The Lane Motor Museum–Nashville

This is the second half of our trip to the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, TN.  In the first part we explored the parking garage and the automotive treasures that are on display there.  This installment we will be exploring the cars inside the museum itself and focus on the micro car exhibit that will be at the museum until sometime in May of this year. 

Greeting us as we stepped through the entrance was a 2013 Peel Trident:

It was manufactured by Peel Engineering as an updated version of the Peel Trident manufactured and sold back in the 1960s.  A gentleman by the name of Cyril Cannell started the original Peel Engineering on the Isle of Man back then.  He was fascinated with fiberglass as a construction material and his little company designed and manufactured two micro cars, the Peel P-50 and the Peel Trident.  The P-50 being the smallest production car ever produced and the Trident the smallest 2-seater.

The P-50

Red seems to be a popular color with micro cars.  Perhaps for safety reasons.

Above is a 1953 Rovin D4.  Rovin developed motorcycles and motor cars in the 1920s and after WW II he was encouraged by the French government to produce vehicles that were affordable to own and maintain.

Even though it clearly was low priced and easy to maintain it managed to be a beautiful car that didn’t look cheap.  The rear view mirror just sparkles with class.

Above is the 1938 Tatra T-97 a Czechoslovakian beauty.  It was rear wheel drive, rear engine with 40 bhp and had a top speed of 80 mph.

Above is a 1958 Tatra T-603

This is a 1996 Tatra T-700

Above is the 1939 JAWA 600. Franisek Janecek was an arms manufacturer during WW I that switched to motorcycles and cars afterwards.  JaWa was from the first two letters of his last name that the first two letters of the motor manufacturer, Wanderer.

If you ever saw the movie Brazil you might recall this car:

It is a 1957 Messerschmitt KR200 manufactured at the same post-war factory that made the famous German fighter planes of WW II.  It had a top speed of about 50 mph and could seat three for about half the price of a VW.

The red pickup truck on the left is a Subaru

It is a 1970, left-hand drive model. 

Above is a 1962 Berkley T-260, a very popular three wheeler from England.

This is a 1967 Toyota Sports 800.  It was a very sporty version indeed coming in at less than 1300 pounds and having a40 hp two-cylinder air-cooled engine.

Above is a 1991 Honda Beat with a 64 hp 3-cylinder engine it could top out at over 80 mph.

Take a close look at this Citroen.

 

Yes, it is a double car.  Designed as a fire department car that could go in either direction so that it would not get stuck on a narrow road where it could not turn around.

A racing BMW – 1962 Shirdlu weighing 635 pounds and boasting a hot-rodded 750cc BMW engine.

The 1977 Urba

and now for the fastest red car on display

The 2015 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo with a twin-turbo 3 liter V-6 KERS power plant (hybrid) it was built to compete at LeMans.

 

As my sharp-eyed readers can tell not all the cars on display were red.  But with photos of hundreds of fascinating vehicles on display I had to limit just how many I could share with you.  Please make it a point to see this amazing place yourself and enjoy them all.  I certainly did.