My answer to today’s Ask is I wouldn’t, as I can’t see a reason to buy something I can’t drive and enjoy, and I certainly don’t have the room to display a whole-ass car as a work of art. Even if I were bucks-up, I don’t think I would enjoy owning museum cars that I see primarily as investments, just wasting away in some climate-controlled hangar. Better they just stay in the museum while I invest my cash in something guaranteed to pay off, perhaps a comprehensive NeeDoh collection.
Then again, not every museum car is that precious. The Lane Motor Museum has a bunch of cars I could see myself enjoying, and with many microcars on site, maybe I could actually display one in my living room.
Likewise, Honda’s museum in New Zealand (which prompted today’s AA) has a number of wonderful options up for auction that I would be happy to own, including a 260,000-mile Civic. Surely a few more miles won’t hurt it. I’ll let Antti explain, as he generously did in Slack:
Honda is closing a museum in New Zealand that has collected some of the most memorable Hondas built in NZ, up until 1998. Those are now being auctioned on the Trade Me platform, and all 19 cars have already met their reserve with several days left in the auction. All proceeds will go to local charities in the Nelson area.
Thing is, I love it when museums sell off stuff. They’re usually really interesting cars and quite often – but not always! – well kept. Factory museums usually should have access to parts, too. However, if you buy a car from a museum floor, like in this case, there’s this implied idea, at least in my mind, that you’re supposed to continue keeping it in the same shape. Otherwise, you’re ruining a museum piece.
Now, with a Civic which has 418,000km on the clock, you’re continuing the story. It’s different than with a factory-fresh-looking car that has maybe a few thousand on the clock: can you use it? But if you take a regular car that has museum history but isn’t The Only One Of Its Kind In The World, you don’t have to have museum facilities yourself to do the car a service (both literally and conceptually). The car is still really nice, but you can continue doing your own thing rather than worry about it, as long as it doesn’t rust into pieces like an old Honda is eager to do. And nobody better steal it.
Your turn:
What Car Would You Buy From A Museum?
I would buy an Alfasud Sprint or Fiat X1/9 from a museum, because both cars have stuff I’d love to experience, but I would need a guarantee that the body has been stored indoors away from moisture, so that I could then flood its runners and quarter panels with fluid film while they’re still pristine.
There’s a beautiful ’70 Dodge Challenger RT convertible with a shaker hood at the “Edge” motor museum in Memphis (just down the block from Sun Records). I’d take that one and drive it on every nice weekend. It’s not a large museum, but it has a cool eclectic collection of cars. They also host a Cars and Coffee once a month (with coffee and scones and free admittance for anyone who brings a car). Cool place.
I agree… car’s are meant to be driven.
https://edge-motor-museum-web.web.app/
https://www.edgemotormuseum.com/
The Lotus Elite at the Barber Motorsports Museum.
Ford Festiva.
And then go dumpster diving for a crashed Suzuki Hayabusa.
Been to the Lane and loved every minute. I also like that most of the cars there aren’t ‘perfect’ and could conceivably be actually used as intended. I know Jeff does run them on occasion and hosts special events for doing so.
As a college student I sought solace at the Crawford Auto and Aviation museum in Cleveland. I went with dad to the Don Garlits Museum outiside of Tampa this spring. I bet his custom built M-body New Yorker is a trip to drive. Guessing it packs a bit more than a smogged 318 under the hood…
Got to put some respect on his name. He’s Big Daddy Don Garlits. 🙂
In the twenty-mid-teens there was a staff-only auction of the Lotus Type 119, 119b and 119c.
As the only remaining staff member who’d work on the gravity racers I put in some big bids on the 119 and 119c (the ones I worked on).
The winner of this staff auction was somehow the Barber Motorsport Museum, a result that seems wildly unfair.
I was at the time touring schools with the 119c and giving lectures, so all that had to stop.
Anyway, I’d like the 119 please. I’ve driven it just over a mile and it was hilarious. I don’t fit in the 119c, but I’d have that too.
They can keep the 119b, the wheels fall off.
I don’t know that I would, unless it was a museum that operates a car lot on the side for financial support
Otherwise, its something that’s been sitting for a long time with questionable maintenance. Plus, most, not all, but most, car museums are more situations where a small town car hoarder in a touristy area decided to start charging admission to wander around his metal warehouse building, in those cases, having been in a museum isn’t any real indicator of quality or provenance
The local vehicle museum, Wheels O’ Time, has two things on exhibit I’d look at buying, had I the money:
A 1980s March Indycar chassis set up as an American Racing Series car.
A live steam model of a TP&W H-10 class 4-8-4.
…other people might say the pair of black Mercedes 300SLs that reside near the Indycar, roadster and gullwing, buuuut…
Edit: oh, one more thing, and I can probably actually afford this one: they have a Schwinn Stingray Fastback. I want the Stingray Fastback.
Pretty much any of the cars that are in Honda’s museum in Torrance, California: https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/advice/history-of-american-honda-on-display-in-los-angeles
Just going by the photos, my shopping list would be:
That first gen CRX, that first gen Acura Integra, that first gen Acura Legend, that Valkyrie, and, of course, that NSX.
There is a Toyota 2000GT sitting in the Louwman Museum that I’ve drooled over both times I’ve been there. That’s the one I want. It’s a car that really should be driven.
Excellent response
oooh, we’re talking cars we can’t afford or fit in comfortably to personally drive, but experience with internet monies.