The National Automobile Museum

An early Steam Powered Carriage

The row of many Fiats and Renaults (and an Olds)

Yesterday we once again woke up to discover that Hailey and Mom were still not feeling well, so we (Dad, Julie, Griffin, and I) went somewhere they would not have liked, The National Automobile Museum. I think the fact thats it's the national museum made it pretty

the car that went to Paris

An early F1 car

cool. We went in and started on the third floor, as you are supposed to go from the top down. We started up in the area with early concepts of cars, one created by Leonardo Da Vinci. We worked through the early 1900s. In the section that had 1900-1909ish we saw lots of Fiats, Renaults, Citroens, and an Oldsmobile. We also saw a blue bullet shaped thing that hit about 65 mph in the early 1900s with just two electric motors. after that we saw a car that in 1908 and 1909 went form a mid-Aisian city to Paris! That was amazing in 1908. There is a picture of this car below the row of cars. After that we saw some 20s and some 30s cars, among them two Rolls-Royces. After that we saw a section about them movement toward more aerodynamical cars in the mid-late 30s. Then we saw a map of Turin on the floor, with a Fiat 500 in the corner with the Mole on top. We found our flat on the map. We saw a video about the war and the cars it produced, also, it told us about how the car became a symbol of hope. It produced the Beetle and Jeep. After that we learned about the postwar car boom in America, and how Europe struggled from the devastation. But they eventually recovered. We learned about the assembly line and saw an example of a fiat one. Also, we went through two rooms full of engines and wheels. We then saw a Fiat 500 completely covered in toy Fiat 500s, it was pretty cool. Then we got to the car art section. We saw fridges, stoves, toilets, sinks, clocks, beds, fireplaces, dishwashers, clotheswashers, food, couches, and some others. Essentially an entire household made from cars. Pretty awesome. Then we saw the sixties, two really cool Italian sports cars, and learned a lot about the Citroen DS 19, supposedly one of the most radical and influential cars of it's time, I did not realize just how significant it was until then. After that we saw an area filled with funny road signs (watch out for kiwi crossing) and then came to a Lancia Delta Integralé Rally car, beside a Fiat Punto touring car, they were both for some unknown reason behind bars. I have no idea why. After that we came to the Formula One section, we saw first pics of many famous drivers, then their cars, suits helmets, etc. It was awesome. We saw a dragster, and a Le Mans style Alfa Romeo, then the row of F1 cars, starting in the 50s and going to 2005. This was my favorite area of the whole museum. We then went to an area where in little glass boxes embedded in the wall, which showed there choices of cars fo the most or best of a certain thing (fastest, best designed, most versatile, best Bond car, etc.). It was really cool. After that we went to an area in honor of a particular designer, I can't remember his name. After that we saw an area that showed different designers and what they use for inspiration, what they think is the greatest invention ever, their biggest success, and the car they wished they had designed (8 of 10 said Citroen DS 19). Then we saw the gift shop (many tempting Ferrari things, stupidly expensive of course). When we left the museum we went to Eataly for lunch and had a tasty ham and perschutto pizza. We brought home some stuff from their grocery and headed out. We went through the shopping mall next store, which is inside the building that has a fiat test track on the roof. We came out of the shopping mall and went back into the subway to head home (by now it was 3:30ish). We got some gelato on our way home from the metro station and had a good evening. I'll post again soon.