To give it its full name: the Mazda Classic – Automobil Museum Frey. Naturally, it’s in Germany, or Bavaria to be more precise. The Frey part refers to the local Mazda dealer, Walter Frey, whose brainchild this is.
The Mazda company has given its official blessing to the museum, which is the first of its kind to open outside of Japan. But every single car in the museum comes from the Frey family’s own collection.
At the heart of it is a 45-vehicle collection of cars spanning everything from a rotary-engined Parkway bus to a gullwing-doored mid-engined AZ-1 Kei car from the Japanese domestic market. There are several generations of the RX-7 sports car; the R360 which was the company’s first mass-produced car starting in 1960; and a 1966 Familia 1000 Coupe.
Mazda itself is impressed: “Everyone at Mazda headquarters is very proud that the Freys are part of our organisation and have created something so extraordinary.”
Amazingly, this 45-strong core collection is just the tip of the iceberg as altogether there are around 75 more which are not yet on display. The plan is that they will rotated round along with the current cars on exhibition.
Walter Frey has been a Mazda dealer since the 1970s so he’s had many decades to pick the best or the rarest models for his collection. Most have been restored by Walter with his sons Markus and Joachim. It’s hard not imagine that the museum will become a key destination for car meets and events from all over Europe.
MORE ABOUT