Classic Car Museum Guide

Motor Cars, Motorcycles & Machinery

Lance Cole

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Transport
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781526735881
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

An enthusiast's guide to motoring and transport museums in Britain and beyond. Written by experienced automotive expert Lance Cole, this companion guide for car and motorcycle enthusiast covers ninety British motoring and transport museums in depth and over 350 museums worldwide. Included are:

• Descriptions and photographs
• A comprehensive global museum listing
• Outtakes on visits to selected overseas museums
• A glossary of old car and motorcycle terms and types
• A discussion of motoring museum culture and the history these museums portray

1

MOTORING MUSEUM ESSENTIALS

The essential Riley excellence. Alan Ward’s two-tone Riley on the move.

If we are going to spend time looking at vehicles from the past, it might be an idea to be fully conversant with the main eras, dates and the terminology used in such cars. So, without wanting to insult the intelligence of those in the know, or those of elevated status or ‘cognoscenti’ ego, here, provided for the enthusiast reader and for those willing to learn or refresh their thinking, is a quick reference guide (or reminder), to the eras and the key terminology applied to earlier cars as likely to be found in car museums.

We also need to know that the first British car museums were small, privately funded affairs – personal collections. Then came more organised gatherings and in 1952, the Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu Motor Museum at Beaulieu was a precursor to a national movement and it too started with a private gathering of half a dozen cars. By 1959, nearly 300,000 members of the British public had visited the house and wooden sheds that constituted what was the nascent National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. From 1964, a dedicated new building and true major museum status acted as a kick-start to the wider ‘national’ museum context we know so well today.

The late John Haynes’ passion for cars and motorsport remains a ‘go to’ on the ‘must see’ list. Newly revamped, the Haynes International Museum near Yeovil contains cars and themed displays that may need more than a day to get around. The dedicated motorsport displays at the Haynes Museum cannot but tug at the emotions of the motorsport fan. You cannot help but stand and stare and try to imagine the sight, sound and smell of the cars in action: are these cars, with their histories and patina, really inanimate objects incapable of telling their story?

We now have global, professional bodies or de facto ‘authorities’ that run our world of old, classic cars. The likes of the American Associations such as the Antique Automobile Club of America, assorted clubs, the Federation Internationale des Vehicules Anciens (FIVA), add much to our automobilia. The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) plays a huge role in promoting and supporting the use and driving of old cars from a British perspective in a business worth billions of pounds per year in the UK alone (£5.5billion at last count). A professional body supporting the smaller museums also exists –the Association of Independent Museums (AIM).

Motoring, or transport-related museums offer a specific niche and their authenticity is key to their survival. Also vital is our own understanding, and our willingness to learn. Museums are about learning, as well as seeing. ‘I did not know that’ is an often heard phrase in a car museum.

Interestingly, several marque clubs have set up their own museums; the Aston Martin Owners Club Heritage Trust Museum being a prime example. Bugatti fans have created the Bugatti Trust which is allied to the separate entity that is the very friendly Bugatti Owners Club. The French, Friends of Bedelia group must be encouraged to do the same thing for the Bedelia is not mad, it is marvellous. Meanwhile, the David Brown Tractor Club and their collection, prove that it is not all about cars.

Pre-war delight. Riley Sprite seen at Bicester Heritage on a great open day.

Collections covering brochures, ephemera, engineering and design drawings, photographs and a myriad of documents charting the history of the car, all lie out there, awaiting our discovery. Interestingly, the digital age and twenty-first century technology provide the motoring investigator with huge gains – Motor Sport has placed its entire publication run as an archive in a vital digital web resource.

We have an amazing history to revel in. From Nicolas Cugnot who created the first ‘car’ or self-propelled vehicle in 1769 (if we ignore ancient Chinese claims to a inventing a propelled vehicle, and the designs of Leonardo da Vinci, to Karl Benz, to Ferdinand Porsche, from Henry Ford or Herbert Austin, from Ettore Bugatti to Gabriel Voisin, and the works of Sir Frederick Lanchester, the history of early motoring is infused with greatness. And was it not Camille Jenatzy who created in 1899 the early electric car – a streamlined 65mph device named ‘La Jamais Contente’? Did not Ferdinand Porsche invent axle-mounted hybrid electric motors at the turn of the nineteenth century in the Lohner-Porsche?

For the enthusiast, defined periods in this history of the automobile are set, but also subject to national colloquialism and terminologies. Familiarisation with their dated eras can only assist us on our museum visit. Knowledge of dates, eras, terms, design and engineering language, can be very helpful. The following are the terms and general ‘nomenclature’ that frame many exhibits in motoring museums and often seen.

