When you visit most museums, you know the rule is “look but don’t touch” and that you cannot take anything home with you. But at the Ideal Classic Cars Museum in Venice, Florida you can actually drive off with a hot rod, street rod, muscle car, or even a one-of-a-kind original. In fact, you’ll find over 100 gorgeous classic cars, trucks and motorcycles on display and they’re all for sale. This FREE museum gets about 200 walk-in visitors per day, so the showroom floor is always changing. Whether you’re an experienced collector of European models or buying a car you’ve dreamed of since you were 16 years old, you’ll likely find inspiration here.
Ideal’s dazzling showroom can only be described as “eye candy.” It is a filled with gleaming color and shiny chrome— and lots of history. Most vehicles offered for sale are over 50 years old, some are even 60-75 years old or more. Interested in a lime green 1923 Ford T-Bucket Roadster, a candy apple red 1957 Ford Thunderbird, baby blue 1965 Chevy Corvette, or lemon yellow 1970 Dodge Challenger? Perhaps a movie or TV car would look better in your driveway— choose from the Mystery Machine driven in the Scooby Doo 1970s TV series, the 1964 Drag-U-LA Coffin Car from the Munsters, the Batmobile 
with working machine guns from 1989, or the prehistoric ride from the 2015 Flintstones movie. None of these in your budget? Well, you can at least get your photo taken with your favorites!
The Ideal Classic Cars Museum self-proclaims to be “one of the hottest tourist attractions on Florida’s southwest coast.” The showroom doubles as a free musuem and is open to the public. Even if you’re not in 
the market right now to buy, sell, trade, or consign, do stop in for a look around. And just for fun, imagine how cool one of these beauties would look towed behind your RV!
IF YOU GO:
Ideal Classic Cars Museum & Showroom
2224 S Tamiami Trail
Venice, Florida 34293
Phone: (888) 257-8352
In addition to writing about her travels, Denise Seith is also a treasure hunter and loves a good latté. She and her husband own an online gold prospecting and metal detecting equipment store found at GoldRushTradingPost.com
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