Sunday, February 13, 2022

Motor Museum of WA, Whiteman Park


On Sunday 23rd January 2022 I made a quick visit to the Motor Museum of WA to check out the collection for the last time before the State Government's discriminatory restrictions excluded me from public life. I had loaned my Tatra to the museum temporarily and wanted to see how she looked. 

Among the newer exhibits, this 1954 Kaiser Manhattan is one of the most interesting. Kaiser was a huge industrial concern which made their name and fortune building Liberty ships during the Second World War. In 1946 they decided to take on the big auto manufacturers. They build interesting cars but gave up the market in 1954.

One of my all time favourites - the 1934 Desoto Airflow. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2016/03/1934-chrysler-airflow-first-modern-car.html

While the Ford company in the US was building massive cars covered in chrome trim, in Britain, this was all most people could afford. 1953 Ford Anglia.

Red Dog, Red Dust

1965 EH Holden. I used to own one of these. They are legendary car in Australia.

1958 Lloyd Hartnett. German austerity motoring for Australia.

Detroit Electric, formerly Percy Markham Collection

1898 Star, formerly Percy Markham Collection.

1899 Peugeot, formerly Percy Markham Collection and Morris Cowley Bullnose (but not Percy's. Percy's Morris Cowley is on display in the York Motor Museum - https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2019/06/york-motor-museum-visit-2019.html)

Like in the country is harsh

Ford Model T in St John's Ambulance livery

The courtyard between the two wings has been substantially redecorated since our last visit.

Wheels within a wheel...

The Ricciardo Hall features Daniel's Formula One Renault

And directly across from Daniel's race car, my 1952 Tatra T600 Tatraplan

She looks magnificent. More photos here: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2022/01/my-tatraplan-temporarily-on-display-at.html

I'm very pleased with the way they have displayed her.

A quite extraordinary example of 1980s excess - the 1988 Tiffany Classic

1945 Ford V8 Debonde Special. The 1945 Ford that was used a donor for this racer is completely unrecognizable.

1979 Mini Jem. A fibreglass bodied kit car conversion for a racing Mini

Triumph racer and Triumph TR2

The TR2 looks a little worse for wear but runs.

I was surprised to see this Berini M60 cyclemotor in the museum collection. I have recently picked up Berini cyclemotor and am slowly attempting to restore it. Annoyingly, after several weeks of effort I finally got the petrol cap off - it was gummed up with resinous petrol - and washing and filling the tank several times with thinners, the cap has reseized up again. Frustrating! https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2021/06/new-project-1954-berini-m13-and-bsa.html

My friend Perry's lovely 1951 Mercedes-Benz. As I've said before, this car is a year younger than my Tatra but looks like it belongs to a different era. Tatra came out with their ultra-modern streamliners in 1934 and would remain light years ahead of their competitors well into the 1950s. https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2020/09/tatras-streamliners-yesterdays-car-of.html

The Motor Museum of WA is at Whiteman Park and is open every day of the year. I'm not sure how long my Tatra will be on display there so if you're interested and want to see one of these rare cars 'in the flesh', pop over and check out the collection.