While I was in Las Vegas, I knew there were several things I really wanted to do. I wanted to fire a gun for the first time, and so I went to the famous Gun Store and fired not only a handgun but also a rifle and an M-16. As a lover of food (with poor impulse control), I knew I had to go to a casino buffet, so I went to the excellent buffet at Wynn’s. Fond of a drink, I made sure to get one of those oversize frozen cocktails and legally walk down the Strip with my open container. Finally, my friend Jason, a fellow enthusiast, recommended I check out Auto Collections at The LINQ. Although everything in Sin City was loud and large, I wasn’t expecting an automotive exhibit located inside a casino to be anything too monumental. Still, it came highly recommended, so I knew I had to check it out.
Walking in, I took in the long, narrow room and its impressive array of vehicles. Even as I took my first steps into the exhibit, I was already noticing a great variety of cars. I thought perhaps this room was it, and I was okay with that. Auto Collections, though, is much larger than just one room; in fact, I soon learned that the exhibit was four times larger than I initially thought!
Auto Collections is a little quirkier than I would generally expect one of these venues to be. Of course, there are the typical attention magnets you would expect to find in a collection, like this exceedingly rare 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible in Lemon Twist…
…which I will admit I drooled over. This Challenger had a four-on-the-floor, mated to a 340 V8. It’s funny that a pony car so overlooked in its time has become such an icon. You can thank the rarity of variants like this one, as well as their beautiful looks.
Those E-Body enthusiasts not satiated by the Challenger will appreciate this ‘Cuda, tucked away in the front corner of the show and painted in a similarly retina-searing shade.
I mentioned before that Auto Collections was a bit quirky. Case in point: there are zero examples of the Lamborghini Diablo or Countach. The raging-bull marque is represented by just one vehicle, this gorgeous Espada.
Sure, the details are a little fussy on these – the various scoops and vents, the questionable headlights – but these are intriguing grand tourers. Fancy that, a Lamborghini you can drive the kids around in.
While we’re talking more obscure European metal, how about this Ford RS200? There were actually two to view here at the show! I’d heard these were beasts, but I didn’t realize just how rapid they were. A midships-mounted, turbocharged 1.8L four-cylinder pumped out 250 hp to all four wheels in the 200 street-legal examples sold, but rally versions had between 350 and 450 horsepower.
The placard said this particular RS200 was one of the Evolution models with a larger 2.1 four and a claimed 600+ horsepower. Such an insane engine apparently yielded a 0-60 of 2.1 seconds. If that is true, it is utterly mind-boggling.
Also, check out the 1980s-tastic interior. All that’s missing are some digital gauges.
The RS200s weren’t the only rally cars on display. Here’s a rally-spec MG Metro.
I really do appreciate the fact that the collection didn’t merely consist of flashy sports cars. I found this 1954 Ford Taunus to be quite a drab-looking car, but it represents the vehicle of choice for thousands of Europeans during the 1950s.
I did love the cute globe badging.
Was BMW too cheap to design more attractive bumpers to comply with NHTSA-mandated 5-mph standards, or just too lazy? These battering rams are uglier than even a 1970s Ford’s bumpers, and conspire to ruin the otherwise elegant styling of the 2002.
It looks like Forrest Gump should be sitting on this!
This, however, would make a more comfortable surface upon which to sit.
This was such an odd colour choice for a GM executive’s ’65 Impala SS, but the options list was much more agreeable: a 409 cubic inch V8, cruise control, power windows (including vent windows), power seat, vacuum operated trunk release, and a padded dash. As Auto Collections isn’t strictly a museum, some of their featured cars are for sale. This Impala listed for $145,000.
Here’s a car I never knew existed: the 1956 Ford Parklane. At first I thought it was a typo on the placard. After all, wasn’t Park Lane a Mercury? However, I learned that this two-door station wagon was Ford’s reply to the Chevrolet Nomad. The Parklane outsold the Nomad in 1956 by almost 2-to-1 (15,186 vs. 7,886), but those sales figures still weren’t impressive enough for Ford. After all, a highly-specified two-door wagon will only ever attract a niche audience. Ford dumped it after just one year.
Besides, who says a station wagon must have only two doors to be stylish? This 1957 Buick Caballero wagon is breathtaking.
A hardtop station wagon? What a refreshingly exotic concept, considering hardtop sedans are extinct and even new hardtop coupes are hard to come by.
