The largest car museums in the world

The passion for the automotive world leads many collectors to show off their gems, so let’s take a tour of the largest car museums in the world.

The holiday season is a perfect time to visit one of the car museums, and some may be closer than you think. Here is our selection of the best. They are spread across the globe, but we are sure they are worth a visit. Let’s go!

Consider this collection a list of places to visit at least once in your life. And who knows, perhaps this holiday season will give you the chance to do so. Check the websites of the museums for opening hours during the holidays.

British Motor Museum (United Kingdom)

Based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, and renamed the British Motor Museum in 2016, this collection of 300 cars is run by the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust.

The collection traces the history of Britain’s automotive industry and includes a wide range of unique vehicles, including many firsts and lasts, prototypes and concept cars. Along these lines, for example, you will find the oldest MG in the world, Land Rover and Mini.

Britain has produced some incredible sports machines over the decades, and the displays reflect this with single-seaters rubbing shoulders with rally cars; the latter includes a couple of former Monte Carlo Mini alongside a Metro 6R4.

Beaulieu (United Kingdom)

Founded by Lord Montagu in 1952, the National Motor Museum in Hampshire began with a collection of five cars; over the intervening years it has grown to more than 250. It is a family destination with many activities to keep everyone entertained all year round. More at www.beaulieu.co.uk

Brooklands (United Kingdom)

Too many car museums are housed in anonymous-looking blocks, but not Brooklands, with its series of listed buildings dating back to the dawn of motor racing in the UK. Brooklands opened in 1907 and although much of the original track has now disappeared, some sections remain.

With its rich motor racing history, as you would expect, almost everything on display at Brooklands is a racer of one kind or another. One of the most impressive machines is the 24-litre Napier-Railton from 1933, which averaged 242 km/h over 24 hours in 1936.

You could not really call Brooklands one of the sterile car museums; it is also packed with automobilia and collectibles. As well as dozens of cars (many with incredible histories), there are also motorcycles, and a number of historic aircraft are stored outside, including a Concorde.

Lakeland (United Kingdom)

Originally created as a tourist attraction for nearby Holker Hall, the Lakeland Motor Museum is now located in Backbarrow, Cumbria. With more than 30,000 exhibits on display, including 140 classic cars and motorcycles, there is a lot to see, as detailed on its website.

Among the models are many familiar classics such as the Capri 2.8i, Escort Mexico and Jaguar XK140. If you are a fan of TVR, you can see the oldest example of the marque (the second car built, dating from 1952) and the only Cerbera Speed 12 ever made. Plus a pile of other British and European machinery.

Haynes (United Kingdom)

John Haynes, who died in February 2019, made his fortune publishing workshop manuals, and as his car collection grew, he decided it made sense to put everything in a building open to the public. The result was the Haynes Motor Museum, opened in 1985. There are now more than 400 cars on display.

The cars are grouped by theme. Collections go under titles such as Memory Lane or American Dreams. Other collections include Mini & Micros, Great British Marques, The Red Room and Morris Story.

Although racing cars are the focus of the collection, there is also a library, an exhibition of classic motorcycles from around the world, and one of the most popular rooms is this one dedicated to motor racing.

If you make the pilgrimage to Somerset, where the Haynes Museum is located, don’t forget to have a good bite at the Supercar Century display with its Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS, Jaguar XJ220 and Lamborghini Countach.

Beijing (China)

The automotive industry in China is not very well documented and, as a result, it is a mystery to most car enthusiasts. So if you are in Beijing, a visit to the city’s car museum should fill in some gaps in your knowledge.

It all began in 1979 when Luo Wenyou bought his first car, at a time when car ownership was extremely rare. He still owns that car, a Polish-built Warszawa, along with 200 others. Some are commercial vehicles, but most are cars built in China or Russia.

Mullin (USA)

Peter W Mullin has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with French cars, and especially those from the Art Deco period. He has one of the best collections of 1930s French automobiles, including models by Delahaye, Delage, Bugatti, Voisin and Talbot-Lago.

Alfa Romeo (Italy)

The Museo Storico Alfa Romeo in Arese first opened in 1976, but 35 years later it closed when the Arese factory was deflated. As part of the global relaunch plan for Alfa Romeo, the museum was restored and reopened in 2015, complete with a library, a showroom for new cars and even a private test track.

Blackhawk (USA)

Based in Danville, California, the Blackhawk Museum (actually a collection of museums) opened in 1988 with the aim of exhibiting art, culture and history. More than just a museum, it is an educational centre that also hosts talks and film screenings to inspire younger generations.

Louwman (Netherlands)

With more than 250 cars in its collection, the Louwman Museum has plenty to entertain, especially if you like really old things; there are a dozen cars on display from the first 25 years of motoring. The museum is based in The Hague.

Henry Ford (USA)

It would be easy to assume that the Henry Ford Museum would be packed with vehicles bearing the Blue Oval, but not at all; the variety is much greater than that. The largest museum complex in North America, more than 1.6 million people visit the Dearborn-based site.

Ferrari (Italy)

Not content with just one museum, Ferrari has two: the Ferrari Museum in Maranello and the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena. While the latter focuses more on the man and engineering behind the cars, the former is more about the brand’s racing exploits and the incredible racing cars built over the last seven decades.

Mercedes-Benz (Germany)

It is to be expected that the company that invented the car has a rather impressive museum, and it does not disappoint. Opened in May 2006, more than eight million people have visited so far, to study the 160 vehicles and 1,500 exhibits displayed across more than 16,000 square metres of exhibition space.

Automotive History Museum of Salamanca (Spain)

The MHAS currently has a permanent exhibition of more than 140 vehicles from different historical periods, from the prehistory of motoring and man’s attempt to get around with the help of ingenious inventions, to what is considered the first internal combustion engine car in history: the Benz Tricycle. From there the evolution of car production is traced, up to the mass production of cars that began with the Ford T.

The display continues with numerous examples of vehicles from factories on both sides of the Atlantic and their adaptation to new design and safety trends. The exhibition culminates with the latest examples of competition vehicles, represented by the Formula 1 cars driven by recent world champions.

More than 4,000 m§h103Alfa Romeoh104§ spread over three floors house vehicles of great significance to automotive history. Unique pieces can be seen, such as a Hispano Suiza 30/40 HP from 1910, a car in absolutely original condition, being the first car in Spain declared a Asset of Cultural Interest, or two replicas of the pioneering cars that circulated in the world, the 1885 Benz Tricycle and the 1899 Bonet. Other pieces of special interest are two cars used by the last two heads of state of Spain, a 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 and a Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL. Other competition cars also stand out, such as a 1920s Amilcar and the Formula 1 used by Fernando Alonso, Nelson Piquet Junior and Romain Grosjean in the 2009 season.