MOTORCYCLES AND LOTUS RACE CARS AGAIN!!

BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA

 OH NO!! 

This was my second visit to the Barber Motorsports museum and this is not the full blog I have planned! George Barber has a great sense of humor, but be clear he is very serious about what happens here!

 The museum is impressive with about 750 motorcycles on display, but there are at least that many in the wings and Mr. Barber is about to break ground on a second building to bring out the rest of the 2 wheelers! 

I had a down day in the area and decided to take the docent guided behind the scenes tour which included a first hand look downstairs in the restoration shop areas.
OH YES NO NEED TO ASK TWICE TO SEE THE BASEMENT!

 This is not open as a regular visitation area

 Hey some neat stuff down there huh? 

Without the guided tour this is what you see from above!

A full restoration shop is very high tech and spotless!

 This actually is primarily a motorcycle museum, but also the largest collection of Lotus race cars in the world!

Last week CARHUNTER brought you the recently ended Lotus exhibit at the AACA museum and great segway into this weeks blog!

 Motus Motorcycles are built in the old location of the Barber Motorcycle museum which obviously was quickly outgrown! First V4 American Motorcycle

We started  with motorbikes in the AACA so lets lets just tip in quickly

Motorcycles as far as the eye can see reaching into the heavens!

 Like I said not ready for the full Museum blog yet,just a 2 wheel tease!

It was a Lotus filled week!

Love the Lotus logo ID emblems on the floor! 

A full scale 1:1 model kit Lotus

Mario Andretti campaigned a Turbine powered one, but this is all Ford/Lotus power

Look at that chassis

Some of these were replicas and it stated that clearly

Did you know Dan Gurney was from Long Island NY?

This may have worked? It is now a long running joke, Gurney was asked to run when he was actually still too young so it's a running gag 

I guess if you can't find a real one build some replica bodies?

It is an AC - figure it out? Basis for the AC Cobra Shelby cars, did you know the car existed in a more tame version?

A 5 passenger family INDY racer, how cool is this?

A hint how this fortune was amassed! 

As previously mentioned this all kind of fell in place by accident, a departing Lotus exhibit at the AACA in Hershey on the way down south and down day in Alabama merged into twins separated at birth with two different mothers and 800+ miles apart! 

The AACA is gearing up for its next exhibit and I still have a full blog on the Barber Motorsports Museum in the wings, remember the new building is about break ground so in a few years I will have to stop in again!

Some museums you visit once and you can take it off the list, some you need to return again and again!