Classic shrine: Lane Motor Museum

By Michael Milne

| 1 Apr 2022

Classic & Sports Car – Classic shrine: Lane Motor Museum

If I were ever to write a story about the 10 most unusual vehicles I’ve come across in motor museums, at least half of those oddities are likely to be found at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

In a town that’s famous for its country-music singers and guitar slingers, the Lane is a world-class attraction in its own right.

With its ‘Unique Cars from A to Z’ mantra, there is a vehicle to represent almost every letter of the alphabet.

To give an idea of the breadth of the collection, the letter ‘S’ alone includes the following marques: Saab, Sabra, Schmitty, SEAB, Simca, Škoda, Smart, Steyr, Subaru and Suzuki.

This cute 1968 Honda S800 poses outside Lane Motor Museum in Nashville

The museum claims to offer the largest selection of European cars on American soil, but there is so much more.

National flags hanging from the rafters of the former Sunbeam commercial bread bakery designate areas for cars from the UK, Sweden, Japan, the USA, the former Czechoslovakia and more.

The main floor displays approximately 150 cars and motorcycles, chosen from a collection of more than 500 vehicles.

They are spaced apart so visitors can walk around and peer inside – no velvet ropes separate the cars from their fans.

Museum founder Jeff Lane restored this 1955 MG TF-1500 in his youth

This is a working museum. Car aficionado Jeff Lane, who founded the facility in 2002, tries to keep every machine in running order to preserve its unique heritage for future generations to enjoy.

He started working on cars at the age of eight, when he helped his father restore a 1955 MG TF-1500. This vehicle, in which he passed his driving test, is one of the first cars visitors see upon entering the museum.

Some of Lane’s other favourite cars from the British Isles include a 1970 Lotus Elan (familiar to any US fan of Emma Peel in The Avengers), a 1981 Caterham Super Seven and a 1965 Peel (no relation to Emma) Trident microcar built on the Isle of Man.

This 1968 Commer Imp Mk2 van is a long way from home

The tight confines of the bubble-top Trident can technically fit two people, but they will have to really get along.

Among the other unusual Brits are a 1922 ABC roadster plus three-wheelers including a 1933 BSA TW33-9 Special Sports and a 1959 Scootacar MkI.

The latter was powered by a Villiers 9E motor that produced 8.5bhp.

A vehicle that would be unusual to find nestled in a museum on either side of the Atlantic is the more prosaic 1968 Commer Imp delivery van, which was assembled in Scotland.

This 1958 Weidner Condor was a (too pricey) NSU Prinz rival

Lane has had a long fascination with the Czech-built Tatra marque.

“I was drawn to Tatras because of their advanced engineering,” he explains. “We have 20 in the collection, the largest group of Tatras in the USA.”

The 1947 T-87 makes visitors do a double-take, with its Tucker-style features including a sleek aerodynamic body, triple headlights and an air-cooled, rear-mounted engine that predated Preston Tucker’s famous failure.

Here a rare Ihle custom body sits on a 1929 BMW Dixi chassis

A banner hanging from the rafters declares ‘Electric Cars, Always the Car of the Future’.

Several electric pioneers are here, including a 1959 Henney Kilowatt.

These oddities, based on specially ordered Renault Dauphines that were delivered without powertrains, were built by a US-based consortium that included the Henney Motor Company.

One of only two built, you can see this graceful 1950 Iota 350 Sport at Lane Motor Museum

The one-off Jupiter rocket car was born out of the 1960s southern California hot-rod ‘Kustom Kulture’.

It was built in 1961 by the legendary custom fabricator Kenny Howard, who went by the nom de plume Von Dutch.

It was cleverly constructed out of an 120-gallon aluminium belly tank from a US Air Force F-86 Sabre jet fighter.

Despite its fancy space-age moniker, the open-topped two-seater is powered by a more down-to-earth 74cu in Harley-Davidson flathead air-cooled V-twin ’bike engine.

This 1961 Jupiter Rocket Car was built for use in a movie

Throughout the year, vehicles are rotated in four special exhibits.

At the time of writing, the current installation, which runs until 30 May 2022, is ‘Wingless Wonders – Propellor Drive Vehicles That Never Took Off’.

One of the highlights is the steampunk-looking 1932 Helicron from France. A large propeller is attached to the front of this one-of-a-kind, rear-steered wooden wonder that was found in a barn in 2000

After its restoration, the car passed French safety inspections with a non-original, air-cooled Citroën GS engine and is now roadworthy, but, despite the propeller, it won’t get airborne.

The dramatic-looking Helicron steers from the rear to allow prop clearance

The other regular displays include ‘Stretch to Fit: Fabric-Covered Cars’, ‘A Recipe For Speed: Open Wheel Racing’ and ‘Oil & Water: Vehicles on the Open Road and Open Water’.

The latter exhibit is a nostalgic tribute to amphibious machines, and there are nine examples in the collection.

The 1964 Amphicar is probably the most mainstream among the swimmers in an eclectic group that includes a 1987 LuAZ 967M Soviet Army vehicle – whose driver could steer from a prone position in case they were under fire – and an amphibious 1978 Citroën 2CV.

Here you can see a 1931 Aero 18 (on the left) beside an Omega Alpha electric car

But the strangest fish here is the 1961 Chevrolet Corphibian.

Engineers Richard Hulten and Roger Holm fabricated the floating prototype out of a Chevy Corvair Loadside pick-up, with the regular Corvair’s rear-mounted air-cooled engine driving the twin propellers.

They tagged the car as a Chevrolet, but the company wasn’t interested; this is the last remnant of a unique idea.

This 1950 Martin Stationette was conceived as a budget commuter and had no shock absorbers, axles or propshaft – it failed to take off

Other oddities include a 1951 Hoffmann, a three-wheeled German contraption derived from hardware store and junkyard parts.

With its wide nose and rear-wheel steering, it defied any expectations of safety and was, fortunately, not manufactured in any significant quantity. Its restorer likens driving it to: “A drunk leaving a hotel bar.”

The open-topped 1958 SMZ S3A Invalidka car from Russia, meanwhile, was available through the government social care system to veterans who had been injured during the Second World War.

With so much to see at Lane Motor Museum, you really are spoilt for choice

An additional 200 or so vehicles are to be found downstairs, where guided Vault Tours are offered most weekends.

Capacity for these is limited, so it’s best to check ahead for the schedule if that’s what you’re coming to see. Vintage diagnostic testing equipment lines the walls to round out the collection.

The museum is very child-friendly, with a large play area chock-full of toy cars – which may come in handy, because you could be here for a while.

Images: Larissa Milne

The knowledge

Name Lane Motor Museum
Address 702 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville, TN 37210, USA
Where Just off Interstate 24, south-east of central Nashville
How much? Adults (aged 18-64) $12, OAPs (65+) $8, children (6-17) $3, under 6s free
Opening hours Monday and Thursday to Sunday, 10am-5pm. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Tel 001 615 742 7445
Web lanemotormuseum.org