Museums

Cars of the Stars

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Keswick is a small town in the lakes district in the North West corner of England and is home to the Cars of the Stars Museum. They have an interesting collection of classic cars which have appeared in film and television all displayed in specially themed panoramas and many of them are very well known. Some of their vehicles include Mr Bean’s Mini, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a De Lorean from Back to the Future, the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mad Max’s XB GT Falcon, the Munster’s Koach and a even a Batmobile. Opening in 1989 after the museum’s founder was approached by a film studio to use one of his vehicles the museum is one of the more popular in the top end of England. The museum features a good little souvenir shop which sells cards, models and other movie and car memorabilia.

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Jaguar E Type

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The E Type Jaguar revolutionised sports car design when it was first launched in 1961. It had magnificent performance, handling and looks and was way ahead of its time. Enzo Ferrari is quoted as saying it was” The most beautiful car ever made”. and has headed many lists of the 60’s best sportscar.

This lovely 1967 example was photographed at the Toyota Megaweb classic car collection in Odaiba, Tokyo. The Toyota History Garage is part of Toyota’s Megaweb car fun park. The History Garage contains all the cars that shaped car history from this Jag to the Delorean and Huge Caddys to microcars. All the cars are really well presented, there is also a huge Toyota showroom displaying everything from Toyota Japan’s Range.

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Nissan Gallery Ginza

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 Right in the heart of Tokyo‘s prestige shopping strip- Ginza is the Nissan Ginza Gallery. In a shopping district home to the world’s finest fashion, jewelry and style the Nissan Gallery has a small showcase of vehicles which look like expensive gems or jewels. The showroom is open to the public and free, it is only small but usually houses a few classic vehicle like this lovely Datsun sports car, some futuristic vehicle straight out of the latest motorshow and a few of the company’s new models. There are some lovely artwork and small displays along with a Nissan merchandise counter.  The centre also has a play area for the young one, with colouring and block building. The Nissan Tokyo head office is above the display centre. Well worth a visit for anyone visiting Tokyo.

Ford Discovery Centre – Australia

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Back in 1925 Ford started their Australian production in Geelong Australia and today the city is still home to their Stamping facilities and Research and Development centre. Within a few metres of their original works near Geelong’s waterfront the Ford Discovery Centre now stands. Offering visitors an extensive showcase of vehicles that the Marquee has become famous for from the Model T to the latest model Falcon. The centre is much more than a car museum it is a hand’s on technology centre where people especially the young can come face to face with production robots, vehicle cutaways and visit a mock up of Ford Australia’s top secret design studio where full size real clay model vehicles are on display. The center fun and education and is a very popular learning centre for many of the states primary schools. The center has many one off concept vehicles and show cars, historic vehicles including the world’s first utility vehicle the 1932 Ford Ute and some of the latest iconic vehicles in it’s ever changing display.

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The Holzenbliz Electric Car

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We couldn’t find a great deal of English information on the Hotzenbliz Electric Car. We took this photo at the Sinsheim Auto & Technic Museum in Germany. The car was produced in the mid 1990’s and only about 150 were produced looking a bit like a cross between a golf buggy and the Smart Car. The cars were manufactured in the German town of Suhl and didn’t take off due to performance and battery life. The battery took about 5 hours to charge and the maximum range was about 80km with impressive speeds of 120kmh. Some of the cars were later updated with new battery technology from a Swiss firm and were much more suitable, but it seems the poor old Holzenbliz manufactures went bankrupt in the process.

The Zundapp Janus- one of the worst cars ever

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Time Magazine one of the world’s most respected magazines has voted today’s car, the Zundapp Janus one of the ’50 worst cars ever made’. We found this interesting little pink car in Germany at the Sinsheim Auto & Tecknic Museum. The car was actually German, it was built in Nuremberg and this model is from 1958. The vehicle was made by a motorbike factory after motorbike sales fell off during the 50’s. The company thought (wrongly) they should get into the car market. Probably the best bit of this car was the rear seat, it faced backwards so you could see people behind you frustrated with the single cylinder twin stroke 14hp engine running at a snail like pace and the fear of seeing much faster and better cars rear ending you. The car had two doors, one at the back and one at the front making it really difficult to see which end was which. Safety on the Zundapp Janus wasn’t an option either- there was none. 6902 of the vehicles were produced in the 18 months or so production before the factory was sold to Bosch.

Nissan’s Flying Feather

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The Flying Feather was the brainchild of Yutaka Katayama in the late 1940s’ He Ryuichi Tomiya, Ryuichi Tomiya designers at Datsun in Japan went to work on a small vehicle that used mainly motorcycle parts and very basic, but netherless a functional and reliable means of transport. They came up with this interesting little vehcile. Unfortunatly it didn’t really get into full production but some 150 or so vehicles were produced in various stages in the mid 1950′ by Suminoe Manufacturing, which was an affiliate fo Nissan.  The vehicle was probably a bit to basic, which people were not quiet ready for in Japan. Similar style vehicles became popular a few years later This lovely example of the Flying Feather is on display at the Toyota Automotive Museum in Nagoya, Japan.

The National Car Museum of Iran

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The National Car Museum of Iran opened in 2001 in Karaj which is a city about 20 km west of the capital Teran. The museum has an amazing collection of classic vehicles which were owned by the last Shah of Iran who was exciled and died in 1979. The collection includes several beautiful Rolls Royce’s including a Siver Spirit, Phantom III, IV, a Stutz Blackhawk, several Ferraris including a 500 Superfast, and 365GT BB, a Maserati Ghibli Coupe and even a Mercedes Benz 500K which was owned by Hitler . The cars were hidden underground and even pushed into water when the Shah fled Iran, they have since been found, restored and put on display.