A few weeks ago my business had a training event for our customers in Atlanta. We did a reception/dinner in the museum at the Porsche Experience Center, and it was really popular with our customers. Many of them are car enthusiasts, and it was a really unique and fun event. Some of them even took extra time away from the meeting and did a Porsche experience on their own dime.
We are planning to do more of these events, and would like to spread them around the U.S. I would love suggestions for cool automotive attractions in other major cities where we could do these types of activities. Ground rules: needs to be in a city with good airport access for out of towners; think major hubs like Chicago, Dallas, LA, if possible. Needs to be a nice spot for a corporate event, and have good hotel access close by. Anyone seen something cool that might fit these criteria?
Some for your list:
Lane Motor Museum in Nashville.
NASCAR museum in Charlotte.
Petersen museum in L.A.
Tom1200
SuperDork
4/23/21 3:31 p.m.
We have a couple of track driving experiences in Las Vegas but museums other than Shelby are a bit thin on the ground.
The Crawford Long Auto / Aviation Museum in Cleveland.
Tom1200 said:
We have a couple of track driving experiences in Las Vegas but museums other than Shelby are a bit thin on the ground.
I was at a auto museum in Vegas on the strip in 2014 or so, but can't recall the name. Mostly older cars
x2 Petersen in L.A.
Located between Chicago, Detroit and Grand Rapids is a little 90 acre chunk of land that houses the Gilmore Car Museum. Founder Donald Gilmore is the uncle to legendary racing entrepreneur Jim Gilmore, Jr.
It is a nice attraction that you can spend hours in soaking up the beauty and rich history of Kalamazoo and Michigan's Automotive automotive industry.
Duke
MegaDork
4/23/21 4:04 p.m.
Simeone Foundation Museum in Philadelphia. It's within a couple miles of the airport and downtown. Not sure about hours, though.
Alburn, IN. There are over 1/2 doz. museums in town and just south. Alburn, Cord,& Dusenburg is the major one. You can spend a couple of days there. I have also been to the National Packard museum in Warren, OH. The Studebaker Museum in South Bend, IN.
Barber museum near Birmingham Alabama.
Spring Mountain in Pahrump Nevada.
Both will blow your mind.
Bowling Green, KY- National Corvette Museum
Pittsburgh, PA-Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (1-2 weeks a year, car show and racing)
LA, CA- Porsche Experience West
Detroit The Henry Ford Museum.
Don't confuse this of being a museum about a guy who made cars. Instead, it is a museum of things a revolutionary car maker thought was interesting and notable about innovation and it has continued to add more and more.
Also happens to be just about 10 miles from Detroit Metro Airport.
Shadeux said:
Barber museum near Birmingham Alabama.
Spring Mountain in Pahrump Nevada.
Both will blow your mind.
Spring Mountain? The last time I was there, it was mostly notable for a brothel across the street from the track that had a smaller square footage than the billboard advertising it, and a shark tank in the casino. The track facilities were a fabric quonset-style hut.
It's been a while :)
Boulder, CO has a very cool Shelby museum but it's not for corporate shindigs.
World of Speed in Wilsonville, Oregon.
oh wait, the pandemic killed it.
Sigh, make sure the places you mention here are actually reopening. That may not always be the case :/
STM317
UberDork
4/23/21 7:27 p.m.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is 10 minutes from a highly rated airport, and about the same distance to the core of downtown Indy. The IMS museum is great as long as you like Indycar history. There's a golf course on the grounds as well if it's that kind of crowd. They do track tours/ride alongs as well. Dallara has a factory right across the street that is a pretty interesting tour as well. On the right evening, you can catch a ride around the streets in a 2 seat Indycar. There's an indoor karting place and a few decent casual restaurants on that block too.
America's Packard Museum in Dayton, OH.
Temporarily closed, but it's an awesome place.
http://www.americaspackardmuseum.com/
In reply to jimbbski :
Never been here but in the area and looks fascinating.
https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/
In reply to Duke :
Simeone Foundation Museum in Philadelphia. It's within a couple miles of the airport and downtown. Not sure about hours, though.
This. It appears to be open again (think it was closed all 2020 due to Covid), but no Demo Day schedule yet. Virtually every car has a race history (many significant), and virtually all of them run, and are run regularly. It's not fancy, but the cars are ridiculous.
I've only been once, on a demo day that included the hippie-liveried Porsche 917. So yes, the 917 ran. And then, coincidentally, their Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe (the first / original / only one built in US) arrived back from SEMA on a trailer just as the demos were ending. They backed it off the trailer, drove it back into the museum, and parked it up behind the 917. No ropes, no pedestal, just a couple of museum volunteers making sure you didn't try anything too stupid. Close enough that you could see the "terrible welds" of the Porsche. My buddy and I were sort of flabbergasted that we were just standing there between 2 cars worth, what, $50M combined?
Driven5
UltraDork
4/23/21 7:53 p.m.
Keith Tanner said:
Shadeux said:
Barber museum near Birmingham Alabama.
Spring Mountain in Pahrump Nevada.
Both will blow your mind.
Spring Mountain? The last time I was there, it was mostly notable for a brothel across the street from the track that had a smaller square footage than the billboard advertising it, and a shark tank in the casino. The track facilities were a fabric quonset-style hut.
It's been a while :)
Spring Mountain... It won't just blow your mind.
Not USA, but the Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwyn, Alberta. It's as close (in the opposite direction) to Edmonton airport as downtown Edmonton. Cars, farm equipment, construction equipment, the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, and rides in a biplane of some sort.
Wetaskywyn? Wetaskywin?
Simeone. Yusssss!
Peterson.... nooo... I mean, go check it out, but it sucks compared to the simeone if you are after "real".
I went to the Petersen to see a great museum and history. All of the cars had plaques that said something to the effect of: the 917 Porsche was a successful machine and won le mans. This is a reproduction that uses a different engine to look like the one that won le mans.
The simeone.... this car won le mans. Wanna get within 2 feet of it and smell the French dirt that is still on it because it hasn't been washed since it won? Go ahead!
Hey, that looks like a cobra daytona.... oh, that IS a cobra daytona... wait, it is one of 7.... it's still dirty from its last race? Damn! I thought it was a kitcar. Nope. It's real.
Bugatti type type 31 (or whatever that one that is the uber special pre war grand prix racer is ), yep, got that too...
And they drive them all around the parking lot like once a month. And you can go see it...
LeMay America's Car Museum in Tacoma, WA
When i reread the criteria in the original post... gotta say Barber in Birmingham. 5 miles to airport. Barber is to most race tracks like the Masters is to most golf courses.
Their staff can set up special things that involve the great track also..
