Drive Cars From the Lane Motor Museum Collection

Wanted to give a big thanks for bringing this to my attention. My wife snagged us a spot on for the afternoon drive on the 7th as a late birthday present for me. Having lived in Nashville pretty much all my life I feel ashamed to say I had never been to the museum ( I did go on a field trip to the building when it was a Sunbeam bakery as a kid), so I figured this would be as good a reason to get out there and see what cool cars they had there.

We got there an hour early to look around and see the cars on the floor. That was not nearly enough time, this place has got a little of everything, not just micro cars, though there are plenty of theose around. I ended up grabbing a yearly membership so I can come back anytime I feel like it.

So how was the drive and what did I drive? Well it was a close decision but I had to go with the SAAB, I've been looking off and on for a 96 V4 for myself so I figured if I never do find one for me, I can at least say I have driven one. The other real contenders were the Corvair wagon, and the MGB GT.

The drive was nice, it was in the upper 80's so a bit hot, but when we got going the air flowed good enough to keep us from boiling over. The car ran great, in fact it was way easier to drive than I thought it would be despite not having power steering or power brakes. Took me a bit to get used to the 4 on the column, but the clutch was in good shape and easy to engage. The V4 doesn't put out a lot of power but has a surprising amount of torque and would pull in the higher gears better than I expected for something with 60hp. It actually reminded me of the Gen1 Insight I had when it came to power. I could see daily driving one of these if it had some A/C.

We had a fairly light showing for the afternoon drive with only 4 other people, plus the Lane crew.

After the trip we got a tour of the basement and got to see all the cool stuff they have down there. They had just picked up a SAAB Sonnet III, another of my "would love to have" cars so I was thrilled ot see one up close finally.

I'll shut up now and let the pictures do the talking now. If you have the chance to do something liek this I highly reccomend it.

Awesome. The Lane truly is an awesome place staffed by some equally awesome people.

Awesome! What's the white car in the 12th pic?

I visited the Lane not too long ago and was impressed. These pictures confirm the rumors I've heard that a lot of the collection was driveable, which makes me happy.

dculberson wrote: Awesome! What's the white car in the 12th pic?

It's an Urba Centurion. Powered by a three cylinder Kabota diesel, was supposed to get 120+ MPG, they say it will only realistically get 60mpg though and is just a terrible car.Here's an article on it.

I'm weird in that I never could put the 'Williams' Clio above the '16V'. I wonder how far the drive is from D.C.? Off to look.

My Dad and I are going to drive this in October, can't wait.

Plus it once was owned by Brigitte Bardot, not too shabby.

t25torx wrote:

dculberson wrote: Awesome! What's the white car in the 12th pic?

It's an Urba Centurion. Powered by a three cylinder Kabota diesel, was supposed to get 120+ MPG, they say it will only realistically get 60mpg though and is just a terrible car.Here's an article on it.

Huh I thought it was a Bricklin SV-1 at first...very similar looking cars.

Aaron_King wrote: My Dad and I are going to drive this in October, can't wait. Plus it once was owned by Brigitte Bardot, not too shabby.

How long are you going to be in town for? I wouldn't mind getting together again for beer, hot chicken and car talk. I'm taking vacation and will be in east TN all that week but coming back on the 7th.

Already on my bucket list.