Still, perhaps you may find the ’57 Buick’s design to be a tad garish, a smidgeon too flamboyant, a trifle gauche. Avert your eyes, then, from this 1958 Buick Century convertible.
Yikes. I don’t know which is more OTT: this, or the 1958 Oldsmobile. The following year may have represented the ultimate in 1950s excess, but at least those gargantuan-looking ’59 models looked clean. This brings an entirely new meaning to the phrase, “the devil is in the details”.
“My, what shiny teeth you have!”
Perhaps you might have seen this little 1956 Lancia Appia puttering past the aforementioned Taunus in 1950s Europe. Benefiting from a ground-up restoration, this 1,090cc Furgoncino was listed at $65,000.
A relative bargain, this 1951 Kaiser Deluxe was listed at only $20,500. It’s presented in the stock colour, Ceramic Green, and features a 226 CID flathead six. The lack of a V8 hurt Kaiser, despite the arrival of a handsome new body for 1951. Brutal competition among Ford, GM and Chrysler also drove the nail into the coffin of Henry J.’s automobile concern.
Somebody should have told Stephen H. Blake that what looked fresh, exciting and utterly modern in 1963 wouldn’t look that way twenty years later. Blake bought the rights to the erstwhile Studebaker Avanti in 1982, after Leo Newman and the Altman Brothers (no, not those ones) divested themselves of the Avanti Motor Company.
Modern plastic bumpers and rectangular headlights polluted the purity of Raymond Loewy’s design, and yet the Avanti would continue to be produced in small volumes (under various owners) until 2006! This questionably-colored Avanti is a 1985 model.
Auto Collections was very heavy on Rolls-Royces and, to be honest, while I do appreciate their engineering and craftsmanship, I don’t find them terribly interesting. There were, however, plenty of other amazing cars to view, and far too many for just one article. Stay tuned for Part Two.
It’s a great collection, and definitely worth your time if you’re in Vegas. When I visited years ago it was still called the Imperial Palace Auto Collection, got to see my first Duesenberg there.
This and the Ferrari dealership at the Wynn are two must-see’s for car enthusiasts in Vegas.
You have answered my question! As soon as I started this I wondered if it was the old Imperial Palace Auto Collection. I was lucky enough to visit there in 1988, my only time in Vegas.
The staff at the Ferrari dealership are pretentious aholes, they wouldn’t even let me take a pic from outside their door.
You have to pay for a tour, I’m not too surprised they don’t let people block the entrance for free… Plus, think of all the traffic, with its entrance being on the gaming floor of a casino, if they didn’t have some sort of policy.
It was only like $8 for the tour, you get to see their service department, see all the new cars, huuuge Ferrari gift shop (of course…), and they have a fairly large used supercar selection too. Never felt slighted in the least by any staff.
– I’m not sure if I’d say the Ford Parklane wagon was dropped, more like rebranded (and maybe decontented?). The Del Rio Ranch Wagon in the ’57 line was identical in concept and had one more good sales year, actually outselling the ’57 Country Squire according to 1957Ford.com, before falling off the face of the earth and being dropped.
– I’d like to know the story behind the Kaiser’s chrome wire wheels and blackwalls, odd combination back then (Korean War shortages?), very “restomod-ish” for an original stock car now, but appealing.
-To be fair to BMW, the 2002 was near the end of its’ product cycle when the 5-MPH bumper rule kicked in. But then, it took them well over a decade to really integrate them…
-This Avanti is still fairly pure, although the bodycolor headlight bezels and that tan color do it no favors. Some of the ’90s ones were all-too-painfully modded F-bodies.
The ’56 Park Lane was just a lame attempt to compete with the unique Nomad by throwing some chrome and trim on the 2 door Ranch wagon. I don’t have my info at hand, but I suspect the Park Lane was cheaper than the quite expensive and upscale Nomad, which probably explains the higher sales.
My best friend’s family had a blue and white Park Lane, with which they pulled their wood Thompson runabout boat which sported a big Mercury six cylinder 100hp outboard. Nice combo!
The ’56 Parklane is a nice model but has this one ever been tarted up – even to include Mercury wagon tail lights!
A more stock one is quite a bit more attractive.
“If Der Amerikainer wants ugly bumpers, Ve shall give them ugly bumpers” seems to have been the attitude at BMW. Even the bumpers on the Rabbit/Golf Mk. 1 looked better.
I went there when it was still the imperial palace
William,
If I’m correct, the LINQ is the former Imperial Palace – at least that’s what my dad told me when he was last out there three years ago. I haven’t been to Vegas since 2004.
