I didn't know that the Detroit Historic Museum had an extensive car collection, the historic society has been collecting for 90 years

news story and video that is worth watching here: http://detnews.com/article/20110219/METRO01/102190368/Part-of-Detroit%E2%80%99s-history-kept-under-wraps

Part of the approximately 60 car collection are:

an 1870 Phaeton Carriage made for the worlds fair,
a 1963 Chrysler Turbine that would run on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, vegetable oil and even tequila
a 1911 Ford Model T keeps company
a 1963 pre-production Ford Mustang and John Dodge's 1919 coupe.
A 1963 Cougar II concept car by Ford
A 1956 Packard Patrician: an aristocratic sedan, this was the last year for Packard. A 1947 Kaiser
A 1949 Buick Super 8:
a rare one of 7 built 1959 Chrysler Crown Imperial, with a 413 and a stainless steel top. When sold it was the most expensive American car, it went for about $7,500 when most houses sold for about $4,500

The society started collecting items in the early 1920s and obtained its first car in 1954 — a 1905 Cadillac Osceola donated by Henry M. Leland, who founded Cadillac and Lincoln.

Thanks to Marc for letting me know about this story!

The Schlumpf Collection is on display in France at the National Museum in Mulhouse, the Cité de l’Automobile

The Schlumpf Collection may be the most prestigious car collection in the world. This is demonstrated by the two of the only 6 made Bugatti Royales, including the famous Coupé Napoléon, the 150 Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes models, etc.

It was in a former Mulhouse woollen mill, with its typically 19th century architecture, that Fritz Schlumpf established his fabulous collection of 437 cars belonging to 97 different brands. With part of on display at the Cité de l’Automobile, it is certainly a must see if you get to France

www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf/ learned about it from http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery

The collection was seized by the workers employed by the Schlumpf brothers, who had collected for years, and topped off their collection when Hispano Suiza needed to liquidate many of the Bugatti assets in 1963 after having purchased the Bugatti company. The Schlumpfs puchased Ettore Bugatti’s personal Bugatti Royale and many original spares and patterns—over the strong objections of the managing director and Roland Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti’s surviving son.

In 1971 the union of workers that had been restoring the cars, building restaurants, and a hotel that would have housed guests to the collection, went on strike, and years later the French government seized all of the Schlumpf assetts, including 437 vehicles. The strike was part of what forced the brothers to flee to Switzerland, echoing Bugatti's flight to Paris in the 1937 strike. Read all about it http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery

Update on the Portugese barn find collection that shocked everyone a couple years ago, full story and list of cars

Feb 2007 was when 58 photos and a description of a barn with steel doors welded shut was opened for the first time in decades and this collection was found. Well, the story was all made up... but a journalist finally went to get to the truth of the matter in 2009, and new photos as well as a complete inventory are after the link

http://www.hagerty.com/Hagerty-Online/News/Features/All-articles/2010/12/08/Portuguese-Barn-Find-Photo-Gallery?utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=email&utm_term=December&utm_content=News&utm_name=Hagerty%20Plus%20Member%20News

LeMay museum finally had it's groundbreaking (2 years since I posted that it would happen)

http://hagertyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/lemay-museum-groundbreaking-june-2010.html for the story and photo gallery. My first post didn't say much, just informative that it's supposed to become the largest in the world
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/03/if-you-live-near-seattle-you-might-want.html

The Wisconsin stash of Don Schlag, 21 semitrailers full or rare parts and rare cars

21 semitrailers stuffed with parts and cars. Don locked the trailers, welded the doors shut himself and parked them tail-to-tail on flattened tires. No, he didn't just keep opeing the doors and looking at the cool collection he'd compiled.

He went to every swap meet. He took a trip to California every year in his RV and would return towing a trailer full of parts that would vanish into his stash. He bought whole cars that never seemed to show up on Wisconsin streets again.

Larry wound up paying Don's heirs a "mid-six-figure" sum for all the pieces. And except for a couple of cars he sold himself and two Corvettes kept by Don's nephews, he sold the entire lot to another collector, Scott Milestone, for half again as much money. As this is being written, Scott is in the process of uncrating and reshelving all the various components into an East Coast warehouse.

Here are just some of the jems in the collection of 14 nice, low-mileage cars more than 150 high-performance engines have been found that Don stored away
1. '57 Corvette-Original fuel injection. Big fuel tank and big brakes.
2. '57 Corvette-Original dual quads. Big fuel tank and big brakes.
3. '63 Corvette coupe-Original fuel injection. Production number 480.
4. '64 Corvette roadster-Original fuel injection. Four-speed. Both tops.
5. '67 Corvette roadster-427 with Tri-power. 37,000 miles.
6. '74 Corvette coupe-454 big-block. 14,000 miles.
7. '72 Camaro Z28-Four-speed.
8. '67 Camaro RS/SS coupe-350 and four-speed. Fair condition.
9. '69 Yenko Camaro-37,000 miles.
10. '70 Chevelle SS454-Automatic with bucket seats.
11. '70 Chevelle SS454-Four-speed, bench seat
http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/hrdp_0608_don_schlag_chevy_car_collector/index.html

a complete engine for a 1969 Camaro Z/28 engine, a DZ-302 that’s complete down to the breather, one of approximately six such engines found, and the cast-iron COPO 427-cid engine block.
http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/Huge_muscle_car_stash_found/