Article published in the January 2018 issue of the BSM Beacon.
Every once and a while we are lucky enough to discover something so surprising and exceptional that it is difficult to not keep talking about it. This was the experience of 18 lucky PPYC members from Burnt Store Marina who embarked on a docent led Education Committee tour to the Revs Institute automobile museum in Naples in early November 2017. Only two of the attendees had even heard of the collection before booking for the trip, but we were all blown away by the quality of the exhibits viewed.
1934 MG K3 Magnette
The Revs is a collection of over 100 priceless automobiles (and one 1883 racing tricycle) housed in an 80,000 s.f., purpose built, state of the art museum tucked down a side road near the Naples city airport. The facility, which opened to the public in 2014, is pressurized and the air is double filtered. The collection has been carefully assembled by Miles C. Collier, a race car driver in his own right and grandson of Baron Collier of New York City advertising and SW Florida real estate fame. A large part of the collection (71 cars formerly displayed in Costa Mesa, California) was acquired in 1986 from a Collier family friend, Briggs S. Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham built his own eponymous, successful race cars and was an heir to both Swift meatpacking and Proctor & Gamble fortunes. He was also the skipper of the Columbia, which won the 1958 America’s Cup.
The museum states that it is built around four themes – “Automobility: The Car, the Road and Modern Life”; “Vitesse: Sports Motoring and Motoring Sports”; “Porsche: Designed to Excel”; and “Revs: Racing Cars and Racing Men.” My impression is that the racing element is by far the most prevalent but I was also very impressed by how many early automotive innovations were represented in the cars selected for display. The standard of conservation was outstanding. The Revs Institute also has a huge collection of automotive literature available to serious researchers.
We had great fun comparing notes after our private 2.5 hour tour, each asking the other which was their favorite car. Everyone had a different answer ranging from the 1933 Bugatti Super Sport Type 55 to the 1896 Panhard & Levassor to Gary Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ. Unfortunately, one of the museum’s top attractions, a curvaceous 1937 Delahaye, was not on display the day we visited. The two docents who led our tour were extremely knowledgeable about the collection and cars in general (one owns an early Jaguar XKE and the other was past GM of the National Corvette Museum).
Mr. Collier should be commended for sharing this fine collection with the general public on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Group tours can be arranged by telephone for Fridays for a minimum requirement of 20 persons. We had to book months in advance for our group visit. Advanced reservations for individual visitors are required by telephone (239-687-7387) or by purchase through the website (https://Revsinstitute.org/).