‘Most unusual cars ever made’ stored in private stash in Nashville not open to public
- There’s a collection of some of the most unusual cars ever made in Nashville
- The quirky vehicles are stashed in a private area beneath the Lane Motor Museum that isn’t open to the public
- It’s a real treasure trove of vehicles with some of the most bizarre cars you’ll ever see
Published on Jul 26, 2024 at 7:03 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jul 29, 2024 at 11:14 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
A collection featuring some of the ‘most unusual cars’ ever made is stashed away in Tennessee – and isn’t open to the public.
The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville is home to the ‘largest European automotive collection in the whole of the USA’.
“The vehicles date from the early 1900s all the way up to modern day and feature a varied collection of microcars, amphibious vehicles, military vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, prototypes, one-of-a-kind vehicles, and motorcycles,” the website explains.
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The museum has a private basement garage hidden underneath
Owned by Jeff Lane, the museum showcases 125 cars, and visitors are welcomed throughout the year to come and take a closer look.
However, Lane actually owns a lot more than 125 cars.
With limited display space at the museum, the rest of these vehicles are stashed away from the public eye.
“Because we have 550 cars in the collection and we can only display about 125 at a time, we rotate about 60 – 70 cars per year,” Lane explained to Barn Find Hunter’s Tom Cotter.
The cars that are stowed away in the basement garage beneath the display area are an eclectic mix.
The collection houses some of the most unusual cars ever made
Lane kicks off his tour of the unusual motors with a ⅔-scale Mini Cooper as well as a ‘shortened Mini’, that looks pretty adorable.
And if teeny cars are your thing, then Lane is also the proud owner of a 1963 King Midget Roadster microcar.
The fun-sized car is fitted with a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine which generates 10 horsepower and has a top speed of 40 mph.
Lane shows Cotter one of the rarest cars in the collection – a 1928 Martin Aerodynamic, which is one of just three that were ever made.
The car consists of a wooden-frame that is covered in aluminum; it’s powered by a rear-mounted, four-cylinder engine.
Lane owns other cars built by Martin Aircraft Company.
He also has a 1950 Stationette fitted with a four-cylinder engine and a 1930 Martinette with a windshield that can be rolled up or down.
See, we told you this was an unusual collection.
The collection is also home to other Martin vehicles.
Elsewhere in the treasure trove of quirky cars is an all-original, Czech-built Skoda Octavia from 1960, with fewer than 2500 miles on the clock, and a 1938 Citroën Traction Avant Gazogene, which is – unfathomably – coal-powered.
As collections go, we think you’d struggle to find one with more weird and wonderful motors than this.
Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Across her career she's covered a wide variety of topics, including celebrity, cryptocurrency, politics, true crime and just about everything in between.
