Southward Car Museum

The Southward Car Museum is an automobile museum housing a collection of over 400 vehicles, as well as three aircraft, located on Otaihanga Road, Otaihanga, just north of Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island. The museum is run by a charitable trust, incorporated in 1972. It is approximately an hour's drive from downtown Wellington and is situated between the North Island Main Trunk railway to the west and State Highway 1 to the east. The museum's collection includes Marlene Dietrich's Cadillac cabriolet, a 1915 Stutz Indianapolis race car, gull-winged Mercedes-Benz, a 1950 Cadillac gangster special that belonged to gangster Mickey Cohen, and an 1895 Benz Velo, imported to New Zealand in 1900. A DeLorean DMC-12, the car best known from the Back to the Future movie series, is also on display. It is one of few public examples of the car worldwide, and the only DeLorean on public display in New Zealand. The car collection was the work of Sir Len Southward and his wife, Vera, Lady Southward. They began collecting cars in 1956. After achieving success in business, Sir Len dedicated time and money to buying and restoring old cars, adding to the collection. The Southward Car Museum was opened in December 1979, and after his retirement Sir Len devoted his time to the museum. The museum is a purpose-built building, featuring a 6000 square metre exhibition hall, engineering workshop, gift shop, and small cafe, and is set in six hectares of park-like grounds. The building also includes a 474-seat theatre, and features a 1929 Wurtlitzer theatre organ, which was originally installed in the Civic Theatre in Auckland.
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