» For Antique Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Fans Who Stay in Asheville Cabins, Great Museums Are Just down the Road

May 22, 2010

For Antique Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Fans Who Stay in Asheville Cabins, Great Museums Are Just down the Road

If you’re a classic car fan and you’re looking at Asheville cabins for lodging to your visit to the mountains, you’ll be just down the road from some fabulous auto museums.

About halfway between Asheville and Charlotte, you’ll find Bennett Classics at 241 Vance Street in Forest City (828-247-1767). Established by brothers Buddy and Joe Bennett, the museum features tractors, wagons, cars and trucks dating from the early 20th Century all the way into the 21st Century. The oldest is a 1923 Fordson tractor and the newest is a 2004 Thunderbird. Visitors from Asheville cabins can see vehicles here like a 1928 Buick, a 1962 Mack truck, a wide range of muscle cars from the 1960s, hot rods from the 1950s, and great rides from Europe including a 1970 VW Bug and a 1951 MG roadster.

The Grovewood Gallery at 111 Grovewood Road in north Asheville includes the Estes-Winn Memorial Automobile Museum. Founded in 1963, it features a unique collection of rare and vintage automobiles plus horse-drawn carriages and a 1922 American La France fire engine. Mountain vacationers can leave their Asheville cabins and within a few minutes be following an automotive timeline that stretches from a 1913 Ford Model T touring car (the Tin Lizzie) all the way to a 1959 Ford Edsel two-door Corsair. From touring cars and limousines to classic sedans and roadsters, this is a museum auto buffs won’t want to miss. For more information, call 828-253-7651.

Many visitors to Western North Carolina find Asheville cabins near the legendary Biltmore Estate just south of downtown. If you’re an antique car enthusiast, you’ll want to see one of the newest exhibits on the estate: a rare 1913 Stevens-Duryea Model “C-Six” seven-passenger touring car, one of only 10 known to exist worldwide. On display for the first time in May 2010, it is the only car bought by Biltmore’s creator and original resident George Vanderbilt that remains in the Biltmore Company’s collection. The car underwent several months of painstaking conservation work and is exhibited in a climate-controlled closed space outside the Biltmore Winery. Additional information is available at 828-225-1333.

And for two-wheel classic fans, Maggie Valley is home to the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum (828-926-6266). For all those whose mode of transportation to their Asheville cabins is a motorcycle, this attraction is a perfect destination at the end of an approximate 35-mile ride from the city. You’ll find more than 300 rare and historic bikes on display with nameplates such as Harley-Davidson, Indian, Excelsior, Crocker, Henderson and others. Types of machines in the exhibit have every enthusiast covered. You’ll see everything from board track racers, hill climbers and original paint motorcycles to dirt-trackers, choppers, bobbers and a number of one-of-a-kind bikes.

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