The event was held at Linnwood House, a historic house not far from Parramatta.  Linnwood house has four days per year where their open days have cars on display.   I’ve attended a few times as a spectator, mostly for British car shows like Rover and Rolls Royce.

One of the nice things about Linnwood house is the lovely shady grounds around the historic house.   They are quite large and there is a lot of room for the cars to park.    I like the relaxed nature of the day, where people can come and go as they please.  No overzealous security or mashalls here.

You can do tours of the historic house, although I’ve seen it before so didn’t.

As a nice day out, the event was a success.   We had a reasonable turn out of Mercedes-Benz models, and there were a number of interesting cars from the smaller American marques.   However, in meeting the original goal, the event probably wasn’t all that successful.   There were only two Mercedes-Benzs that I wasn’t familiar with on the day.    The first was a lovely 220SE coupe in two tone, with a beautiful red leather interior, factory Behr air conditioner and Becker Grand Prix.    The other one was a 2001 CL67 Brabus.  While I’m not normally interested in modern cars, the modifications and engineering in this car was quite interesting.   At the heart is a 6.7 liter V12.

From the American marques, my favourites were the Cord, which is an amazing art deco design, and the pre-war Packards.   Packards are such elegant cars and quite rare in Australia.

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This year the main displays were from Rover, Wolseley, Austin and various classic American marques.  The car of the day for me was a lovely 1937 Packard Super 8. These cars are hugely impressive in the flesh – pictures never do them justice.   There were a few other very nice classic American cars like a Chrysler Windsor and a lovely 50’s Cadillac convertible.

I was also keen to see the Rover display as I am a fan of the P5 model in particular.   There was a good selection of earlier cars, P4s, P6s and even SD1s, but only two P5s on the day.  That was a shame as in prior years there have been a great variety of models to choose from.

I drove there in the DS.  I didn’t display the car as I was not a member of any of the clubs participating, but I don’t think that would have mattered.   I hope in future years even more car clubs attend the Linnwood house day.   There is loads of room and its a very nice car show.

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There are about 15 cars in the main museum, and other 10 in the restaurant.    There didn’t seem to be a particular them with the main museum collection, although they did have quite a few pre-war Fords.    Also in the collection was a ‘what if’ 1958 Edsel and some other American luxury products including a Pierce-Arrow.    Surprisingly there was a pre-war Alvis there too.

As with the Horton, this museum had the same Donald Trump mannequin.   Somebody must have been making some money selling these in Texas after the campaign.

I stopped for lunch at the grill and had a quite good burger.  It was quite busy so took a bit longer than I was hoping – I had another museum to get to!

The cars behind the restaurant had more of a Celebrity/movie theme.    There was LBJ’s car, as well as a bunch of movie cars, including a Packard used in The Godfather.   Off to the side was a Trabant, which seemed somewhat out of place.

Overall the museum was worth a stop along the way on the tour although it didn’t have the wow factor of the Horton.

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The highlight of the Horton classic car museum is the Corvette collection.   The museum has an example (and sometimes multiple) of practically every model year from 1953 to 1973.   They also have a couple of pace cars of the later years.

I’m only somewhat familiar with Corvettes so it was nice to see the evolution of the model over the years.   They even  have some of the rare early Corvettes with the six cylinder engine right up to low production performance models from later year.

The Corvette always seemed to the the place GM innovated the most, perhaps with the exception of the Corvair.   Certainly the Corvette was first with tech like independent rear suspension, fuel injection, disk brakes and so on for GM.  it was also very competitively priced for what you got.    This is continued in the unveiling of the new C8 corvette with its mid-engined layout and dual clutch transmission, all for $60k USD.   GM even went to the extreme where restrictions were placed on other divisions so they didn’t compete with the Corvette.

I have tried to arrange the photos chronologically.  I have also photographed the descriptions for the Corvettes.

The tour starts with the C1.    My favorite C1’s have always been the 1956-1957 models.   I still have a 1:18 model of a 1957 in aqua with white coves.   Looks great.     By then the manual transmission was standard, and late 57’s could even have a four speed.   A two speed powerglide is not exactly appealing in a sports car.     The later C1s wih the dual headlights and more bling are not as appealing for me, but they do have more options available and are cheaper to buy.

The C2 is my favorite generation of Corvette, in particular the coupe.   While the split window is cool, I would go with one of the later cars.   I don’t think it’s worth the quite large price premium.    I’ve heard they are not great for tall drivers, but the reviews say that too about S1 E-types, and I fit fine.     The C2 was really the birth of the Corvette as a true sports car with IRS, disc brakes, more powerful engines and the performance options like the Z06.

The C3, based on the Mako shark inspired concept car, introduced the T-Top.   The Horton Classic car museum actually has the first T-Top car from 1968.    They also have examples of the C3 right until 1973.

The rest of the front two rooms are Chevrolet products, mostly with a performance spin.    You can tell the owner is a big fan of Chevy performance products from the 60s in particular.     Somewhat out of place is a Donald Trump mannequin..   Its not a particularly good likeness, you wouldn’t really know except for the red tie and red baseball cap.

The second room has a more varied collection.   There is still somewhat of a performance bent, but there is also some American luxury.    My favorites in this room are the two pre-war Packards.   I’m a big fan of these cars.     There is an early 30s dual cowl Phaeton and a Packard 12 club sedan.    Outside the really expensive open toped cars, the Club Sedan is the one you want as most of the four door cars are big limo bodies.

The Horton classic car museum was a great place to spend two hours and now it was time for the next stop on the North Texas car museum road trip, The vintage car museum in Weatherford.

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As well as the cars in this theme of American pre-war luxury there are also other really interesting models to see.   For example, there is a Tucker and next to it is an engine, which was originally a Helicopter engine.   There is a Chrysler Turbine car, a Mercedes-Benz 500K roadster, and much much more.

I would rank this museum up in the top car museums I have visited around the world, along with the Louwman and Peterson museums.   If you are ever in Michigan or Chicago, the Gilmore Museum is well worth a trip.

This website did not exist when I visited the museum.   Since it was now seven years ago, the collection may have changed somewhat, but I am sure it is still very impressive.

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Some of the highlights for me included:

• The matching pair of Bugatti Type 57S Atalante and other French luxury cars such as the Voisin.
• A striking Rolls Royce Phantom III.
• A number of Duesenbergs.
• The Tucker.
• Various American luxury cars including Packards, Pierce Arrrows etc.
• Mercedes 500K special roadster.

I would return in a heartbeat.    These are cars that are rarely seen at shows in America, let alone in Australia.     It was one of those shows where four hours was gone at the blink of an eyelid and there was still more to see.

I was actually hoping to drive my E-Type there (and park it in the parking lot).   It hadn’t quite arrived from Oregon, so I took the black 560SEC.

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