Mullin Automotive Museum: Some Photos

An automobile museum that's extremely worth seeing if you are very interested in pre-1950 French cars is the Mullin Automotive Museum (web site here).  It's located in Oxnard, California, a small city partway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.  But it is hard to visit.

The problem is that one can't casually drop by.  It is open on Saturdays for five hours only -- and is not open every Saturday.  You need to go to their web site to determine what dates they are open, then book a ticket on-line.  (There seem to be exceptions to this, but that requires contacting the museum to find out if they would allow you a special visit.)

I have driven through Oxnard once or twice a year for some time now, but never on a Saturday.  Finally, I resolved to visit the museum, booked a day and time, and planned a trip to California around that hard-point.  It was worth the effort, because I am interested in French cars, especially those from the 1930s.

Most visitors take guided tours in groups of 10-15 people.  I did not because (1) I'm familiar with many of the the cars on display, and (2) my goal was to take lots of photos.  No doubt I missed out on learning some things by avoiding a tour, but I accepted that.

Not all the Mullin collection can be seen at one time.  In part this has to do with available space and partly because some cars have been sent elsewhere for display.  For example, a couple of years ago some of Mullin's Bugattis were displayed at the Petersen museum in Los Angeles -- I wrote about the Type 57SC Atlantic I saw here.

Below are some photos I took showing the main exhibition floor from different points of view.  I hope these give you a sense of what you might see if you visit.  The cars shown are for an exhibit stressing French coachbuilders.

Gallery

The maroon car at the lower left is a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS "teardrop," the red car is the Delahaye 165 by Figoni & Falaschi displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

The car with the odd paint job is a 1928 Citroën B14 Coupé with a recreation of the paint scheme designed by Sonia Delaunay who was active in avant-garde arts.

At the center is a 1929 Talbot M75 with De Vizcaya body paneling.  To the left of it are two Voisins and a Panhard.  The car at the lower left with a wood body is a 1922 Hispano-Suiza H6B Skiff-Torpedo.

At center is the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic mentioned above.  The shiny car in the foreground is a 1939 Bugatti Type 64 chassis with a recently built body harking to the spirit of late 1930s French "teardrop" style.

Off at the rear of the display room is a group of Bugattis and other unrestored cars that were part of the famous Schlumpf collection in Mulhouse France.