With a wide range of cars and motorbikes that you would rarely find in the United States, the Lane Motor Museum is a fascinating attraction. It has grown from a personal collection of some 70 vehicles to a vast museum holding hundreds of cars, trucks and much more besides.
The museum today is housed in what was once a large bakery. Among the 300 vehicles in the collection, as many as 150 are on show at any given time, with exhibits being regularly rotated. If you've visited before, you may well find new pieces on display which have just been put on show. The vehicles in the museum are classified according to the country of origin, with most dating back to between the 1950s and the 1970s. Among the newest pieces, you can admire the Mercedes Smart Car, which dates back only to 2003.
Visit the museum and you'll find a quirky range of unusual vehicles, including microcars, three-wheelers, propeller-powered vehicles, amphibious crafts, snow racers, alternatively fuelled-cars, military vehicles and so much more.
Speedsters will particularly enjoy the 1975 Maserati Bora as well as the Caterham Blackbird. The smallest vehicle on show is the Peel P50, which holds the Guinness World Record for being the smallest, street-legal car in the world. At the other end of the scale, you can see a decommissioned U.S. Army amphibious landing vehicle, whose tyres alone rise to almost four metres tall. As many as 90 per cent of the pieces in the collection are in working order, and each one is regularly serviced.
If you're bringing youngsters, take them to the indoor play area complete with car-themed toys and driving games. Sometimes the museum sells its exhibits, so you could end up taking home more than you had planned!
Located five kilometres southwest of downtown Nashville on the Murfreesboro Pike, the Lane Motor Museum offers ample free parking. It is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.
