto Ferdinand Wachs, the VW executive in charge of the project, which is due to open June 1, 2000. VW says it's talking to Hollywood about the attractions and to Sir Terence Conran, London's food and design guru, about a restaurant. One possibility: a sushi bar atop the factory's power plant.

VW figures that, since the park is along a proposed rail link between Berlin and Hanover, people will stop off, pay the $17 entry fee, and visit. (Carbuyers will get in free.) Wachs believes 1.5 million people a year will come to Autostadt, and that it will make a profit within two years. "It is not swinging Wolfsburg," he acknowledges, "but we work on it."

--Janet Guyon