Dating to 1948, this car was produced by Lancia and was designed with the assistance of a wind tunnel. The car was made between 1937 and 1949, so this is one of the later versions of the model. Lancia was later taken over by Fiat and I note that in an auction a car similar to this was listed at over £30,000. That seems a lot of money to me for an old car, but then again I’m not a car collector.
This car was on display at Turin’s National Automobile Museum and was interesting in itself to see how the air bags had deployed and how the car was damaged. It was also surprising (to me anyway) as the car, which had an open window, still had that new car smell.
Part of the collection in Turin’s National Automobile Museum, this is a Brixia Zust, made in the Brescia region of Italy. It’s the 10 HP model made in 1908, with the manufacturer trading being 1906 and 1912 and eventually becoming part of Officine Meccaniche, which later became part of Iveco.
I’m not that engaged by cars and so visiting the national automobile museum didn’t overly excite me, and I had envisaged it being quite a brief visit. However, it’s a substantial museum and I was there for much longer than I had initially anticipated.
The start of the museum tour starts with a reminder of from where this all began, horse drawn carriages. The carriages evolved into having engines and then the carriage design changed over the decades into the modern day car.
I’ll post about individuals cars on another occasion, as there were so many historic vehicles in the collection. However, of note was the excellent way that information was displayed. There were panels by each car giving information about it, with the additional option of QR codes for visitors who wanted more detail. This worked smoothly and gave me all the information that I wanted without initially being overly complex.
Highlighting the need for cars to be more environmentally friendly.
The downside of cars, they end up like this.
There was a substantial collection of F1 cars and behind was a large video screen displaying an impressive animation.
An individual F1 car.
I know a driver like this.
Visitors could walk on this map of Turin, with automobile related sites pointed out.
As well as the restored cars, some of which I thought were perhaps over-restored and lost their originality, there were some car frames (or whatever they’re called) on the wall which showed the inner workings of the car.
Overall, I thought that this was a really well put together museum with plenty to interest those who aren’t necessarily that obsessed with automobile history. We can’t all be aware of when sunroofs were first placed into Skodas and I’m pleased that the museum aimed at a wider audience. Looking through some of the reviews, there were a not inconsiderable number of people saying the same, they had low expectations as they weren’t that engaged in cars, but left feeling that the museum had worked for them.
There was a strong focus on Fiat vehicles in the museum, but since Turin is their home, that’s not surprising. And I liked just how many early vehicles there were on display with some rare cars in the collection. I was also surprised at how many people kept stroking the cars, even though signs said not to touch them, which must be a constant irritation for the museum ensuring that they’re all cleaned regularly.
The museum was also well signposted and I only went the wrong way once, which is definitely on the low side for me. The staff were all helpful, but mostly looked a bit bored wandering around the museum looking at their phones, but they were visible if anyone wanted help. It wasn’t that busy during my visit which also made it a pleasant environment not having to wait to look at any individual item. Overall though, this is one of the best museums I’ve visited in terms of the visitor experience, so all rather lovely.
