Orange County

By Dave Hutchinson: A wonderful group of 32 members and guests of the Tampa Bay Section visited the Collection on Palmetto Museum on Friday, November 19. This is a small, but very interesting private collection of pre-war vintage automobiles. We viewed exquisite Mercedes, Pierce Arrows, Auburns, Model T Fords and more. My favorite was the red Allard JX6. It was a 1952 model – so sporty and with a powerful Cadillac engine! The Allard’s were shipped overseas without engines then equipped with American engines. The museum also houses a nice collection of Stanley Steamer cars and a beautiful vintage electric car. We had two extremely interesting docents, Laura and Stacie. They described these cars and their history in chronological order, beginning with the 1886 Benz Motorwagen, the 1st “modern car”. The museum sits on a beautifully landscaped property. Outside of the Collection there are a number of historic steam and gas engines that were used in industry and agricultural. And finally, for the adventurous (almost everybody) there was a trip around the 5 acre property on a 1/8th scale railway. Following the museum tour our group enjoyed lunch at nearby Johnny’s Italian 

Restaurant. The restaurant was quite cooperative and seated us in our own private room. Everybody seemed to enjoy the day with friends of like interests.