Detour Pit Stop #120: Riga Motor Museum, Latvia

LEAVE the Old Town, head through the estates and drive through an enormous forest, AND you’ll arrive at Riga Motor Museum on the city's outskirts, and you feel as if you are a long way from anywhere.

This beautifully curated museum houses over 100 vehicles and manages to cover just about everything. The exhibition begins with the words “It is possible that the wheel was not invented, but rather discovered”, and tracks the development of cars over the years, with great focus on the huge role that Latvia played.

The museum displays the last existing vehicle created by the Krastin Automobile Manufacturing Company, a company that shareholders invested $200,000 in 1901, more than would be invested in Ford in 1903. The factory subsequently burned down and the company folded.

The museum is so vast and detailed that there really is something for everyone with exhibition including:

The Long Road To The Car, Origins of The Automotive Industry, The 1920s: The Car - Man’s Best Friend, The 1930s: Gaining fast, The Kremlin Collection: Not burdened by modesty, Soviet Car Industry: The Nation of Handymen, Motorsports: For Petrolheads, Cult Cars: Idols and Nostalgia, Ancient Workshop: From Blacksmith to Car Mechanic, Manufacture of Cars, Motorcycles and Bikes in Latvia and Track and Special Purpose Vehicles: The Underrated Ones.

For four years, Latvia was actually at the forefront of the car manufacturing industry, producing Fords from 1926 until 1930 when the country lost its independence. There’s a section devoted to car radios in the 1925s and an identical version of Latvian President Karlis Ulmanis’ Cadillac V8 Fleetwood Series 353.

This museum manages to pack in so much without feeling bloated and stands as a point of great pride for Latvia.

Words & Photography Robert Prendergast

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: MUSEUM

NAME: RIGA MOTOR MUSEUM

ROUTE: Sergeja Eizenšteina iela 8, Vidzemes priekšpilsēta, Rīga, LV-1079

COUNTRY: LATVIA

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