Race cars at the Simeone Museum

My hobby is hi-fi  and each year I volunteer at the desk selling tickets for the Capitol Audiofest near Washington. This year I met another volunteer who invited me to see the race cars at the Simeone Museum which is very close to Philly Airport. I had never heard of the place, but if you like cars, it is a WOW experience.

Probably true.

This is one of the few non-racing cars in the museum, but I suspect it as raced anyhow. It sits right behind the ticket seller at the entrance.

I am not even going to try to describe the cars since this is a long blog and there are well over a hundred cars in the big barn of a building. If you are particularly interested, go to the website and look for the description of the car.

Once a month, the museum members gather to hear a more in-depth explanation about four cars in the collection. Here is a 1958 Ferrari Testa Rossa.

A 1970 Plymouth Superbird.

A 1966 Ford GT-40.

A 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe and the only non restored version in the world.

The Museum was started by Fred Simeone, who is a neurosurgeon from Philadelphia. You can read more about how the museum started here. Unfortunately, I held the camera the wrong way. He gave a very interesting talk about each car, indicating why it was special and the history of the car itself.

After the talk, the cars are driven out to the three acre lot behind the building and you can watch them roar up and down. Here the Plymouth is driven off.  

Before the driving demo, we had time to see a few more cars.

All of these five cars won famous races. It's known as the 'Winners Circle'.

 

We then went outside to watch the four cars drive.

Yes, those are leather straps to hold the hood (bonnet) closed.

The engine block is painted red. It's beautiful.

Inside the GT-40. 

Engine in the rear.

I was amused by the labels for the switches.

The Plymouth engine looked just like any other big V8 engine from a standard American car fro the period. The car could do over 200 mph!

Ugly, compared to the Ferrari. But effective.

The Shelby Cobra had its radiator almost horizontal. The car was designed to minimize wind drag.

Inside the Shelby.

The Plymouth appeared to handle like a barge since it was designed to race on a circular track. The other cars looked to handle well. I suspect I would have liked to try the Ferrari. 

There was still another section of cars to see, any of which would be the pride and joy of most car museums.

 

 

It's an incredible museum that I suspect most car lovers don't know about. I urge you to visit.