Museums

The Nuclear Packard

While the car you see above looks like it belongs on the scrap heap, it has just been rescued to soon become the pride of the National Atomic Museum. The car,a stretched 1941 Packard Clipper was used as part of the Mmanhattan Project to ferry the scientist that developed the A-Bomb from the testing range around New Mexico. The Museum is looking for donations to restore this car and a 1942 Plymouth back to life, if you can help follow a link to their site below or check out the gallery over on autoblog.

Read more

The Toyota AA

toyota_aa.jpg

Plenty of car companies have been known to buy back some of their historic models in order to preserve their history and display them in their museums. When Toyota tried to find their first car (the Toyota AA) they found there was none left possibly due to Japan’s love of crushing outdated cars for the latest model and the fact that only 1400 were build from 1936 till 1943. The next plan was to create a replica of the car but as a full set of plans were not available the replica was built from what plans could be found from over the models lifetime. Today the replica that was built for Toyota’s 50th anniversary sits in Toyota’s automobile museum in Nagoya Japan. While the car may not be exactly like the one you could buy in the late 30’s to early 40’s it is pretty darn close to what the real thing would have looked like if there was still one around.

Read more

Deutsches Technikmuseum – Berlin

berlin-museum.jpg

The Deutsches Technikmuseum or Museum of Technology a enjoyable and educational journey with some amazing examples of German technology on show. Built in the former goods yard of Anhalter Guterbahnholf a railway yard the museum has huge pavilions of planes, trains, cars, boats a planetarium and even a brewery. The museum also features some interesting production areas where you can see actual craftsman make suitcases, rolled jewelry and printing. The museum is set over four sites all within a few minutes walk and only about 10 minutes walk from Potsdamer Plaz. The vintage car depot is a must for any car buffs, here you will see a collection of over 100 historic German cars, some very rare while others familiar. The railway yard has dozens of beautiful examples of railway stock all magnificently restored to their former glory while the aviation and space flight atrium has some very interesting military and civilian aircraft.

Read more

National Motor Museum Australia

australian-motor-museum.jpg

Situated in the beautiful wine country of South Australia lies the National Motor Museum at Birdswood. This incredible collection of vehicles traces the importance of transportation in Australia over the last 100 years. Opening in 1965 the centre is not only a museum but a research centre, a place of preservation and an important education tool for the young. The new Holden Pavilion of Australian Motoring offers 3700 square metres of some of Australia’s most important motoring icons including a 45 metre long road train and some very impressive fire engines and commercial vehicles. The centre has traveling exhibitions and some of very interesting examples of important Australian automotive milestones including the a prototype Mitsubishi Magna, a prototype VN series Holden Monaro and the Torana GTR-X developed for the Sydney Motor Show a few years ago.

Read more

BMW Welt opens in Munich

[youtube eVrO8Hqb7ns]

The much anticipated new BMW museum the BMW Welt has just opened in Munich and is one of the world’s most amazing archetectual spaces as our You Tube video will show you. The Welt is more than a museum it is also a distribution point where you can pick up your spanking new BMW.  Designed by Coop Himmelb the facility took nearly four years to construct using some amazing construction techniques. The huge roof is home to over 3600 solar panels and many other substainable items are used in the structure. The facility includes the premium lounge for new car owners, a public gallery, conference suite and children’s center. The huge Double Cone will act as a media dome for exhibitions and events accommodating up to 450 people. BMW anticipates over 800,000 visitors per year. 

Read more

Elvis’ Tank

elvis-tank.gif

Elvis Presley the king of rock and roll spent some time in the US army during the 1950’s and was stationed in Germany for a while. During that time he worked with a M59 armoured personnel carrier which is today on display at the Sinsheim Auto & Technic museum in Sinsheim Germany. The amphibious tank was made from 1954 to 1960 and about 6300 units were produced. The tank was built out of armour plating which was in places 25 mm thick and was powered by two GMC model 302 six cylinder petrol engines which could do 146hp at 3600 rpm. The fuel consumption wasn’t too good with only a capability of 190 km from its 511 litre fuel tank. It could do about 50 kph on the road and just under 7 k per hour on water. The machine was designed and manufactured by the Food machinery and chemical corporation in the USA.

MOTAT Museum of Transport & Technology

motat.gif

MOTAT is the largest transport and technology museum in New Zealand with over 40 acres of exhibitions. Opening in 1964 the centre is built on a site where a pump station pumped water from Western Springs to the centre of Auckland. The centre has hours of educational entertainment for all ages, there’s an activities centre with over 20 displays including a huge Hand’s on Science Centre. There are all forms of road transportation, trams, railway stock, aviation, military, busses you name it- if it moves they have it. Some of the more notable items in their collection include the only Solent Mark IV Flying Boat in the world and one of only a handful of WW2 Avro Lancaster Bombers in the world, the first chilled beer tanker in the World and Billy T James’ 1954 Chevrolet. MOTAT also has one of the largest fire engine collections in the world. A very impressive collection indeed.

Read more