Hugues Vanhoolandt takes us on tour of the Louwman Museum, also known as the Dutch National Motor Museum.
The Dutch National Motor Museum is also called the Louwman Museum, due to the name of its founder, P.W. Louwman, who began to show his collection of cars in a museum in 1934. Mr. Louwman was Dodge and Chrysler importer in the Netherlands and his son, Evert, is now the Toyota and Lexus importer.
The Louwman collection is the oldest private collection of motor cars in the world.
At the time of our visit, the museum housed a special exhibition of pre-war Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows, on loan from the Stuttgart Museum, but Italian and French cars are always well represented in the collection.
Louwman’s will send the famous Roland Garros Black Bess Bugatti to the Paris Retromobile show in February. Read about Garros and the Black Bess Bugatti in VeloceToday this month.
This 1933 Maserati 8CM saw three of the greatest drivers of the time behind the wheel; Raymond Sommer, Tazio Nuvolari and Piero Taruffi.
1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Le Mans Touring was driven at Le Mans by Louis Chiron and Franco Cortese.
1941 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Spider Corsa ‘Balena’ was an experimental car in which the engine and the body were developed by Gioacchino Colombo, who later designed the 125 Ferrari V12.
This version of the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/2 was called Daytona due to the fact that three of these cars took the first positions of the unofficial under 2-litre class at the 1968 edition of the Florids enduro.
Ferrari 166 Inter coupé Touring, s/n 019 S features a Plexiglas roof and is called the Aerolux.
Giovanni Michelotti designed this Fiat 8V Démon rouge (Red devil) which also has a Plexiglas roof. The vertical rear window was intended to stay clean during heavy rainfall.
1953 Fiat 1100 Boat-car by Carrozzeria Coriasco has been built to create publicity for a Bologna sailing school.
1976 Fiat 850 Shellette beach car was owned by a Santa Barbara industrialist. Beach cars were very popular on the Italian Riviera in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
This is the only remaining genuine Lancia D23. Its blue livery is the colour it bears at its first race, the 1953 Monza Grand Prix, where it finished second driven by Bonetto.
Abarth 209A coupé styling is by Mario Boano. As with most of the Abarths, the base is a Fiat, 1100 in this case.
1931 Voisin C23 Myra was influenced by functional design and Art Deco.
1932 Bugatti Type 50T coach Profilée is from the pen of Jean Bugatti, who was only 23 at the time. Note the very raked windscreen.
Designed by Gangloff, this Bugatti Type 57 Roadster ‘Grand Raid’ was introduced at the 1934 Paris motor show where it caused an instant hit because of its spectacular lines.
1937 Talbot Lago T 150 SS ‘Teardrop’ s/n 90109 is oneof only 16 Talbot ‘Goutte d’eau’ produced by Figoni & Falaschi, each one different.
Produced during WWII, the Peugeot VLV Electric had a 80 km range and was mainly used by the postal service.
Just after WWII, Pourtout proposed this aerodynamic styling for the Delahaye 135MS, inspired by the pre-war designs of Georges Paulin.
1948 Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé by Saoutchik can be considered as the swansong of the French coachbuilding and was featured in the book “Talbot Lago Grand Sport”.
What War ?? It is interesting and amusing to see Italian race cars built in 1941 during WW II. It goes to prove that the Italians would rather race cars (race sometimes spelled with an F) than drive tanks.
Great article about the museum. I have been wondering where our old Abarth 209A ended up after the Rosso Bianco collection was sold a few years ago. I’ll be contacting the Louwmans to see if I can get the car to come to my upcoming Jack Reuter Cars concourse class. Here are some pictures of the 209A when we owned it: http://www.cliffreuter.com/etceteriniabarth.htm#209
Thanks Pete!
WOW!!
block off the chartreuse on the gangloff ‘raid’ bugatti with your finger and you’ll get the idea of what the car really looks like
Cliff: Always a great pleasure to see your fabulous photo collection on etc.com. More info on the upcoming Jack Reuter concours class please Regards Harry Hart