Cars to me are like works of art, something about there shape and design is so fascinating. So like most petrolheads I love looking at some of the finest examples in museums and at events, but thanks to the Corona virus when most museums were closed I found I could still visit these places from the comfort of my own home.
Museo Lamborghini Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy
You can travel the globe virtually and take a tour of some of the best motoring museums in the world. All of these museums listed are courtesy of Google’s amazing streetview technology, so if feels more like you are walking around rather than stuck in one spot. Other museums not featured here do not have this ‘walk about’ view but there are usually 360 photos by visitors which you can also enjoy by visiting the museums on Google maps.
Enzo Ferrari Museum, Modena, Italy
When navigating your way around these museums don’t try to go up or down the stairs as you can only look at each floor separately. Click on the numbers on the right to go between levels.
Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Some of these museums are housed in stunning buildings, so take a virtual walk outside too and marvel at the architecture.
Porsche Museum
Located in Stuttgart, Germany. This is one of the many places I have on my petrolhead list of places to go. Porsche’s history is displayed in a beautiful modern building showing their road and race cars through the years. Look out for the concepts that never made production. Its also just across the road from Porsche’s headquarters.
For more information visit the Porsche museum website – https://www.porsche.com/museum/en/
Honda Collection Hall
The Honda Collection Hall is located in Motegi, Japan and is home to all things Honda, even their lawnmowers. But we came for the cars and its worth a visit just to see factory fresh Honda’s throughout their history as well as their motor racing heritage.
The Honda Collection Hall have their own virtual tour available here – https://www.honda.com/collection-hall-gallery
More information is available here – https://global.honda/heritage/collection-hall.html
Mazda Museum
The Mazda Museum is next to their global headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. Showing past and present cars, it makes for an interesting tour especially seeing old greats like a Mk1 RX7, Cosmos and Mk1 MX5 in amazing museum quality condition. Look out for the weird three wheeled commercial vehicles.
More information is available on their website – https://www.mazda.com/en/about/museum/
McLaren Technology Centre
There are many parts of McLaren’s Head Quarters in Woking that you can virtually tour but you must move the little orange figure on the map to get to other areas. As well as their rich F1 history being shown in the remarkable cars on display are also road cars including an orange F1 and a very impressive trophy cabinet.
Museo Ferrari Maranello
See Maranello’s finest at home at the Museo Ferrari near the company’s headquarters. There’s plenty to see including F1 cars, road cars, concepts and a replica of Enzo Ferrari’s office – his real office is nearby but you cannot visit it virtually.
See more https://musei.ferrari.com/en/maranello
Enzo Ferrari Museum
Another Ferrari museum, this one is located at Enzo Ferrari’s Fathers former workshop in Modena, Italy. Again stunning modern and classic Ferrari’s are on display in a beautiful modern building next to classic old Italian architecture. Make sure you look in all the buildings available on Google street view as there are some rarities such as the Ferrari hydroplane.
More information here – https://musei.ferrari.com/en/modena
Museo Lamborghini
Explore two floors of full of past and present Lamborghini’s at the manufacturers own museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. The collection includes road cars, race cars, concepts and the brutish LM002 suv from the 1980s. Some of the vehicles you can virtually sit in too, just click on the car and in you go for a 360 view of the interior.
See more information on the Lamborghini museum here – https://www.lamborghini.com/en-en/museum
National Corvette Museum
For all things Corvette the National Corvette Museum has a great selection of its finest models. Although disaster struck in 2014 when a sinkhole opened up inside the museum swallowing several cars, just a few months later the museum was open again welcoming visiting and even display some of the sinkhole cars.
More information on their official website here – https://www.corvettemuseum.org/
Petersen Automotive Museum
The Petersen Automotive Museum located in Los Angeles is massive. It houses more than 300 cars as well as automotive art, automobilia and even model cars. There is a lot to see but well worth it as there is everything from hot rods to classics, movie cars, Hot Wheels and more.
See more about the Petersen Automotive Museum here – https://www.petersen.org/
Skoda Museum
The Skoda Museum is located in Mladá Boleslav in the Czech Republic. The museum shows Skoda’s 100-year automotive history, not just cars but also historic vehicles, bicycles and memorabilia. The rally Skoda 130 RS looks epic.
More information on the Skoda Museum here – https://museum.skoda-auto.com/
Toyota Automobile Museum
Some legendary cars live in the Toyota Automotive Museum in Nagakute, Japan. But not all the cars are Toyotas, in amongst the models you would expect to find are a few cars made by Toyota’s competitors and amazingly they are in the same museum quality finish.
See their website for more information – https://toyota-automobile-museum.jp/en/
Volvo Museum
Located in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Volvo Museum houses vehicles from the first ÖV 4 to more modern ‘bricks’ including an 850 T5R, a 262C and their racing models. Look out for the Lego XC-90. The commercial vehicles collection is impressive especially with a jet plane suspended above.
Visit the Volvo Museum website here – https://volvomuseum.com/en/
Lane Motor Museum
Located in Nashville, Tennessee is the home of the weirdest yet most wonderful cars in the Lane Motor Museum. Bikes and planes also feature in the collection, but the car take the show as even the most knowledgeable petrolhead will see something they have never seen before.
See their website here – https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/
Mullin Automotive Museum
The Mullin Automotive Museum located in Oxnard, California is the privately owned personal car collection of businessman and philanthropist Peter W. Mullin. The museum is full of some of the best Bugatti’s in the world. There is also plenty of art deco furniture and art within the museum too. Make sure you take a look at the Bugatti plane.
Visit their site here – https://mullinautomotivemuseum.com/
The Henry Ford Museum
The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan features history of their automobiles and even includes some hot rods and aeroplanes. There’s even railroad locomotives, wagons and rolling stock with track set into wooden parkay flooring. Its big too and should take sometime for you to walk round virtually from the comfort of your own home.
Visit The Henry Ford Museum website here – https://www.thehenryford.org/
LeMay – America’s Car Museum
‘Celebrating America’s love affair with the automobile’ is the museums tagline. LeMay – America’s Car Museum is a in the city of Tacoma, Washington. Many of the cars on display were donated to the museum by the family of Harold LeMay, hence the name. Although its celebrating American cars there are quite a few British cars in the collection, see if you can spot them over the four floors filled with classic cars.
Visit their website here – https://www.americascarmuseum.org/
There are obviously loads more to look at and other motoring themed places such as race circuits and car dealers to look at, but these should keep you busy. Thank you for visiting Petrolheadism’s list of virtual museums, please exit through the gift shop.