Naples car museum rated No. 5 in world, best in Fla.
An automotive online marketplace has found what Southwest Florida car enthusiasts have known for years: Revs Institute is among the top auto museums in the U.S. and the world.
Auto Trader recently rated Revs the No. 5 best auto museum in the world and No. 1 in Florida.
What else to know:
Why Revs was ranked No. 5 worldwide
As with most of the top auto museums, Revs has an average Google review score of 4.9 out of 5 stars. That’s based on more than 43,200 annual global searches.
The Great Britain-based Auto Trader analyzed Google review scores and annual global Google searches for more than 180 auto museums across the globe, the company said in a news release.
The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala was the only other Florida museum to make the top 20 worldwide list.
What other museums made the list?
1. Gilmore Car Museum, Hickory Corners, Michigan
2. Nethercutt Collection, Sylmar, California
3. Tiriac Collection, Otopeni, Romania
4. Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, Auburn, Indiana
5. Revs Institute, Naples
6. Museum of American Speed, Lincoln, Nebraska
7. Automuziejus Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania
8. The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan
9. Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, England
10. Lane Motor Museum, Nashville 11. Blackhawk Museum, Danville, California
12. Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing, Ocala
13. National Automobile Museum, Reno, Nevada
14. Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, Detroit
15. Malta Classic Car Museum, St. Paul’s Bay, Malta
16. Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, Indiana
17. Great British Car Journey, Derbyshire, England
18. Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
19. Riga Motor Museum, Riga, Latvia 20. Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, Philadelphia
“For those who enjoy delving into the design, engineering and people behind vehicles, we wanted to highlight the wonderful museums around the world offering car lovers the chance to immerse themselves in the automotive space,” said Erin Baker, Editorial Director
at Auto Trader, in the news release.
What to know about Revs
The Revs Institute houses more than 100 cars — built between 1896 and 1995 — that show the evolution of the automobile. There’s the French 1896 Panhard et Levassor Wagonette; the 1934 Chrysler Airflow Imperial CV-8 Coupe, the first full-size U.S. production car to incorporate streamlining in its design to minimize air resistance; and the 1974 powder blue Jorgensen Eagle 7400 USAC that won the 1975 Indianapolis 500.
Revs in 2008 was the creation of Miles Collier, whose grandfather was Barron Collier, a national advertising mogul and real estate developer who founded Collier County 100 years ago.
The museum also houses one of the largest specialized automotive libraries in the world and recently acquired the Van Bever Photography Archive. André Van Bever was a photographer who chronicled motor racing history after World War II, and his archive comprises nearly 29,000 photographs.
The latest Revs special exhibit is the Pony Pedigree, which is part of the Miles Collier Collection that runs through July.
Dave Osborn is the regional features editor of the Naples Daily News and News-Press. Follow him on Instagram and Threads @lacrossewriter and on X (formerly Twitter) @NDN_dosborn.