Revs Institute - Naples

If you are within striking distance to Naples FL take time to visit The Revs Institute. The Collier collection is amazing and a true representation of automotive history. One of the largest archival collections in the world.

 

View their web site for times and tickets - you can't just show up, but we learned you can call last minute to check for availability. It's the only museum I've been to requiring an appointment! https://revsinstitute.org/

 

We did the tour sans docent. There are docents in every gallery that will answer questions - or you can opt for a formal tour. We wanted to see it at our own pace (and glad we did). Plan on at least two hours but you could easily double that or more depending on interest and limiting factors.

 

Posting Porsche gallery first but more pics to follow. The upload process (one at a time) is slow.

 

Cool example of a one candlepower headlamp. Probably cutting edge for the time.

That definitely looks worth a trip! Thanks for sharing

Many of the cars have license plates, and we were told they are driven often - sometimes monthly. There is a full shop on site where they can fabricate parts and do all sorts of repairs. The shop isn't open for tours but there is an entry door with a small window where you can look in and see.

 

The only Lamborghini on display was in the shop. I asked about it - and was told it's Mrs. Collier's car that she likes to drive every so often. Some of the cars are lent for display at events and other museums. We noticed a few blank displays. I also recognized a couple race cars from Rennsport Reunion in Sept at Laguna Seca.

 

Enzo Ferrari's personal car was on display next to Mrs. Collier's "missing" lambo. His car is stunning - the photo won't do justice to the paint. Cool that Mr. Ferrari's personal car was not red.

 

Mr. Enzo Ferrari's personal daily driver:

 

 

Peeking into the shop. You can just see the nose of Mrs. Collier's 350GT to the right of the red rolling tool chest in about the center of the photo. When restored it was painted black.

 

Some random cool cars:

This French made Delahaye was spectaclar!

 

 

This Alpha had true presence:

 

Race cars:

 

I placed my foot in lower right to give scale to this HUGE slick!

 

This Caddy wins my personal FUGLY award:

 

more random race cars (and I apologize for the iphone photo quality)

 

The Bugatti pictured was completely dissembled and hidden on a farm to keep it from being confiscated by Nazi soldiers. Parts were hidden under hay bales and in corners. The Nazis would have taken the car but weren't interested in bits and pieces. The parts were discovered in 2006 after three quarters of a century. The car was completely re-assembled and runs great. It's only missing three pieces. What an amazing "barn" find!

 

 

Heavy metal in that collection....

 

Nice cake! I will have to check it out when I venture over to the other coast.

Awesome! thanks for sharing!

Great post Cake, thanks for sharing! Some amazing machinery on display.

Seems like an awesome place to visit. Thanks for sharing Cake. How long would it take to go through the entire exhibit please?

I was there last year-totally worth the visit. We did the docent tour. Our guide basically just read from a script and dragged things along over almost 4+ hours. The guides are primarily volunteer retirees and I don't think that they add too much to the experience. The museum can comfortably be seen in 2 1/2 hours without a guide.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. It's my pleasure to share something as special as this museum.

 

For those not familiar - Miles Collier was one of the sons of Barron Collier. The Collier family are significant land owners (hence Collier County FL). I don't know much about them but looked them up on wiki. Here's a link, and the last paragraph sums up nicely some of the influence the Collier family had on road racing including the formation of what became SCCA, and the founding of Watkins Glen.

 

For more read the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barron_Collier

 

The family members participated in many sports, including motorsports, and especially road racing, which led to the sons Miles and Sam founding the Automobile Racing Club of America in 1933, which became the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in 1944. Miles, Cameron Argetsinger, and Briggs Cunningham were instrumental in founding Watkins Glen near one of their summer retreats. Juliet worried about the risks of racing and tried to influence her sons against it. However, Sam died in a racing accident. The renowned automobile collection of Briggs Cunningham was purchased by a member of the Collier family and is now part of the Revs Institute for Automotive Research in Naples, Florida and is open to the public.

 

Seems like an awesome place to visit. Thanks for sharing Cake. How long would it take to go through the entire exhibit please?

If you really want to breeze through I'd say an hour, maybe less. If you take the time to read every placard and watch every video on various monitors it could easily take 3 hours. We stayed almost 3 hours and I still could have spent more time but hubby has mobility issues and had already spent more time than he should. We might return for a second visit. To just go through the galleries could probably be finished in well under an hour if you didn't stop to read anything to look closely at the cars (but how can anyone NOT stop in that place).

 

The docents were everywhere and ready to answer questions. We were there on a somewhat slow day so they were looking for people to talk to (I think they might have been bored).

 

I asked if they ever need drivers to move the cars to the shop or help "stretch their legs" on the road! I figured I could volunteer! I was told there are 140 volunteers and they would all LOVE to have that job so I'd have to get in line behind all of them. But they do have a program for volunteers called "Adopt a Car". If you choose to do this (as a volunteer) you can ride in the car whenever it's being driven - which would be very cool. I don't know the volunteer requirements and didn't ask further since I'm not in a position to spend that much time there.

 

We bought tickets last minute on line - the morning of our visit. I believe it's only open Tue, Thur and Sat. You'll see when you visit the web site.

 

There was a c0rv3tt3 clubin attendance the day we were there. It would be a cool car club destination after a nice ride, and then find a nice lunch spot in Naples. Plenty of parking although some was on grass but it was a level, dry field.

 

 

I was there last year-totally worth the visit. We did the docent tour. Our guide basically just read from a script and dragged things along over almost 4+ hours. The guides are primarily volunteer retirees and I don't think that they add too much to the experience. The museum can comfortably be seen in 2 1/2 hours without a guide.

Good to know! We wanted to do it at our own pace (and with hubby's issues we didn't know how long he'd want to stay). With all the docents in every gallery available to answer questions we were glad we did the unguided tour.

 

We were told some of the docents are retired racers with quite a bit of knowledge and experience.

 

If you don't opt for the guided tour - upon starting your tour you'll get a summary from a docent in the lobby who sits by a map of the galleries. He explained how they recommend going through the museum and what you find in each gallery. We followed their suggestion and it was great. In addition there are seats here and there if you want to take a break.

 

Because some of the exhibits rotate or are on loan, it can change from time to time. I expect if we return before the end of the month we may see a few different cars. I'm hoping the 350 GT would be back in it's spot (assuming Mrs. Collier is done taking it on errands)

awesome display!

Got to see the "missing" lamborghini today at Cars on Fifth.

Mrs. Collier's 350GT was stunning in person, and great to see out "in the wild" instead of in a museum (even though many of the cars are driven).

 

 

 

Also posted in Cars On Fifth thread started by Gilligan...

 

Great pictures, Cake!

 

Seems like a great tour.

 

One thing I must say.....that Porsche 917 motor is some serious hardware. Flat 12 of big displacement putting down that kind of power......love it!!

 

Lambo 350 GT looks awesome in the wild.