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Antique Auto Museums


JLWM8609

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There is Lawrence Marshall's up on US290. There is another small one on US71 before Bastrop. Both are relatively small, and they also sell what they have. There is also a museum, or at least there used to be, at the Hemisphere in San Antonio.

The BEST one there is in Reno,NV at Harrah's car museum. Now, if you can wait until September 22 & 23, there is a HUGE car show in Old Town Spring. In the meantime, here is a link for you to show you what is going on around the state as far as carshows, they are just as good as museums, and families are encouraged to come. Heck, if you are lucky, you may even see me out at a couple of these.

Click this:

http://www.carshownews.com/national/TX.htm

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There is Lawrence Marshall's up on US290. There is another small one on US71 before Bastrop. Both are relatively small, and they also sell what they have. There is also a museum, or at least there used to be, at the Hemisphere in San Antonio.

The BEST one there is in Reno,NV at Harrah's car museum. Now, if you can wait until September 22 & 23, there is a HUGE car show in Old Town Spring. In the meantime, here is a link for you to show you what is going on around the state as far as carshows, they are just as good as museums, and families are encouraged to come. Heck, if you are lucky, you may even see me out at a couple of these.

Click this:

http://www.carshownews.com/national/TX.htm

You plan to check out that Wheels and Keels show in Seabrook in a few weeks?

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You plan to check out that Wheels and Keels show in Seabrook in a few weeks?

That show is more of a concourse d'elegance. I will most likely be at the Budweiser show on the 5th. Wheels and Keels is about $45 to put a car in that show, and it is for the rich folks to pat each other on the butt. Nice nice showing of 30's and 40's cars though. You SHOULD check it out.

Didn't hear about the Lawrence marshall place shuttin down. When did that happen.

JLW, if you want to look at a few hotrods, there are some guys that keep some real Muscle over at Bumbera's on Hwy6 at I-10. Just a few cars, but some nice pieces.

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  • 1 year later...

Just FYI, I ended up checking out the auto museum up in the Warrenton/Round Top area around this time last year. It's Sterling McCall's museum. It contains nothing but Cadillacs now. Kinda funny since I ended up taking a Mercedes-Benz car club up there, but they had a good time. They really enjoy most vintage cars, from the snobby 1930s Mercedes-Benz 540Ks, to the hot rod 1970s Oldsmobile 442s. If it's old, they like it. I also discovered the beautiful town of Round Top, and ended up meeting the legendary Leon Hale at Klump's Restaurant. My dad asked him how the talking mule was doing, lol.

We'll also be out at Keels and Wheels this year, though I won't be entering anything, unless you want to see a 1982 Benz with almost 400k miles on it and a moderately cheap (but not that bad looking) paint job. :P

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Me! Me! Me! Me! Can I answer??? Please???

Antique car museums are sort of a special hobby of mine. Unfortunately, their numbers are dwindling.

I went to Lawrence Marshall's place once. Thought it was underwhelming and more used car lot than real museum.

Nena, Jerry J. Moore closed his museum on the North Loop about ten years ago. Shame, because he had a nice collection of Duesenbergs. Twenty years ago, there was Vida's Vintage Vehicles out on the North Freeway by the blimp base, and David Taylor's lovely little museum on the Strand. Both gone now.

I haven't been to Sterling McCall's museum since he sold off the collection and converted it to Cadillacs. Before that it was great, and it's still probably well worth a visit.

Central Texas Museum of Automotive History is well worth a visit and I try to go anytime I go to San Antonio. It's way out in the middle of nowhere. Either this or Sterling's museum would be worth a day trip, but I think they're too far apart to do in one day.

If you like classic cars, you must go to Keels and Wheels. It has steadily increased in national significance in the classic car world and you will frequently see major competitors from the big competitions like Pebble Beach there. Also, important museums like Petersen or Lane will sometimes bring interesting cars.

I'm surprised more people don't know about it, but Classy Chassis at Reliant in June is also a great show with lots of nationally known exhibitors.

The household word museums like the National Auto Museum (formerly Harrah's) in Reno and the Petersen and Nethercutt in California are all too far away for a special trip, but Auburn, Indiana has four great ones: the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, the National Auto and Truck Museum of the United States, the Kruse Collection, and the WWII Victory Museum, which has the world's largest collection of European Theater military vehicles, including lots of French and German stuff. You can see them all in one long day. As an aside, the Kruse building, which also houses the WWII Victory Museum, also has a small museum of early television and toys related to TV shows, which is fascinating if you grew up in the 60s as I did.

Another of the best museums I have ever seen is the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. They specialize in unusual things like microcars and European oddities, especially French and Czech.

I heard from a pretty reliable source that John O'Quinn is planning a museum in the Houston area, but I haven't heard anything about it in a year or two. What I heard was that they were looking for land. O'Quinn's treatment of the Carousel House rankles, but he is a great collector and his vehicles are always among the best at Keels and Wheels and Classy Chassis.

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Love the old Harrah's museum in Reno. Best collection I ever saw in one place. Jerry J. Moore's people contacted me once about a year and a half ago regarding my car, and I told them the price, and they tried to lowball me. Can't blame the guy, and his rep. said they thought my price was fair, but that they needed to make a profit also. We shook hands over the phone and parted as frineds. There is a nice little place where they are selling some real collectibles over on 59S. at Fountainview, next to The Firehouse bar.

Here is a link to upcoming events in our area.

http://www.carshownews.com/

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Love the old Harrah's museum in Reno. Best collection I ever saw in one place. Jerry J. Moore's people contacted me once about a year and a half ago regarding my car, and I told them the price, and they tried to lowball me. Can't blame the guy, and his rep. said they thought my price was fair, but that they needed to make a profit also. We shook hands over the phone and parted as frineds. There is a nice little place where they are selling some real collectibles over on 59S. at Fountainview, next to The Firehouse bar.

Here is a link to upcoming events in our area.

http://www.carshownews.com/

I think that place next to The Firehouse is now closed. If I remember correctly, the collection has been moved to another location.

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I think that place next to The Firehouse is now closed. If I remember correctly, the collection has been moved to another location.

Then that JUST happened within the last couple of months. I was there about 6 months ago. That is a shame.

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