Four-into-one: A tour of museums

Four museums in one road trip? Sure, it actually makes a lot of sense – especially when they are so good!

I recently made my biennial trip to southern Germany to visit my extended family, a trip I had made the last three times in a BMW 2002tiiLux, a Mercedes 280CE and two years ago in my Porsche 911T. However, this time – thanks to the chaos caused by the US President and consequent considerable increases in the cost of fuel – I did it not in a classic but in a relatively modern 2014 Porsche Cayman 981.

The maths was simple – my 1972 911T consumes fuel at a rate of c.24/25mpg or 9.8l/100km, the Cayman returns an average of 40mpg or 5.9l/100km; throw in the cost premium for E5 fuel over E10 and over an almost 3,000km round trip, I’d be looking at the 911T costing me roughly twice as much in fuel as the Cayman. Add the fact that the Cayman has air-conditioning…well, much as it went against the grain, the decision was easy in the end, and I had made the trip in the 911 two years ago…so.

However, this did not mean that classics were not a large part of this trip. On the contrary, with visits to four classic collections included in my itinerary, they were a significant theme, with two on the outward journey, one during my stay with family and another on the return trip, so below are some impressions and photos from each in the order I visited them that I hope some of you might find interesting…

I’ve read about the Classic Remise locations in ViaRETRO and elsewhere, and I was able to drop in on the one in Düsseldorf as part of this trip (the other being in Berlin). Readers will know these sites offer a combination of service, restoration, storage and sales in a converted locomotive roundhouse. This was my first visit to a Classic Remise and I was suitably impressed by the facility and the breadth of the cars on show. I haven’t seen so many Russian-built Zil limousines in one place before – huge and imposing vehicles with a definite dictator vibe.

There were many other fine classics to enjoy – and all for free! A great start to the classic car part of my trip.

Leaving Düsseldorf the next day I headed to the Loh Collection at the Nationales Automuseum in the small town of Dietzhölztal (no, me neither!), which I have to say was spectacular. Claus wrote about it three years ago – Europe’s new best car museum: Nationales Automuseum in Dietzhölztal | ViaRETRO – so I won’t say much about the museum itself here, other than it is an excellent collection of road and track cars and worth it for any classic car enthusiast to detour there for a couple of hours. The temporary exhibition this time was of rally legends, including the outrageous Audi Quattro used to conquer Pike’s Peak – so much added aero! – but there were many delectable cars on show in beautifully laid out displays, such as on the banked “track” (a là Mercedes-Benz Museum), the curvaceous 1957 Jaguar XKSS, the 1969 Chapron-bodied Citroën DS “ Le Dandy” or the exquisite 1954  Maserati A6G/54 Frua Spyder, one of only ten built.

If I had a complaint about the museum, it was the subdued lighting in the area where the 1930’s coachbuilt cars were displayed – I can only assume this was to protect the paintwork on extraordinary cars such as the astonishing, huge and unique Saoutchik-bodied 1932 Bucciali “Golden Arrow”, a fabulous 1948 Talbot Lago Grand Sport (also by Saoutchik), a stunning 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Aravis in green over black and the imposing 1939 Mercedes 770K Cabriolet F, a car for heads of state if ever there was one. There was so much more here, as the end gallery will show.

In between the outward and return journeys I visited the Automuseum Wolfegg which focuses not just on cars – many of the “unexceptional” variety – but also on fashion, toys, household, hobbies and general lifestyle aspects of the ‘50s, through to the ‘80s.

Re-established in 2017 following the closure of the Fritz B. Busch Museum the previous year, and located on the same site inside the grounds of Wolfegg Castle, in the picturesque Allgäu region of Baden-Württemberg, it’s a relatively small museum but no less interesting for that, especially to someone like me – and probably many ViaRETRO readers – who grew up and discovered a love of cars during the period it covers as well as having memories of things such as radiograms and cathode-ray black and white TV sets.

Some of the cars here are in “barn find” condition, such as the NSU Ro80 pictured but an extreme opposite was a 1972 Opel Kadett B 1.1-litre with just 19 (yes, nineteen!) kilometres on the clock – it had been delivered to it’s first owner and then sat in a garage for 27 years without ever actually being registered and has barely moved since; as “time warp” an example as you could possibly find. A second Kadett on display, this time a Kadett A, had covered just 19,000km since 1963.

Last stop on my museum tour was Autoworld in Brussels, the largest and most impressive of the quartet of museums I visited. Opened 40 years ago in one of the halls that make up the Parc du Cinquantenaire complex that also includes a Military and an Art and History museum (both annoyingly closed on the day I was there – a Monday), this was another splendid way to pass a couple of hours. Over 300 cars are on display here plus currently a temporary exhibition based on Aston Martin, and I can highly recommend it.

My knowledge of Belgian motor manufacturers was minimal, so the collection added to it with its emphasis on the Belgian motor industry featuring names such as Minerva, FN, Ravel. Belga Rise and Imperia, and most recently, the coachbuilder Coune, with it’s kamm-tailed versions of the MGB GT, two of which I saw at a Brooklands event several years ago.

Other outstanding exhibits for me included the 1954 Pegaso Z-102 roadster and the pair of Ferrari’s in the gorgeous shapes of a 1956 250 GT Boano and 1967 330GTC, as well as the 1993 Lancia Hyena concept car and the frankly weird pair of the 1954 Bugatti Brown – with bodywork of laminated polyester! – and V8 mid-engined 1946 J.P.Wimille prototype behind it; not really a surprise that more of these were not built.

Europe seems to be blessed with many classic car museums and collections open to the public, which is obviously a very good thing indeed. More photos from all four museums are in the gallery below.