The newly opened Brumos Collection museum in Jacksonville,
Florida, is the beautiful remnants of a racing team, a dealership, and a
distributorship.
The Brumos Collection focuses on vintage Porsches, many of
them race cars, but also features an assortment of other vintage vehicles. The
collection has been famous for quite some time, but it was only viewable by invitation.
Now, the living history sits in a new 35,000-square-foot facility in
Jacksonville that is built to look like an old Ford plant that also stood in
the city. The Brumos Collection museum opened its doors for the first time on
Thursday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier in the week.
The history dates back to 1953 when Herbert Brundage
acquired the rights to the Volkswagen distributorship in the southeast. He then
began racing Porsches and opened a Porsche dealer, Brumos Porsche, in
Jacksonville. The dealership would be involved in racing for the next 50-plus
years. The team put up plenty of wins, too, thanks in part to legendary
racer Hurley
Haywood. The Brumos name became so synonymous with Porsche racing that
Porsche created a special throwback Brumos livery for two 911 RSRs it raced in
the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Brumos Porsche closed its doors in 2016, but the collection
of cars it had amassed remained locked away in a warehouse across the street.
Now those cars can be seen by the public.
Those who pay the $20 fee ($15 for children, seniors, and
military) will see an assortment of cars from the history of Porsche and
Porsche, as well as other cool European and American cars of the past. The
Porsches include the likes of a 1959 Porsche tractor, a
1967 910, a 1968 908, Steve
McQueen's 917K from the movie "Le Mans," a 1972 917-10, and
a 1986 962. Other treats include a 1920 Miller TNT, a 1925 Bugatti Type 35, a
1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Lungo Spider, a 1958 Watson sprint car, and Mark
Martin's 1992 Ford Thunderbird NASCAR stock car.
The museum promises such attractions as 22-seat movie
theater, interactive displays, and a research archive. It's also a working
shop, with a dyno and a machine shop.
The Brumos Collection will be open on Thursdays and Fridays
from 10 am to 3 pm. Buyers will have to get their tickets online, as the museum
does not allow walk-ups. You can get your tickets
here.
Until you can get to Jacksonville, review the gallery of
cars above. They're a living tribute to the history of Porsche and the
automobile itself.
by Joel Feder
http://www.boscheuropean.com
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