Fordtopia: Adelaide National Motor Museum

On Saturday the 4th October I went to the National Motor Museum while in Adelaide over the Labour Day long weekend.

It is located in Birdwood a rural town just out of Adelaide main city, North East and approximately 55 mins from CBD. It is $12 to get in which I though was a little pricey considering its location.

http://nationalmotormuseum.com.au/

I would recommend tying it in with a day trip in the area as there are a lot of small towns and vineyards in the vicinity.

The museum itself is large over a couple of pavilions I went through it quite quickly in about 1-2 hours, and there is also other out buildings within the area used for other events that you can hire out etc.

The museum is located in a historic small town of Birdwood and besides the motor museum has a small supermarket, primary and high school, a few delicatessens and antique shops, and a number of churches that have formed part of the history of the town. The museum itself backs onto the historic Peerless Roller Mill.

We stopped for lunch here as well, as there were a few good bakeries, at 4 Shannon St there was an old local family bakery that had relocated into the shop. And they had a roast chicken pie to die for!

Also there was another coffee shop in a more historic building located at 16 Shannon Street that looked good as well.

The museum had well presented displays and as the brochure says "You dont have to be an enthusiast to appreciate Australia's biggest motoring collection of more than 300 vintage , veteran , post war, classic and modern cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles."

The first large pavilion was largely themed with historic cars that time warped you from pre-war days through to current day. There was a relocated gas station placed within the pavilion and also a old 1940s sedan that had costumes nearby to dress up with and take vintage photos in.

This was a 1928 Regent service station that was saved from wreckors and relocated within the museum, its a prefabricated building brought from the USA and was sitting on the Anzac Highway and South Road in Adelaide.

The pavilion was modern and spotlessly clean.

Once you had ventured through the first pavilion the next pavilion was more 1950's-1990 cars that were grouped together mainly by the make. There was a good collection with some barely driven early Holden's etc that looked like they had nearly seen the black stuff.

The museum also normally hosts 2 major events. The Rock & roll rendezvous and the finish of the iconic Bay to Birdwood car run which is the largest of its kind in the world.

http://motor.history.sa.gov.au/events/rock-n-roll-rendezvous

http://www.weekendnotes.com/rock-roll-rendezvous/

http://nationalmotormuseum.com.au/content/bay-birdwood

http://www.baytobirdwood.com.au/events/bay-to-birdwood-classic

I would definitely recommend making the journey out to visit the museum, its also worthwhile as mentioned earlier making the most of the day by visiting the surrounding areas. Hahndorf & Mt Loftus etc are all within a small traveling distance.

Mt Loftus Lookout and Botanical gardens

Nearby small town of Williamstown

Kingswood and Holdern Caprice spotted on the way out to the museum. Just out of Williamstown

See below for a few snaps of the museum cars:

Leyland mini 1275 LS

Holden Monaro

Landrover note the sliding door and the roof numbering.

This Model A was sitting alongside the relocated 1928 Regent service station it was on a car lift so you could have a look under.

A very early 'favourite' motorbike I took this photo as I thought the belt looked interesting being constructed out of canvas or rubber.

This was an Australian "Favourite"motorcycle built between 1914 and 1921. It was generally built up from UK parts imported and assembled in South Australia.

1933 Ford Ute

This was Mrs Holdens's Holden, body number 175 earliest known surviving example. 1948 it was originally driven by Prudence Holden. Her husband James was a cousin to Sir Edward Holden and was Director of Manufacturing at the Woodville plant.

A small selection of historic souvenir's and stories that were displayed in the early years pavilion.

Ford falcon with some of the era modifications. Wheels engine upgrades / suspension. De-badged etc

Early drag car looked like a 6 cylinder holden 202 engine

1980 VC Commodore

Toyota FJ Landcruiser

1942 Ford Ute

Chrysler Valiant

1962 105E Ford Anglia

1966 Ford XR Falcon 500it was the first Australian built falcon to offer a V8 engine and in 1967the first GT option was released.

1963 Lightburn, Adelaide designed and fiibreglas s car. aircooled 324cc engine, 2 stroke twin cylinder

A few historic trucks that were beautifully restored.

This is a bad photo but its the first time I have ever seen one of these in NZ or Australia its a 1964 Toyota Tiara RT20 Sedan

Mini station wagon

Some engines on display as well.

1960 Goggomobil Dart built and designed by Buckle Motors in NSW. The running gear and chassis was imported from Germany, the engine was a twin cylinder 392cc two stroke and air cooled.

General shot of the row of cars on display

1971 Chrysler E38 Valiant Charger body number 27, this is one of the 4 chargers raced by the Chrysler works in 1971. At bathursts it placed 2nd in its class and at Phillip Island crashed and was out of the race. The car was rebuilt but not raced again.

1979 Holden WB Kingswood prototype, with H series body

Holden Torana

A few of the historic cars on display

1976 Holden HK Sandman Panelvan

An ex Holden television delivery van that was customized in 1980 in period modifications

Early Holden Special

Leyland

Holden Kingswood

1960 Ford XK Falcon

1976 Porsche 911

Nissan / Datsun 240z

1976 TD Cortina Mk3, over in Australia they offered the falcon 4.1 litre straight six units, as well as all the other UK variants

HDT Commodore VC Peter Brock special edition, it basically was the precursor for the Holden Dealer Team modified commodores.

This is a very special car its one of 11 1988 Gioncattion Group B Coupe's, that Queenslander Paul Hanstead modified, it orinally started life as a alfa sprint GTV's and was then fitted then with a five-litre Walkinshaw-spec Holden Commodore V8 Group A engine.V8 mid mounted and modified the rest of the car to work with this engine including transaxle and widebody kit etc. They originally tried originally transplanting Alfa V6 engines into the Sprint but they were replaced with the Holden V8s because they were too expensive. They binned much of the body work and replaced it with flared guards and a bonnet made of expensive, lightweight and bulletproof kevlar.
The suspension was reworked, Simmons wheels fitted and the interior was decked out with VDO instruments, a Momo steering wheel and hand-stitched Recaro racing seats.