When you think historic car museums of the world, South Africa isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind.
That’s the beauty of the Franschhoek Motor Museum in Cape Town. It’s truly a hidden gem amongst the world’s flashier car exhibitions and it stands the test of time on its own.
The Franschhoek Motor Museum does this by drawing upon its exclusive private collection of cars which pay homage to over 100 years of rich motoring history. And that’s only the half of it. The rare cars get rotated regularly in order to keep things fresh and exciting for unassuming patrons.
Inside the de-humidified 2,700m² space, guests are greeted with an assortment of exciting vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and memorabilia in the magnificent setting of L’Ormarins.
The collection focuses on specific categories including Antique (built before 31 December 1904), Veteran (built between 1 January 1905 and 31 December 1918), Vintage (built between 1 January 1919 and 31 December 1930), Post-Vintage (built between 1 January 1931 and 31 December 1945), Post-45 (built between 1 January 1946 and 31 December 1960) and Post-60 (built after 1 January 1961).
As you can probably tell, Franschhoek Motor Museum is all about tracing the evolution of the automobile. Its impressive portfolio is a collection which exceeds 220 vehicles and includes definitive makes such as Nelson Mandella’s 3.5 tonne Armour-plated BMW 7 Series, a 1936 540K Mercedes Benz which was given to the Egyptian King Farouk by Hitler, a Ford Model T and a few Ferraris like the 250 SWB Berlinetta, F40, F50 and Enzo.
Given that Franschhoek is renowned as Cape Town’s premiere wine county, we’d gladly add fine cars to that repertoire as well.
To find out more, head to Franschhoek Motor Museum.
Luc Wiesman was a guest of Rolls-Royce on a recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa
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