Lane Motor Museum — Attraction in Nashville-Davidson

I’ve been employed just down the road from the Lane Motor Museum for a decade. After all that time, I FINALLY found a chilly afternoon devoid of plans to check this place off my bucket list. Just as most people say, it’s truly a hidden gem in Nashville and one of the most unique points of interest in the city.

But you don’t need to see another review about how cool this museum is. Others have made that clear. It would be far more beneficial to read about what you need to look for inside. So let this be your official checklist while walking around a spacious warehouse (although displays are subject to change).

There are some very old vehicles here, the oldest of which are the 1909 Renault Type AG Series 1, the 1923 Tatra T-11, the 1924 Citroën 5CV Trèfle, the 1927 Tatra T-12, the 1928 DKW Typ P, and the 1929 Austin 7. The Tatras are incredibly rare and manufactured a century ago in Czechoslovakia!

There are dozens of incredibly rare automobiles with fewer than 100 ever made! This includes 15 one-of-a-kind vehicles that only exist at the Lane Motor Museum and nowhere else in the world! Those would be a Wind Wagon, a Helicron, a Framo Piccolo, a Surlesmobile, a Erickson Special, a Castarede, a Citroën 2CV “Bichephale”, a Future, a Gregory Roadster, a Silva Week-end, a Grataloup, a Rocket Car, a Gyro-X, a Clifft Commutercycle, and my personal favorite the 1939 Fiat 508C Ballila 1100. Several of these can be found grouped together in the back left corner (from the perspective of the museum entrance), accompanied by their fascinating stories.

And finally, there are some absolutely stunning automobiles on display, most of these very rare, including a 1939 Peugeot 202 Berline Decouvrable, a 1951 Hotchkiss Grégoire, a 1955 MG TF 1500, a 1958 Tornado Typhoon, a 1962 Mazda R360, a 1963 Lotus Elite Type 14, a 1967 Morris Mini Traveller, a 1968 Fiat 850 Spider, a 1971 OTAS 820 Grand Prix, and a 1996 Tatra T700. And don’t miss their award winning yellow 1958 Auto Union 1000!

Also be aware that they have a massive U.S. military amphibious 959 LARC-LX the size of a small building! It’s been parked out back since its acquisition in 2004 and is visible from a corridor of motorcycles at the back left of the warehouse. Just follow the sign that says UNIQUE. There are a couple of newer cars such as Gene Lane’s 2014 Corvette and a 2020 Citroën Ami. And don’t forget to drive into the parking garage to see more...

This is a private nonprofit auto museum. It’s huge inside, and what I found interesting is many of the vehicles are one of a kind that were made by individuals and major auto manufacturers, but not sold in mass. They have more recent vehicles as well that are still in production today. They have done an expert job at arranging all of the vehicles so it’s easy to walk around them and browse. I understand that the basement houses hundreds more and they swap out the ones upstairs from time to time and rotate what they display. I hear from the gentleman at the desk that sometimes they give private tours that include the cars that are down in the basement. I’d love to come back and go through that tour.

What I found particularly interesting is that they don’t have ropes around the vehicles so you can get right up close to them. They just ask that you do not touch them. There is one of the vehicles that you can open up the door and get inside and have a photo op taken. Each of the vehicles also has a plaque next to it that describes in detail more about it. There is also a short film that you can watch just after you walk into the main museum floor.

One of the vehicles that I took a picture of is a gyroscope automobile. I had never seen one or even knew they existed. This one was found in really bad shape and was painstakingly restored by the museum and volunteers. I believe this may be the only one in existence. This is an all volunteer organization and they’ve done remarkable things With all of these vehicles. They also have a section just for motorcycles.

If you’d like to view cars that you never knew even existed or even suspected that some of these if not all of these vehicles could actually be driven on the street then you owe it to yourself to go visit this one of a kind museum. I’ve been to other automobile museums , but nothing like this!

They also have a gift shop with all sorts of cool automobile items, as well as T-shirts, and hats and such and it seems at reasonable prices as well. It’s worth buying something just to help fund future endeavors of this museum, my hats off to all the volunteers who have made a truly remarkable Showplace for cars and motorcycles. Oh, I believe they also have EV chargers in the garage as you drive in, so if you have an electric car, you can charge it while you’re...

I wanted to go here as part of my birthday trip to Nashville and it was even better than I imagined. I've never seen so many unusual vehicles in one place and the ability to walk completely around them with -no barriers-! They put their faith in your ability to act like a responsible adult and not touch the vehicles (so I hope some idiot doesn't change this!!). I have been to a few auto museums before and they were all roped off so this was incredible. They do offer one vehicle that you can actually get in to have your picture taken (an old Citroen) which is cool too. The admission is cheap for the quality and accessibility so we added the "vault" tour in the basement (only available on weekends) to see most of the remainder of the collection (the collection has over 500 vehicles!). While most of the collection is mainly foreign (European) autos (largest in the US) (some American too), they also have some motorcycles and small planes. FYI, the "vault" tour is an extra $10, lasts 45 minutes, and has an excellent tour guide. It's hard to say what was my favorite, but I enjoyed seeing first hand a Davis Divan (that I saw on Jay Leno's Garage), -very- rare, and the many mini cars (lol). My wife was able to show me a car just like she learned to drive on (an Austin Healey Sprite) and her dream car (an MGB GT) which was cool for me to be able to see. I also thought the blue Fiat 850 was totally sexy (I want one!). They even had an extremely rare Dymaxion which is one of the oddest vehicles around. The museum is housed in an old Sunbeam Bakery which is perfect with all of the naturally lit, open floor space and great use of a cool, historic building. Even if cars aren't really your thing, I think you'll find this museum is worth a visit. If you ARE into cars, you'll be spending hours checking these out. BTW - don't forget to check out the cars in the parking garage and the giant, amphibious LARC LX military...