Veteran

The Veteran period is from the start of motoring pre-1900 up to the year 1904. Also known in the USA as the ‘Pioneer’ era to certain observers. Although veteran and vintage are indeed universal terms, they mean different things in different countries, especially in the USA. In the USA a Veteran car is one produced between 1906-1912. An American ‘Vintage’ car definition refers to one manufactured between 1912 and 1929 whereas the British define Veteran cars as those built before 31 December 1904! And Vintage cars come after the Edwardian classification.

Edwardian

A lesser-used definition to describe a period post-1904 up to 1918 yet which ignores for the purpose of history and fashion, the date that the relevant King Edward VII came to the throne and the date of his death in 1910.Generally deemed to run up to the start of the First World War, when car design and manufacture effectively stalled for the duration.

Vintage

The defined period of car production from 1905 to 1930, yet which has been slightly extended into the 1930s by some. The British Vintage car period runs from 1919 to the last day of 1930. A Post-Vintage car can, say some, cover the era just beyond to 1939.

Thoroughbred or Post-Vintage Thoroughbred

Applied by some to the post-vintage era cars of 1931-1939. Once cited in the title of Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine – now Classic Cars.

Post-War and Classic

Defines a generic era 1945 through to the late-1960s of ‘classic cars’ but open to interpretation. In the Second World War, little car design focus took place and 1939-1945 currently lacks a defined classification beyond ‘war-time production’. The same thinking applies to books as produced to ‘war-time standard’. Included within the post-war era can be ‘thoroughbred’ cars whose origins lie in the very late-1930s. The defined niche ‘Post-War’ cars of 1946-1959 are also ‘classics’, yet the wider generic term ‘classic car’ encompasses the post-war era well into the 1960s.

Old-timer

A Northern European/German term for any very old veteran and early vintage era car.

Modern Classic

A more recent term to describe cars of the 1970s and up to the 1980s and perhaps beyond.

Young timer

Another northern European/Germany for a modern classic.

Of particular note, many museums and collections use descriptions of cars in terms of their engineering and design that require more than a passing knowledge of the history of car design. The reader may be assisted in their visits to see or research cars, by the inclusion herein of key terms that are used by car collectors, car collections and museums to categorise the myriad of earlier car types, styles, and design features.

Car body design/coachbuilder terminology:

Aero-screen

Small square or semi-circular/ellipsoid windscreen mounted on the scuttle of an open car type to reduce wind resistance but still proved some form of occupant shielding from the wind. Also as a racing car fitment.

Barrel-sided

A form of body design where there can be found a convex curve-under shape to bodysides towards the lower panels (sills) as a turn-under shape leading to a barrel-shaped curvature. Not to be confused with tumblehome.

Beetle-back

Not related to the VW ‘Beetle’ but an earlier term to describe a rounded tail or roof line that suggested the rear contours of an insect/beetle (carapace).

Berline/Berlina

Often applied to a French, German or Italian car, this means standard saloon – four-doors. A horse-drawn carriage term, ‘Berlin’ evolved into the modern era. A Berline is a French term, but Berlina is the Italian etymology but a Berlinetta is a smaller, (often two-seat) sports coupé version of a Berlina (such as a Ferrari Berlinetta). Germans still however refer to a mid-range saloon as ‘Berlina’.

Boat-tail(ed)

Refers to a touring-type body that has a pointed tail end, aping the (converse) prow of a small boat or rowing boat, or a pointed boat stern (not all sterns are pointed and many are flat-backed).

Boat-decked

Indicates that wood or ‘decking’ has been applied to the upper surface of a top panel – overlaid as in boat building practice and notably for stern decks.

Brake (Shooting)/Break

The early term for an estate car body type and describing the rugged and large vehicles used for taking shooting guests to upper class shoots and to carry their guns, dogs and kit. Also as a car to collect cargo and baggage in the country from railway stations to return to one’s estate hence the derivation of ‘Station Wagon’ still extant in the USA. Originally the ‘Shooting Brake’ this is the origin of today’s estate car. Of note, the French term for such cars was, and remains, a ‘Break’ of alternative spelling. The Swedish and Germans often refer to such cars as ‘Wagonettes’ and this has transposed to the U.S. colloquialism of ‘Wagon’ to describe an estate car or hatchback – beyond the use of the earlier ‘station wagon’.

Buggy

Applied to short-wheelbase two-seater chassis body combinations of simple and horse-cart derived style.

Cabriolet

A confusing and multiply used term to describe a partially folding roof with proper weather protection and one supported by an inner mechanism and or removable panels, but not a true lightweight roadster-type soft top of m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Motoring Museum Essentials
• 2 The Art of the Visit
• 3 The Museums
• 4 Beyond Britain
• Bibliography