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In April of 2015 I was able to make it to the opening weekend of World of Speed in Wilsonville Oregon (just south of Portland): my expectations were low because in the window, visible from the interstate highway, there was a collection of NASCAR vehicles and I'm not a big fan, but my expectations were blown away when I walked through the door to find a two-time Le Mans 24 Hour race winning 8 litre Bentley spinning on a beautiful platform.
I've posted a video of the Bentley spinning to Youtube, but I have to warn you to turn your volume down before watching it. I was being a dweeb, telling my buddy about the Brooklands race track, and how one of my favorite pictures is an airborne Bentley (a result of the bumpy track which was built to handle the slower cars of the decade before this Bentley). It's annoying to listen to so watch the video, admire the spinning beauty of a Bentley, but turn the volume down so your experience isn't soiled by the jarring narrative.
In front of the Bentley sat a beautiful Bugatti. The beauty of these two masters was spectacular, but it's funny how salt goes well with sweet. Farther in, I found a belly tank racer in the back corner of the museum that I considered just as good looking, in it's own way.
Right off the walkway was a well stocked room where my daughter could play on a variety of things, including a full mustang body/interior. There was even a battery powered old school bumper car in the room but this was quickly removed. Later when we were leaving I heard one of the staff say he caught a kid repeatedly running into the glass windows trying to break them. I think either the kid or his parent should be spanked. Either way, I heard the staff member say he disconnected the battery and today (several weeks later) the bumper car was gone.
I was shocked at the quality of cars in World of Speed. In my opinion they upstage the much bigger LeMay museum in Tacoma in terms of historic cars.
Moon Racing Car
World of Speed has managed to get true legendary race cars. Inside you'll find a Mickey Thompson land speed record car, the Jado special, a Jungle Jim funny car, a Richard Petty Nascar, historic drag cars from the Portland area, a real Shelby Cobra, AMA championship motorcycles, etc. Loved it!
I have only one complaint. They don't let you bring coffee or water inside. We have two kids under 1.5. I function on coffee. They already have barricades keeping you away from the cars. What am I going to do, throw my coffee through a window? How about a policy that you have to be over 18 to have liquid inside the floor area?
After we went to the World of Speed Grand Opening we stopped at a smokehouse in the Salem area. It was the perfect pairing to a morning of looking at cars. Highly recommend smokehouses after car museums.
World of Speed impressed me even further the next day. I went out to the Woodburn drag strip, a historic quarter mile NHRA track around since 1951 I believe. And I was impressed because World of Speed organized a selection of "Nostalgia Drags" to run funny cars, front mounted blower cars, etc, down the historic dragstrip. It was awesome seeing cars run I'd only heard about and seen pictures of.
I bought a Budweiser at the drag because it felt like the type of beer you drink at a drag strip. If anyone in Oregon reads I bought non-local trash beer I may get beat down or protested but thankfully Oregonians don't read much; it's weird. I have an online book business and get almost zero sales in Oregon, probably too much outdoor stuff to do.
I was already pretty happy about World of Speed by this point, but several weeks later they made major community kudos in my book.
We've had what's called a "Cars and Coffee" Saturday morning random gathering of cars at a Starbucks in the local area for a long time. Last month I was about to head over when a buddy let me know that the parking lot owner had decided we weren't welcome anymore. I'm going to guess it's because if someone tripped on a curb and knocked themselves out on a fender, some lawyer would be trying to make money; there are certain aspects of our culture that need to die.
The Old Cars & Coffee
Well, this weekend World of Speed opened their parking lots up to Cars and Coffee. I dusted the MGA off and a friend and I shot over to World of Speed to enjoy three parking lots full of supercars, musclecars, kit cars, eurocars, ricers, and my hoopty. Seriously, mine was the only one I saw that looked like mine so it deserves it's own category. I probably should be embarrassed but I have little shame.
The New Cars & Coffee
The cars in attendance were awesome, with your typical car show attenders, but also some off the wall cars that I really enjoyed for their novelty (a GTR is sweet, but once you've seen one...). I saw one Lambo that I couldn't remember seeing even in magazines!
Went in side again too, and there were a few cars I don't remember seeing Grand Opening weekend so they must be rotating some selection. Also, this time I didn't have a 17 month old to chase everywhere so I actually got to watch the video documentary on Portland racing they commissioned. I loved the video and learned quite a bit about racing in the Portland area. I thought it was a great video, although it focused on circle track and I fear it missed some of Portland's rich history at drag strips (like Woodburn) and road tracks (like Portland International).
Long story short, I'm impressed with World of Speed. I think they're doing a great job and I think they're going to continue doing so. I just read in my (too expensive to buy every month) British car magazine that they've commissioned a famous car painter for a large work so I know they're not done. I'd be willing to bet that World of Speed is going to continue to add positively to Portland's car culture. We've got a good thing going here and it seems to just keep getting better. Or maybe I'm just learning where and how to enjoy it more. Either way, Portland's got a pretty healthy car culture going and I'm glad to be a part of it, even if all I add is a hoopty.
And after my buddy and I left World of Speed today, we stopped at Storr's Smokehouse in Newberg and got smoked BBQ sandwiches. Perfect. I said it before and I said it again, cars and BBQ, the perfect pair!
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