Driving around in Charlevoix County, Michigan one evening and spotted a few rusty cars behind a barn. My curiosity made me stop and see what was hidden in the grass. There were an old Chevy station wagon, delivery vans and some other rusty American steel waiting for better days. Or they were just forgotten and won’t go anywhere anytime soon. (more…)
I was on vacation in Florida and I always like to go to Palm Beach and look at cars and people whenever I am in the area. There never seems a shortage of expensive cars cruising around Worth Avenue. Porsches seem so common around here and you don’t even notice Mercedes, Audi or BMW anymore, unless they are really unique like an SLS.
When you think Ford Museum in Michigan, the first one that comes to mind is the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. If you haven’t been to this huge museum before, it may come as a surprise there aren’t all that many historic Ford vehicles on display or much to be found about the history of the Ford Motor Company. (more…)
You may know the Police Interceptor from the familiar sight in your rear-view mirror or seeing them performing traffic duties. The previous generation of Police Interceptors was based on the Crown Victoria and this model was manufactured from 1992 to 2011. The new generation is a modified Ford Taurus and it is slowly showing up all over the country.
Power, speed, American, fast, sports car, heritage, history, racing. All words that may surface in your mind when you hear the name Corvette. The word Chevrolet should be in that list as well, even though the Corvette has not much in common with any other Chevrolet car or truck. The Corvette museum is located next to interstate highway I-65 near the town of Bowling Green in Kentucky. It is 109 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky and 67 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee.
A distinctive smell of vintage cars is always a good sign when you walk through the front door of a motor museum. Some car museums are a bit sterile but this places oozes with character. The vehicles at the Lane Motor Museum are displayed without any barriers and that always gives it a more personal feel. There are a lot of unusual, quirky and wacky vehicles on display and you probably will not find these in any other museum.
Most car factories are large industrial complexes with older buildings and smoke stacks belching out smoke. When you have toured a few, they mostly look similar and you often know what to expect. The transparent factory from Volkswagen is very different. It is located in the city center of Dresden and looks like a regular office building.
Classic Remise is not a museum but you can find many vintage and current model cars in a wonderful historic building in Berlin. Classic Remise in Berlin and Düsseldorf are more like a working and living museum with workshops, car storage and vintage car sales. There are also shops that sell parts, clothing, model cars and accessories. The Berlin location has the Trofeo restaurant in the same building. There are several car owner clubs in the building as well and it is also used for events.
This is the Museo Ferrari in Maranello, Ferrari’s home town in Modena, Italia. I was on a road trip from Milano to Roma and Maranello was on my list of places to visit. I am not a huge Ferrari fan but it’s an iconic brand and it is one of those places an automobile enthusiast just has to visit once in their life. This was a little of two years ago in January of 2010.
My first experience with the W124 series was more than 25 years ago. I was looking for a summer job when I was in college and ended up at Hertz car rental at Amsterdam Airport. The job was basically collecting rental returns at the airport terminal garage, drive them to the service facility, clean, fill-up with petrol and return to the terminal building or park at the storage area. Most cars ranged from sub-compacts like a Ford Fiesta or Peugeot 205 to compacts like the Ford Escort and larger cars like an Opel Vectra. And then there were the luxury cars which were always a treat to drive. Think Mercedes 190, BMW 3-series and also the occasional Mercedes-Benz 300/W124, BMW 5-series and even the rare S-Class. After driving basic transportation for most of the shift, it was always a treat to have that occasional moment of bliss in a Benz.
General Motors preserves a large collection of historically significant vehicles in their Heritage Collection in Michigan. This collection contains important production vehicles as well as many concept cars. This collection isn’t usually accessible to the general public. The GM Heritage Center in is a well-known place where many of these vehicles are displayed. This facility is also used for many public functions. General Motors also has several warehouses in the same area where they store the vehicles that aren’t currently on display at the Heritage Center or used at shows and other events.