At any rate, the Auto Collection is my favorite place in the entire city. (Really). While my parents and other family members would be in the casinos, I would rush over to the Collection and literally spend entire afternoons and evenings in there just looking at the cars. And there were a ton.
That collection looks well worth seeing!
That 1958 Buick looks positively restrained in comparison with the top-of-the-line Buick for that year, the Limited.
You know, it’s gaudy, but I’d love to have it, as well as the 2 Buicks shown above.
That Taunus is identical to one on my block in Innsbruck when I was a kid. I loved to look at its globe nose. And one rainy day when I was walking home from first grade (alone, naturally), the owner pulled over and offered me a ride, since he knew me (but I didn’t know him).
I hope you get to that 39 Chrysler in part two, that’s the one that jumps out at me.
A lot of this is dreck, the 58 Buick, Gaahh! The Avanti in hearing-aid beige, Eeek!
That Chrysler, if I recall belonged to Johnny Carson and I think was his first car. And he sold it to them for one dollar if I remember right
Went there in ’02, when it was still the Imperial Palace. This was one of the few places on the Strip that had a all you can eat buffet for a decent price. Also saw the “Art of the Motorcycle”; that was something special. I asked the ticket taker how long to see it; about an hour. We did almost six hours, and my feet were killing me. And two days at the motorcycle auction at the Tropicana.
Also saw it when it was the Imperial Palace Collection, and it hadn’t been open all that long….I guess about 1979-80?
Yes, the Park Lane undercut the Nomad on price, the amount was about 5 or 6% of the base price….or $150.
My family had a 4 door Country Sedan (a 55) and an uncle had 2 Ranch Wagons (also 55s), I’m amazed that Ford sold over 15,000 Park Lanes or about 1 out of every 12 Ford wagons.
My favorite of the cars pictured? That Orchid Impala would be the only car I’d ever want….65 Chevy Impala hardtops are so sexy.
That 6r4 metro would get me very excited. All group B rally cars were scary but the 6r4 was one of the scariest of the lot. An absolute beast.
There is a movie coming out, supposedly similar to Rush in concept and cinematography but based on Group B, however I don’t think it chronicles anyone in particular. The main guy is apparently driving a 6R4 which I thought an interesting choice seeing as how it was not particularly competitive and quite shortlived coming to fruition so near the end of Group B…although it did go on to see more success afterward.
Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd-GH-NIVGM&feature=player_detailpage
I think the engine was the buick/rover v8 with two cylinders chopped off?
A little bit faster than my 84 Metro 1.0 “L”
I’ve been to Las Vegas several times in the past few years and always make it a point to visit. I was there with a colleague who is a Ford fan while my tastes tend toward European and classics from the 20’s & ’30’s and there was plenty for both of us to drool over. They ask top dollar for what is for sale whether the condition justifies it or not and I’d be curious what some of these cars actually sell for when they do sell. If you are planning a trip to Las Vegas and care anything about cars this is definitely a must see.
Saw it back in 2008 at Imperial Palace. Where is it now? Didnt they implode Imperial Palace? It is the only time in my life I have touched a Boss 429 Mustang. They were asking a mere 212K for it.
And when I was there, they also had a replica of the 1886 Benz motorwagen there. Cool it was
Very nice–looks like an impressive collection! If I ever make it to Vegas, it’ll have to be one of my stops.
I particularly like the RS200s, that Lancia van-let, and especially the Caballero wagon.
I visited the Imperial Palace auto collection a couple of times. It had a great selection of cars, and I thoroughly enjoyed the visits. At the time, in the 1980’s or early 1990’s iirc, the Imperial Palace was the only casino/hotel in Las Vegas that was owned by an individual. I can’t remember his name, but he got his start in building homes in North Dakota, and the late 1940’s Chevrolet truck that he had used was on display in the museum.
I don’t care what anybody says, that Avanti still looks good, and still more unique than most everything else out on the market for almost the entirety of its manufacture. I’d take one.
I was there in 1987. I’m sure there are some cars that weren’t there then.
The biggest problem with museums is the cars don’t get driven. Cars were made to drive. Even Duesenbergs.
The hotel has apparently been sold and gone through a huge remodel. No change for the auto collection, though – except for the name. Looks the same as when I saw it way back in the early 90’s….
How does a Metro 6R4 get to Las Vegas?
Buick Caballero is stunning, as is the Lancia Appia