The Franschhoek Motor Museum

Another one of the local attractions one saves for an appropriate visitor to the Cape Winelands is the Franschhoek Motor Museum. Vince had been holding out on visiting it by himself until his friend Ric came back to South Africa for our EPIC ROAD TRIP.

The museum is situated just outside the beautiful wine route village of Franschhoek and is housed in a series of very long Cape Dutch style warehouses at the foot of the Groot Drakenstein Mountains. The museum is located on the grounds of the L'Ormarins wine farm belonging to Dr. Johann Rupert, heir to one of the largest fortunes in the country.




Dr. Rupert opened the museum in 2012 with 220 vehicles he purchased lock, stock, and carburetor barrel from the old Heidelberg Motor Museum.  He combined the collection with his own personal collection and later on added the Bertie Bester and Greyvenstein collections along with other select lots to make a museum of well over 320 cars, carriages and motorbikes.

I'm no expert but it is quite an impressive collection. We've seen a few personal collections before, like Henry Clay Frick's Car and Carriage collection in Pittsburgh, but this was truly a Museum with a capital M.

a 1905 Mars Carette

a 1925 Bugatti

a 1911 Lorraine Dietrich

a 1938 BMW with leather engine strap

a bevy of Ford Model T's

a 1955 Jaguar

And because it is an automobile museum in Southern Africa, there was quite an extensive display on the cars and career of Rhodesia's favorite race car driver, John Love, six time  South African Formula One Champion in the 1960s.

 
He also won his home race, the Rhodesian Grand Prix six times in this baby.