Miami museum has 1,200 cars, bicycles, Vespas

SUZETTE LABOY Associated Press Published:

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP) -- The classic cars lined up against an empty, vintage gas station along a busy street in North Miami attract visitors to a much larger space right behind it.











Among the most popular galleries at the museum is the Hollywood Cars of the Stars exhibit, which showcases cars, submarines, airplanes and more that were featured in movies, including the BMW motorcycle from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," and the Mitsubishi Eclipse from the "Fast and the Furious" film in 2001, which was the first car the late Paul Walker drove in the film series.


The museum also houses the largest collection of everything James Bond, including the Aston Martin sports car he drove in 1964's "Goldfinger" and a massive glass enclosure filled with rows of books, toy cars and figurines.

"There were no James Bond vehicles that really survived the first film, so you have to get to the second one," Kornblatt said. And that film was 1963's "From Russia with Love." The boat featured in that film with Sean Connery is "the oldest surviving James Bond movie vehicle," Kornblatt said.

Some of the items in the museum are replicas, including the Cadillac from "Ghostbusters." But a majority of the cars at the museum are originals.

"The replicas are sort of like a great side dish because we have so many originals," Kornblatt said. "It's the idea that at some point, whether kids or enthusiasts, there's going to be something that makes them say, 'Wow, I've never seen one of those before.' And people still walk away very happy with what they see."


If You Go:

Miami Auto Museum at The Dezer Collection ( ). Open Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The museum is located off Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami, about 7 miles south of Aventura, Fla., and 13 miles northeast of Miami Beach.



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