National US Auto Museum – Reno, NV (USA)

Unless you’re keen on gambling, there are not many reasons why you would want to go to Reno, a small town in Nevada, just over the state boundary, east of the scenic Lake Tahoe area. Unless you are an auto enthusiast, that is. In which case, this rather unremarkable town should be high on your list of places to visit, as here is where you will find what is now called the National US Auto Museum, but what is still widely known as the Harrah Collection. Bill Harrah was born in California, and from humble beginnings, running slot machines on the pier at Venice Beach, CA, built up a huge empire based around gambling. His name lives on in Reno, and in las Vegas. He spent some of his riches on assembling what ended up as an enormous collection of vintage and classic cars. By the time of his death in 1978, the Harrah Collection contained in excess of 1250 vehicles, which were crammed into a display area that made it almost impossible to appreciate the cars individually. After his death, his business empire was bought by the Holiday Inn Corporation. When they announced that they planned to sell the entire collection of cars, there was something of an outcry, and the Nevada State Governor helped a non-profit organisation to get set up and to take over a significant proportion of the cars. Many of the cars were sold, but in excess of 200 remained in the collection, and a new museum to display these was opened in 1989. Thus the heart of the collection remains available for enthusiasts to come and admire, in a purpose-built museum just across the street from the casino that bears its founder’s name.

There are four large display halls, interconnected by a series of “street scenes”, and although the main focus, of course, is on vehicles, there are plenty of other motoring artefacts, and some diorama recreations, all of which combine to make this a compelling place to visit, and one in which you easily spend many hours (I know, because I did!). Depicted below are just some of the cars that are currently on display.

From the various street scenes:

1913 Mercer Series J Type 35 Raceabout

1911 Pope-Hartford W 7 Passenger Touring

1929 Ford Model A

Ford Model T

1917 American La France Type 12 Fire Engine

1932 Lincoln KA Series Murray 4 Door Sedan

Replica of a 1935 Duesenburg SSJ, as owned by Sammy Davis Jr, this was created in 1971

1936 de Soto De Luxe Airstream Taxi

1938 Packard 1607 Convertible Coupe

1930 Jordan

1928 Ford Model A Sports Coupe

1959 Kenworth

1950 Packard 2300 Series Sedan

1955 Ford Thunderbird

1946 de Soto Sedan

1960 Chevrolet Corvair de Luxe

1969 Chevrolet Corvair Monza – one of the last of these “notorious” cars to be made

1966 Studebaker Wagonnaire

1959 Scimitar

1961 Ghia L6.4, a small number of these cars were made (and Corgi made a rather good model of the car, an example of which I have from my childhood). This one was owned by Frank Sinatra.

1962 Lincoln Continental, as owned by President John F Kennedy

1965 Ford Mustang 2 +2

1939 Custom Ford

1954 Lincoln Capri Custom Coupe that competed in the “Panamerica” race

From the hall comprised of the earliest cars, were these:

1902 Oldsmobile “Curved Dash”. After the Model T, these seem to be one of the most featured cars in every American Museum!

Early Cadillac, including the 1903 Cadillac Type A

1913 Peugeot “Bebe”

1913 Metz Type 22 Roadster

1910 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Tourer

1911 Ford Model T Runabout

From the hall of cars from the 1910s to the 1930s:

Ford Model A

1914 Fiat 56

Franklin

1921 Ford Model T “Kampcar”

1925 Franklin Series 11A Sport Runabout

1926 Chevrolet Superior Depot Runabout

1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. This is one of the US (Springfield, MA) made cars

1926 Ford Model TT Fire Pumper

1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom Cabriolet de Ville

1934 Morgan SuperSports

1937 Airomobile Experimental Sedan

Cord

1933 Studebaker 56 6 Passenger Sedan

1937 REO

1934 Chrysler Airflow

These cars were in a hall dedicated to cars from the movies, or those with a motor sport pedigree

1960 Flying Caduceus Streamliner Jet-powered car

1974 Dragster

1955 Ferrari 625A Race Car

1970 Plymouth Roadrunner SuperBird

Flat-nosed Porsche 911, as was the craze in the early 1980s

1977 Porsche 935 “Spirit of Nevada”

1955 Kurtis 500D Rotary Special Indianapolis Racer

1907 Thomas Flyer – competed in the New-York to Paris race

There was a hall dedicated to cars from the 1930s until the 1960s

1948 Tucker Torpedo

1961 Fiat 600 Type Y – very much a one-off styling exercise

1958 Edsel Citation 4 Door Hardtop

1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham

1955 Mercedes 300 SL “Gullwing”

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

1953 Hudson Super Jet Sedan

1952 All-State A230 Sedan – these cars were sold by mail order through the SEARs empire. The venture was not a success

1953 Studebaker Champion Starliner

1954 Kaiser Darrin 161 Sports Car. Notable for doors that did not open in the conventional way, but which slid into the bodywork

1953 Chevrolet Corvette, once owned by John Wayne

1956 Chrysler 300B

1957 Ford Fairlane Skyliner – proving the metal roofed convertible idea is not new. This was not a success, as the car was too costly.

1938 Phantom Corsair – designed by the son of the HJ Heinz dynasty, this dramatic looking one off was not really a viable proposition, as it was all but undriveable on the road.