Coventry Transport Museum - trip post 4

Our fourth excursion was a trip to the Coventry Transport Museum, the largest collection of British road transport in the world. The squiggles out front are part of a Time Zone Clock, which is nifty once you figure it out. Simon and I visited back in 1999 when it was in its old location.


We met up with two of Simon's childhood friends -- Mark (on the left) and Paul (on the right), plus Paul's two sons. They're standing in front of a sign listing all the Coventry manufacturers of various types of transport.


For those of you who don't know already, our kids are named after Coventry automobile manufacturers (though Boo's name was modified to Frances, the feminine form of Francis). I believe we saw two Alvis and four(!) Lea-Francis cars. Here's Lea-Frances with a 1929 Lea-Francis Hyper (S Type) ...


... and Norman Alvis with a 1920 Alvis 10-30.


I'm throwing in a picture that Boo took of me as well, since there are very few pictures of me from this trip -- and I think I look quite nice here in spite of my baggy layers of clothing. I'm not sure what type of car I'm standing in front of, though it's certainly not a Francine or an Elizabeth. :-)


The Blitz Experience Gallery recreates the bombing raid on Coventry on November 14, 1940. Here Norman and Lea-Frances pretend they're in a bomb shelter.


Here's a Mini emerging from a tunnel, representing one of the most famous chase scenes from the iconic movie ‘The Italian Job’, filmed in Coventry’s sewers!


Boo riding along with Postman Pat and his "black and white cat", Jess -- characters in a British children's television series.


Norman had been excited about seeing the Thrust cars which set various land speed records. First up was Thrust2 (Thrust1 was destroyed in an accident). It set a land speed record of 633.468 mph in 1984.


We'd seen Thrust2 on our previous visit, but the rest of the Spirit of Speed Gallery is all new. After a ride in the ThrustSSC simulator (only I passed on experiencing an actual supersonic run), we saw ThrustSSC itself. It set a land speed record of 763.035 mph in 1997, becoming the first car ever to break the sound barrier (hence the SSC for "Super Sonic Car").


After the museum we headed home to let the kids rest, then met up again at Paul's house for dinner and more socializing.