Mercedes Benz Museum

Stuttgart’s Mercedes Benz Museum is probably the best automotive museum in the world with over 160 vehicles all magnificently displayed in a building designed by UNStudio who also designed the New Zealand Te Papa Museum, which can only be described as art. There are over 16500 square metres of exhibition space with some of the world’s finest examples of Mercedes Benz automobiles. The exhibition starts at the top floor and works it’s way down spiral ramps to the bottom with giant showcases of vehicles on all levels. Amongst it’s huge collection are cars, buses, trucks from all eras of the Mercedes Benz timeline all shining like jewelery in the beautiful displays. One highlight is the Gallery of Celebrities where visitors can get up close to the Popemobile, movie and music stars cars and even a Mercedes owned by Princess Diana.

for more information: http://www.museum-mercedes-benz.com

Toyota City is in the outskirts of Nagoya in central Japan and as the name suggest it is the home of the huge Toyota motor company. The company is trailing these cute little electric cars called the Crayon which can be hired thought the city. For a few hundred yen (a couple of dollars) you can hire them at many locations around the city. They have a cable on the front of the vehicle which has a paddle which plugs into a electric repowering station. The vehicles travel at reasonable speeds and have a range of about 30 kilometers they are quiet popular for getting shopping home and for buisness trips for many of the people who don’t have a car in this tightly packed city.

Nagoya travel guide

As today is Australia Day we thought we would feature a couple of Australian Icons over the next few days. Today’s story is the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst. Bathurst is the premier car racing event on the Australian calendar and it is where legends of the track are made. None other than the Peter Brock who’s car is featured on today’s photograph. The vehicle exhibits change regularly and is located next to the mountain’s circuit which is a public road on non race days. The ever changing display at the National Motor Racing Museum showcases an array of motorcycle and vehicles and car racing memorabilia from all over the country, especially featuring the ‘kings of the mountain’ Every October tens of thousands flock to the mountain to cheer on either Ford or Holden in the battle for the best V8 super car.

for more information: http://www.bathurstregion.com.au/nmrm/

Legendary rock group Kiss will be the star attractions along with the best of Formula One motorsport and the mighty Australian V8 Supercars at the Australian Grand Prix held in Melbourne, March next year. The band has had a long history of playing special concerts in Melbourne, they recorded a television special there a few years back with a one of concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with classical music set to their greatest hits. The Melbourne Grand Prix is the first event on the 2008 Grand Prix calendar and promises to be huge with several hundred thousand people attending over the four day event. Held beautiful Albert Park with sweeping views of the city the Grand Prix is regarded one of the world’s best and with next years special guests Kiss it promises to be even better.

For more information:

http://www.grandprix.com.au/

http://www.kiss.com

The Grand Prix comes to the Portuguese island of Macau next weekend for what promises to be a huge weekend but for those who cant get there for the action there is a great museum you can visit during the year. The museum celebrates the the 50 odd years of racing in Macau and has some great displays. Opening in 1993 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Macau Grand Prix the centre has some great memorabilia and amazing racecars and motorbikes. For those who want a real bargain and want to see some of Macau’s other great museums like the Wine Museum (which is next door), the Maritime Museum, Lin Zexu Museum and the Museum of Art there is a a bargain joint ticket available.

More Information

Address:
Rua Luis Gonzaga Gomes, 431, Macau

In Odabia which is the new waterfront technology district of Tokyo, Toyota has a giant showroom come, car museum, come theme park and its really fun for the whole family. There is plenty to do including ‘driving’ the Crayon which is a self driving electric micro car. As you can see in the picture the car is one of Toyota’s latest efforts to revolutionise transport. Reading sensors on the road this car follows the track around the complex. There are simulator rides, an outdoor driving course for people wanting a test drive of a Toyota product and plenty of technology exhibits including Toyota’s cutting edge designs and quite a good display on hybrid and new power plants. The centre also features a beautiful museum where iconic cars from around the world (not all Toyota) are on display and then there’s a discovery centre hall which demonstrates how products are designed to suit as many people as possible. The centre attaches to the huge Pallete Town shopping complex where you can easily find plenty do do for the whole day.

For more information

http://www.happyjappy.com/tokyo/odaiba/toyota_mega_web.html

http://www.megaweb.gr.jp/English/

Although the Ute or Utility was invented by Ford in Geelong Australia in the 1930’s, Deniliquin in New South Wales holds the title of the Ute capital of the World. Deniliquin is on the edge of some of the driest and flattest land on earth a farming and grazing region and home to the annual ute muster. In 1999 Deniliquin wrote itself into the history books with the largest parade of registered utes with 2939 vehicles taking place, and since then the number has grown to 6211. People bring their utes from all over Australia to attend and some even transport them from overseas for this huge event. This years event is on this weekend and it promises to be bigger than ever. To celebrate this feat the town has even erected a WB Holden Ute up a pole in all its glory.

For more information

Official Site: http://www.deniutemuster.com.au

In some countries driving can be a bit more hectic than others. Check out this video of an intersection in St Petersburg, Russia as cars play chicken and then get tossed around like skittles on the icy roads. If you want our tip, make sure you take the insurance option when renting a car in Russia.

The Trabant has had a bit of a dodgy history, it was a East German produced vehicle which was pretty awful but has now gained a cult following of a icon of the former communist Germany. For visitors to Berlin there couldn’t be any more fun than going on a Trabi Safari in one of these weird little cars. This great tour takes in many of the Marxism and Leninism’s of Berlin where you pass some of the remaining Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and other interesting memorabilia from a time gone by. The cars are pretty special they have a whopping 26 horsepower and will do 30km through the Berlin streets and there is a great commentary with directions on the Trabant’s not so state of the art radio. You will see Berlin from a totally different perspective and you even get your own Trabant driving license on completion of your tour.

Links

Official Link: http://www.trabi-safari.de/e78/e92/index_eng.html

Map showing Berlin

Stuttgart is the home of Mercedes Benz and in 2006 the company opened what is probably the best automotive museum in the world. This magnificent building is a piece of art as its self but houses a priceless collection of Mercedes Benz memorabilia with one of the finest auto collections on the planet. The centre is set out on a time line with the horse and buggy at the start of the journey and the future at the end with all periods of its 100 plus year represented along the way. Highlights include a celebrity gallery where vehicles owned by famous people are on display here you can see a Mercedes Benz ‘Pope Mobile’ owned by Pope John Paul II, Princess Diana’s convertible Benz, Ringo Stars Car and a range of other huge names including kings, presidents and movie stars. The centre also boasts a huge new car display area where you can see every product they produce.

Map of Mercedies Benz Museum Stuttgart