Like you, I enjoyed reading Bob Golfen’s account — and especially seeing his photographs — of the launch of the stunning Porsche exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in downtown Los Angeles. I’m eager to get over to LA to see the exhibit in person.
However, you don’t have to know the way to LA to see an amazing array of Porsches. There’s another museum at the opposite end of the country that not only has such a showcase, but the cars are there every day the museum has been and will be open, not just during a limited, if special, exhibit period.
Officially, the museum located in Naples, Florida, is the Revs Institute for Automotive Research, though old-timers will recognize the place as the Collier Collection.
Miles Collier is the grandson of Barron Collier, advertising and media mogul who also had real estate, banking and shipping companies, and the son and nephew of the Collier brothers — Miles, Sam and Barron Jr. — who in 1933 established the Automobile Racing Club of America and basically launched organized sports car racing in the United States.
In the late 1980s, Miles the son and grandson and a successful sports car racer in his own right, acquired the Cunningham Museum car collection and opened the Collier Collection museum in Naples, where he displayed cars in dioramas to put them into historical perspective for visitors.
That educational effort led him to establish the Revs Institute with bases in Naples and at Stanford University in northern California, and in 2014 to re-open his car collection in an expanded facility on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The collection includes cars from Briggs Cunningham’s racing and car-making effort, an array of classics from around the world, and a pack of Porsches, especially racing Porsches. There are more than 100 cars on display at the facility, which also has a restoration garage and research library.
We did a feature story and photo gallery on the Revs/Collier museum back in 2014, but during that visit I only had a few minutes to photograph the Porsche display before the museum closed for the day. Recently I was back in south Florida and this time headed right for the Porsches.
The museum is at 2500 South Horseshoe Drive, nicely located just west of I-75 and between the Naples airport and Spanky’s Speakeasy, a friendly and tasty dining establishment with a vintage-themed decor full of auto- and aero-bilia.
The Revs Institute/Collier collection is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. but advanced reservations are required and can be done by phone or online. (I recommend paying for one of the excellent docent tours if you really want detailed information on the vehicles.)
