My car club recently visited this fairly new museum at Newcastle and I was absolutely stunned by the collection on view. All sorts of motoring 50s and 60s memorabilia and vehicles from a Batmobile to a fold up motor scooter, valued I was told, around $5,000,000 and everything from the good old USA, not an Aussie car or RHD in sight
From my point of view, just as well, for the $15 entry fee I’d have been disappointed to look at the usual line up of Holdens, Fords and Valiants. The museum is open by arrangement for groups, and it seems one day a month, there is a web site with some information, and our visit ended up on the open day after a postponement, so it was pretty busy with lots of extra cars in the parking lots.
Among all the gleaming chrome and paint of a great array of American cars there was one lonely caravan too, a 1954 Shasta Wanderer, which to my mind looks very modern compared to our 50s vans.
I’m not a fan of the way this one is decorated however, with all the beer and Coca Cola signage; I know some seem to like it though.
It is displayed with a station wagon tow vehicle and an array of period camping equipment, including a canoe and set of golf clubs.
I didn’t actually establish what the tow car was unfortunately, maybe I was distracted by the bikini clad mannequin, who was by far the best ‘equipped’ mannequin I’ve ever seen, and she certainly got some attention. (You don't have to scroll back up to check, I'm sure you noticed
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Outside was a Dodge Daystar motor home, one of only 6 in the world according to its sign, one of which was, or is owned by Doris Day.
Not overly large, but an interesting style of thing, it had wonderful marble sinks and brass taps in the kitchen, vanity and shower, and was open for inspection.
Tucked away in a corner outside was what appeared to be an old Carapark van, set up for some commercial enterprise it seemed?
It was very small and mounted on an old, modified car or truck chassis with a Westco 40cwt over ride coupling which operated the brakes with a rod set up instead of cables.
I was about to investigate further when a great unveiling took place, a massive stretch 57 Chev limo, and I never got back to it. I didn’t even get to peek inside to see what was there
The cars are magnificent and it would seem in many cases the top of the range for the particular model of the day, outfitted in many cases with California kits. I just loved the architecture and sculpture of most of the cars, they are amazing and really you need to take the time to look at the detail, and the interiors, I reckon today’s car designers wouldn’t know where to start if they had to come up with something similar.
If there was a “Like” symbol on here then these couple of cars would get heaps from me.
Just check out the shape of the tail lights on that Dodge, fantastic
I'm looking forward to another visit and spending a lot more time checking out the finer details, its easy to overlook them, but if you visit, make sure you spend time to "smell the roses."
A lot of the cars are on 'club plates' so they get some use.
In the days when they ran on real petrol anyone of them 'could put more lead in you than Wyatt Earp on a mean day" to quote a now unknown motoring writer from years ago.
George
WOW !
MAURIE 
