We attended our first event as new members of the MBCA in June and thought I would share more about it. The local Lotus car club also had some members attending, which is fitting for this event.
Barber is renowned for housing the largest collection of Lotus race cars in the world, and if that weren’t impressive enough, it is also recognized by Guinness World Records as home to the largest motorcycle collection in the world!
Barber is also a world-class racing venue, hosting the annual Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Coming up next, motorsport fans won’t want to miss the UAB Medicine GT World Alabama in September. Beyond major events, Barber offers plenty of track time opportunities through various organizations, one of which was on track during this visit. Here’s a link to more about Barber Motorsports Park and Vintage Motorsports Museum
We were privileged to enjoy a guided tour led by restoration manager Lee Clark, who has personally had a hand in restoring many of the cars and motorcycles on display.
Mr. Clark said he’s worked or volunteered at the museum for over 30 years, starting back when the collection was stored in a building downtown. Now he is semi retired and works a few days of the weeks he said. He explained his role as Restoration Manager saying his expertise is the mechanical side, prior to this he owned an automotive machine shop, which explains his specialty in the mechanics. Mr. Clark started the tour with the older Lotus cars, briefly telling a story about his involvement and the historical significance of each one of the cars
After the tour of the Lotus collection, we went downstairs to the Restoration level. This is where active restoration projects are located, a machine shop, and storage for cars and motorcycles not currently on exhibit.
Mr. Clark told us about some of the cars on the lower level. One story that stood out was about George Barber’s Ferrari Dino. If you didn’t know, George Barber’s business was Alabama’s largest dairy company, founded by his father in the 1930s.
After getting the Ferrari, he decided to visit the Bruno family. Joseph Bruno started Bruno’s Grocery in 1932; his parents were immigrants from Sicily. Bruno’s Grocery also later created Food World and Big B Drugs, if you remember those. George was a dairy supplier for the Bruno’s grocery stores, and given the family’s Italian heritage, he figured they’d appreciate seeing an Italian sports car. So when he pulled up in his shiny new Ferrari, all Mr. Bruno said was, “I buy enough milk from you that you can afford this, I may need to look at how much I’m paying.” After that, it was said Mr. Barber never drove the Ferrari to meet with the Brunos again.
Mr. Clark said it was a lighthearted exchange, the Barber and Bruno families were friends, and Bruno’s sons have their own car collection today. I thought this was a fun story about two of Alabama’s great business families. If you grew up in the South, chances are you drank Barber milk in school and bought groceries at a Food World.
There were some really special cars in the lower level, George Barber’s first Porsche, several other very rare Porsches, a Shelby GT-1000, a Bobby Allison stock car, Paul Newman’s Lotus Esprit, plenty more along side countless of motorcycles.
We even got to see a current restoration project in the shop a Porsche Carrera 6, one of Porsches race car that helped it win the 1966 Sportscar World Championship for under 2000cc.
After the tour we had about 20 minutes before heading to our lunch destination, we chose to go out side on the pedestrian bridge and watch some of the HPDE. Afterwards we checked out a few cars on our way to the driving meeting.
From the museum we set off for lunch at The Back Porch on Lake Logan Martin. We were given a map and was told there would be some spirited driving along the way, the scenery was nice and the route did have a few nice curves and hills. The lotus led the way, and traveled at a much higher pace than us in the Mercedes group.
Lunch was good, I got a Catfish plate and Ginger had Fried shrimp. We sat and talked cars with our table, we met a couple out of the Peachtree Chapter that were originally from Finland, they owned a Saab at one point which led us down a path of the cars we have owned in the past. I told about my Volvo & Mustangs, the other couple told about the Porsches and other Mercedes they have owned and how they love German automobiles.
After lunch the rest of the group headed for a mountain drive up Mt. Cheaha, the tallest point in the state of Alabama. We elected to go northward towards home, seeing as we had a long drive ahead of us.
The next two days the club had events at the US Space & Rocket Center and a Driving Experience at The Talladega Grand Prix… I missed out on the track day, I would have enjoyed that. The Barber tour was so good, especially it being led by Mr. Clark.
A huge thank you to Mercedes-Benz Club Peachtree Chapter and the Alabama-NW Florida chapters for arranging the incredible guided tour. For more information about these chapters of MBCA look at our club page here
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