On Saturday, February 10th, the BMW Sierra Chapter Car Club visited the National Car Museum in downtown Reno. It is also known as the Harrah Car Museum since the late Bill Harrah created the museum with some of the 4000 cars he owned over the years. We had a wonderful turnout with 25 members and guests attending. The Chapter paid for all the entry fees which included a self guided audio tour.

The museum is made up of 4 galleries that are broken down by era. Connecting all the galleries are mock roads and buildings with some very beautiful vintage cars parked along the road. The oldest gallery has cars dating back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The 1907 Thomas Flyer was the most impressive car for me. It managed to go around the world back in early 1900. Back then that was close to an impossible feat. The 1913 yellow Mercer was another example for early transportation in an open cockpit.

John and Norma English brought their children and they appeared to have a blast. Mateusz Sasiada, one of our new members came with a friend. It was great to see our members taking advantage of a free day at the museum.

Around noon, we all headed down the block to Bertha Miranda’s Mexican Restaurant for lunch. Bertha’s is one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in Reno. The atmosphere was authentic Mexican, and the food was wonderful.

After lunch, members had the option to return to the museum to take a free guided 90-minute tour by a docent. This was a great way to learn first hand about all those beautiful autos and to learn the details of how Bill Harrah made this one of the five greatest car museums in the nation. If you have never been to this spectacular museum, you are missing out on some of the most incredible autos in the nation. Many are a one of a kind model that you will never see anywhere else in the world.

~ Pat McGoff

Click here to view the video.
Click here to view the picture gallery