Revs Institute, Inc. — Attraction in Naples

If your a vintage race car enthusiast, Revs institute is a must see! Located in Naples,Fla. near the Naples airport, this is one of the best vintage race car museums in the USA, quite possibly the world. This is no exaggeration. My son and I visited Revs recently and had only planned to spend an hour and a half there, over three and a half hours later we were still walking around looking and talking with the staff! A truly unbeleveable collection of race cars. They have the largest collection of Porsche race cars in the world. According to the staff even larger than the Stuengard collection in Germany. From the earliest race cars, from a 1902 Mors type Z, 1908 Mors type Grand Prix to a 1951 Porsche 356SL Gmund, one of the first Porsche race cars. 1958 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce, 1933 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport,(what a classy car!), 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Le Mans, ( my great grandfather had the street version of this car, the taillight had a button you pushed and it came up to reveal the gas cap and filler.) There's a black and white pic of me at age 3 or 4 standing on the seat holding the steering wheel almost as big as me! All told they have 48 makes of cars, over 22 racing Porsche's ( from 1951 through 1971) alone. Odd makes like Abarth, BMR, Ballot, Cisialia, Delage, Mercer, Panhard at Levassor, Scarab, and Vauxhall. Also, popular models like Bentleys, BMW's, Ferrari's, Jaguar's, Maserati's, Peugeot's, and Rolls-royce. If this is not enough, the staff at the Rev's are truly some of the most knowledgeable people I have experienced in a museum type facility. Posted at every station, sometimes more than one, they are more than willing to answer any question you may have. Don't be shy, part of the reason we were there so long was talking to staff about cars. One of my favorite weird cars was the 1961 Citroen 2CV Sahara, that has twin horizontally-opposed two cylinder air cooled engines, 425 pcs, 12bhp at 5300 rpm. The engines can be run in tandem or separately for two or four wheel drive! How cool! No matter if your an expert or amateur car enthusiast a trip to the Rev's is well worth the trip! You have to get your tickets online at there website, because they only let so many people in each half hour. ADA accessible. If your in Naples,Fla., a trip to the Rev's institute is a must. Have your phone or camera with you, as you will be taking pictures. Thanks again to all the wonderful staff,as most...

Only open on some days of the week, this incredible collection of noteworthy and historically significant automobiles is a “must see” for not only “gear heads” but anyone with an interest on the influence of the automobile and society. Unlike virtually all automotive museums in the world, nearly every car here is started and driven on a regular basis. The collection, which is owned and managed by the ineluctable, and highly respected, Miles Collier. To say that Mr. Collier’s stewardship is obsessive would be a great understatement. Every car in the collection is as historically accurate as is humanely possible. Every working component is as original as possible, every shade of paint painstakingly researched and reproduced to perfection. The Collier objective is to show these cars as they were, back in their heyday, not to see if the car could be better painted, or outfitted better than it was originally

To see the REVS institute in full will take many, many pleasant hours, so we plan to return next year to absorb all we missed this time. Except for the factory, there is no finer collection of historically important Porsches in the world. Of equal significance, is the complete collection of Briggs Cunnigham’s cars, with the exception of the recently sold Gary Cooper model J Dusenberg.(check this spelling)

NOT...

Bestowing less than five stars on this collection would only reveal the reviewer's ignorance of the automobiles themselves - and by "themselves" I do mean THESE particular models and not the models at-large.

I had last visited this address some 15 years ago or so. At the time, it was the Collier Automotive Museum (I believe) and it appears the entirety of that collection is still here today. I've learned that a member of the Collier family bought Briggs Cunningham's sizable collection and so today we are presented with this two-story collection of historically significant autos.

Cary Cooper's own Duesenberg.

Enzo Ferrari's own Ferrari.

Hitler's own commissioned racer.

The oldest Ferrari in the U.S.

The last production car to win a 24 hours of Le Mans.

A beautiful Sahara-modified Citroën 2CV (my personal favorite).

And so many more (such as an 1896 Benz)

Every one of these are fully functional, licensed and road legal.

In Tallahassee, we have an automobile museum (DeVoe Moore's "Tallahassee Automobile Museum" and it's nice and all, but...)

Bottom line: if you're remotely enthusiastic about mechanized sports and automobiles themselves, you'll treat yourself well by coming here.

Buy tickets online. Apparently, there are no tickets sold...