I’ve only lived in Nashville, Tennessee most of my life. But things going on here still escape me from time to time. Yes, they escape even me (eye roll).

Right now, I’m pretty pumped about a small motor museum that recently opened here in the Music City. If one may include five years ago as “recently”.

Lane Motor Museum is a small automotive museum located near downtown Nashville, Tennessee in the old Sunbeam bread bakery building. Their collection consists of 300 cars, mostly rare and unusual European automobiles. They claim to have the largest collection of Czech-built cars outside of Europe.

How did I miss this the past five years?

This rare find was featured in this article in the monthly publication sent by my local electric power cooperative. This is a magazine normally devoted to rural attractions around the state of Tennessee — local festivals and the like. On this month’s issue, I was shocked to see a Tatra on the cover!

Mr. Lane has a few old Saabs in his fleet — those will get the first look, of course. A 1960 Saab 93 Rally car, a customized 96 cabriolet, a 95 and an unmodified 96 V4 all made the cut.
(Sorry for the small size of the pics — that’s what’s posted on the site.)

Saabs aside, check out some of the other cool old iron that Mr. Lane has stashed away in his collection:

1973 Jensen Interceptor – One of my favorite English cars of all time.
1957 Messerschmidt KR200 – Iconic.
1936 Fiat 500 “Toppolino” – A car that defined Fiat much as the 93 or 95 defined Saab.
1932 Lancia Dilambda – 80 mph (125 kph) in 1932 was FAST.

Check the pics for a few more surprises (cars with propellers? for real?).

and, of course, that 1947 Tatra T-87 that made the cover. Sweet.

I’ll be visiting in the next couple of months, and I’m bringing my camera. Stay tuned.