Next week, on Tuesday, March 25 specifically, something that hasn’t happened in 20 years will happen again in Naples—the Collier Collection, one of the world’s premier auto collections, will open again to the public.
Last week, Miles Collier—the collection’s owner—along with faculty from Stanford University unveiled the newly rechristened collection as the Revs Institute for Automotive Research. The partnership with Stanford has been going on for a few years now, but the news was that the institute will offer a limited number of tours each week, about 100 visitors per day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
While the focus of the institute will be serious scholarly study of the car’s role in popular culture and industry, the reason to go is for the kid-in-the-candy-store feel for even the least excitable gearhead.
Included in the collection is the first Porsche racecar ever built, some rare Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Duesenbergs and some brilliant examples of cars that have become classics—the Austin Mini and Volkswagen Beetle to name two.
Tours aren’t costly, $17 for general admission and $20 for a docent-led excursion, making this a welcome addition to the Southwest Florida cultural landscape. Ticket reservations are being accepted now. revsinstitute.org.
