It was 8 years ago that I have first visited Autoworld in Brussels. I remember that I was the one pushing it, which looking back, I don’t understand, because I used to have almost zero interest in cars. Or maybe my interest was just latent… Anyway, I don’t have a lot of memories from back then, except for a VW Camper van with hippie livery. To be honest, even when I was uninterested in cars, VW Campers and Bugs were cars that I could feel endless enthusiasm about.
I think the memories I made this time will be a bit more permanent, though. Even before entering, I knew this, because right in front of the entrance there was the most beautifully painted Ford Mustang I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I am still in that phase where one of the most distinct feature of a car for me is its color, and I honestly love Mustangs, and just the shape of this one was perfect. (If I had infinite money, I’d get an older type and a newer type and some other types inbetween, just because they speak to my soul. Seriously.)
So I went in with this thought, and also the fear that the 2 hours I had might not be enough for my usual thorough museum visiting habits. I was relieved that it was actually fine, I hurried a tiny bit, but I think I saved like 10 minutes with it, so I suggest to have 2-2,5 hours for a visit there. The ticket is 15 €, and íI think completely worth the experience.
There always is a temporary exhibition in Autoworld and this time there were actually two: Motocycle design (which I cared less about) and When Automotive Design becomes Art (which I cared about very-very much). This was the first time, I’ve seen a Lamborghini Miura (unfortunately it was gold and not yellow, but still), and some other beauties that the curators deemed to be art pieces and not just vehicles – which is in my opinion, a completely valid take, I’ve been saying this since I’ve been to the Ferrari museums – any cars that you wouldn’t call art are not really worth looking at… (Also, just FYI, these exhibitions will be switched to a Maserati 110 Years exhibit at the end of December – I might actually have to go back for that.)
But these exhibitions only take out a small part of the whole place, which is divided into zones, some of them are organized according to time period, while others are more thematic. One of my favorites were the horsedrawn carriages, which spoke to my little Bridgerton and Jane Austen-loving heart.
As Belgium is famous for their cartoons, there was a tribute to the Tintin comics, were they made little dioramas of certain episodes, and explained which car it was, and why it even has a relevance to show these in Autoworld. Spoiler: because Tintin had such a long run that you could actually see the evolution of the cars in the comicbooks!
Also, there is a famous fictitious racecar driver, Michel Vaillant, which I will admit never to have heard about, but anyways, they also built his fictitious racecar! (And I just read in their website, that I could have sat in it, which I have completely missed, but be smarter than me if you visit!!)
I really liked the USA zone as well, where they built up some classic American scenery, which looked really nice, as well as the pink Cadillac and other pink cars. But they also have fully build (retro) garages as a setting to do different workshops (I don’t know much about this, but this is what their website says.)
And last but not least, they obviously have a zone for racing, which is decorated with a lot of pictures of Spa and all kinds of racing cars. I expected to see a Max Verstappen shrine (given that the guy is half Belgian), but there was only a very serene looking glass cabinet with Red Bull model cars and that was all, even the Formula one car they have is a Renault that was driven by Alonso.
The racing section is also the part where you can see the whole museum from up above and marvel at their beautiful collection at its own entirety.
After finishing with everything, I took a look at their gift shop, which was kind of nice, though unfortunately their exhibition books were only in Dutch/French and not in English. I still managed to buy a little pin to remember the experience by.
Have you ever been there? What was the temporary exhibition then?
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