Tales From the Cooler: Car Museum Found in Barn

Virgil Hilts
by Virgil Hilts

You will find the Deer Park Winery and Automotive Museum in suburban San Diego, next door to the Lawrence Welk Resort for seniors. Yes, that Lawrence Welk. Just follow the Chevy Impalas with their turn signals stuck on.

The museum is a semi-secret. I lived in Southern California for three years before I heard about this eclectic Escondido auto collection. I would later introduce it to other car nuts who were unaware of it, including one who worked only five miles away.

The three buildings that house the museum surround a small vineyard and claim to hold the world’s largest collection of convertibles. The curator was late real estate mogul Robert Knapp, a man of many tastes. His collection includes countless Americana antiques, hundreds of auto showroom signs and ads, the 1966 Parnelli Jones IndyCar, and a creepy compilation of everything Brooke Shields, from dolls to magazine covers. Too bad there were no “topless” photos of her.

The Deer Park car collection is both spectacular and peculiar. The 103 convertibles on display are mainly 1950s and 1960s American iron. The rare “orphaned” cars were the stars, including my personal Best in Show, a flawless 1954 Packard Caribbean in white and baby blue, one of only 400 total built that year.

My runner-up was a 1954 Kaiser Darren with a sliding driver’s door.

What collection would be complete without the car named after our Editor-in-Chief, the 1955 Messerschmitt Kabinerroller?

How about the handiwork of Frank Kurtis and Earl “Mad Man” Muntz, a 1952 Muntz Jet, of which only 49 are said to be still in existence.

I guess Crosley made more than cars!

Some of the cars are rough and the place could use a spruce-up, but that is part of the charm. A set of three Mustang convertibles sit outside one building, their tops rotting away. Some may find that sight disturbing, but it really makes you feel like you are taking a private tour of someone’s personal collection.

Check out Deer Park when you are in the area. If you do not get excited by this collection, you might as well drive next door and check into Lawrence Welk.

Deer Park Winery and Automotive Museum


29013 Champagne Blvd.


Escondido, California 92026


760-749-1666


www.deerparkwine.com


Admission: $10.00 Children under 9 are Free.


Open “most” Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Virgil Hilts
Virgil Hilts

More by Virgil Hilts

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 17 comments
  • Tree Trunk Tree Trunk on Jun 26, 2012

    Just to add my local car museum. Check this one out the next time you find yourself in Fairbanks Alaska. http://www.fountainheadmuseum.com/index.cfm Real nice collection of the early history of the automobile

  • SuperACG SuperACG on Jun 26, 2012

    My buddy's parents live just "down the street" in Deer Springs, and I took my truck off road across the way from the winery, and I didn't know about this place! I doubt my car-loving buddy knows either! Gotta check that place out!

  • Oberkanone My grid hurts!Good luck with installing charger locations at leased locations with aging infrastructure. Perhaps USPS would have better start modernizing it's Post offices to meet future needs. Of course, USPS has no money for anything.
  • Dukeisduke If it's going to be a turbo 4-cylinder like the new Tacoma, I'll pass.BTW, I see lots of Tacomas on the road (mine is a 2013), but I haven't seen any 4th-gen trucks yet.
  • Oberkanone Expect 4Runner to combine best aspects of new Land Cruiser and new Tacoma and this is what I expect from 2025 4Runner.Toyota is REALLY on it's best game recently. Tacoma and Land Cruiser are examples of this.
  • ArialATOMV8 All I hope is that the 4Runner stays rugged and reliable.
  • Arthur Dailey Good. Whatever upsets the Chinese government is fine with me. And yes they are probably monitoring this thread/site.
Next