Thursday, April 22, 2010

Franschhoek Motor Museum #1

With the magnificent backdrop of the Franschhoek Mountains, the Motor Museum is a fascinating place, where there is a private collection of about 320 cars of which about 80 are exhibited at any one time (cars are rotated to give them equal viewing) - in these four 'warehouses' on either side of the main building in the centre ...


Wandering around on your own is not permitted but they have guides taking small groups to each of the warehouses. Once inside you can walk around freely but are asked not to touch the cars or stand on the white boards under the cars.

Our guide was this very knowledgeable young man on the left ... ask him any question and he knew the answer ... and with him is the oldest car in the collection - a Ford Model A dated 1903 !!

So as not make this post too long .. I will do a couple of posts with some of the cars spanning 100 years ..
'Golden Oldies' first - I love the old vintages! This is a motorcycle from 1905 - Mars Carette
Smart little one below ... but I didn't get it's name ..
.. or the name of this Ford ... snazzy little car .. imagine bumbling along the narrow roads with the canopy down on a lovely warm summer's day, with hat tied on and scarf billowing behind ..
The famous Model T Ford ...
This one below reminded us of a programme we used to watch on TV many years ago with John Boy and family who lived in the depression years in America .. we both have forgotten the name of the series, which always ended with them going to bed and each member of the family said goodnight to each other ... does anyone remember ? ...



Bugatti : 1930 ...
Beautiful .. aren't they ? ...

Photo below - unfortunately the AC on the left is not quite in the picture because I was more interested in the cute little green car called a Dixie !!! But I should have taken a full photo of the AC as it had a fascinating story. It is a very rare car - there are only 2 or 3 (hubby would remember!) in existence and a group of car 'people'/enthusiasts came out from England recently to study the car - every inch of it - taking it's chasis number etc !! They have also asked that if ever it is sold, they would like to be told of it's whereabouts at all times! A very rare car indeed !!
Watch this space for more ...

3 comments:

  1. You have been to visit more exciting places in CT than I have and I lived there, goes to show, you are never too old to learn something new.

    Back in the days very few people owned these well preserved cars...and boy are they interesting to see...way way before my time of course...hehehe, I'm still a spring chicken!!!! :) Now thats why I dont have the answer to your question about what movie/series that car reminds you of....

    Thanks for the chat on my blog earlier, love your comments I feel as if we are sitting across and having a good old *skinner*
    I will be letting you know in my blog tomorrow what I found to replace my sweetener - and YES I LOVE MY COFFEE AND TEA SWEET, have tried without and cant do...but think what I found is perfect for me!!

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  2. It was the Waltons...and it does remind me of them...love the motorcycle...great classics...

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  3. The Waltons !!! Of course !! Thanks Deb !!

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