Car Collections
 

Greg posted a link to Jay Leno's garage in another thread so I thought I would start one about car collections.

Personally, in terms of taste I prefer Lindsay Fox's collection based in Melbourne, Australia. The 50 cars they mention are just the ones they have on show to the public, but I managed to get a tour of the workshops a few years ago and there are half as many again in the workshop. At the time that included 3 Mercedes Gullwings in various stages of restoration, they even have a full Gullwing body buck so they can make their own panels.

That is a very interesting collection, and my first thought was to put it on our schedule for our planned Melbourne stop next Oct. It doesn't look promising as their opening hours for the present show them open only on Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, and we'll be there on the weekend.

Tant pis.

I went about 10 years ago to a charity event in conjunction with Mercedes. I can only assume that Mercedes somehow influenced what was on public display. It was heavily dominated by Lindsay's Merc collection with only a smattering of Ferraris, Jags, Porches and other cars.

Fortunately a few of us got a personal tour of the workshops where they had all the other stuff tucked away that Mercedes presumably didn't want to steal the lime light. In addition to all the cars they were working on, there was among other things, an F40, F50 and and a Jag XJR-15, which the curator started up for us. What a sound! The lucky bugger got a drive it once a month as he did all the cars, just to keep them fresh.

Maybe closer to the time you should contact them and give them some sob story and see if you can swing a private visit. Nothing to lose.

We'll see; it'll be a busy trip, with lots of sights and sites to see.

Right now, we're wondering about the possible impact of the Christchurch, NZ 'quake on our plans there. Terrible tragedy.