During our three-month Route 66 road trip, we visited quite a few car museums along the Mother Road. That probably isn’t surprising considering Route 66 and classic car culture go hand in hand. From vintage cruisers and restored classics to flashy muscle cars and movie vehicles, there are car museums scattered all across the route. But out of all the car museums we visited on Route 66, the Route 66 Car Museum in Springfield, Missouri ended up being our favorite.
Springfield is often called the birthplace of Route 66, so visiting one of the city’s most famous automotive attractions felt like a must during our stay there. What we didn’t expect was just how many rare, unusual, and genuinely fascinating vehicles we’d find inside. Even after visiting a lot of car museums over the years, this was one of the few that consistently made us stop to read the stories behind the cars instead of just quickly walking through.
Unfortunately, while researching this post, we learned the museum is scheduled to close in 2027 as owner Guy Mace prepares to retire after decades of collecting. That makes this one of those Route 66 attractions you may want to prioritize seeing sooner rather than later.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about visiting the museum before it closes, share our honest review of the experience, and highlight some of our favorite cars from the collection.
About the Route 66 Car Museum
If you love classic cars, quirky roadside attractions, or anything tied to the history of Route 66, the Route 66 Car Museum is one of those places that’s easy to spend way more time in than you planned.
Located in Springfield, Missouri, often called the birthplace of Route 66, this privately owned collection features nearly 100 years of automotive history all under one roof. Inside, you’ll find everything from Brass Era automobiles and vintage classics to sleek sports cars, celebrity vehicles, and rare award-winning models. Some of the cars are instantly recognizable, while others are the kind you’ve probably never seen anywhere else. What makes the museum especially interesting is that it never really feels overly polished or corporate. It feels like stepping into someone’s lifelong passion project- because that’s exactly what it is. Owner Guy Mace spent more than 40 years collecting cars from across different eras and styles, creating a museum that feels packed with personality around every corner.
While researching this post, we also learned that the museum is scheduled to close on April 17, 2027. After decades of collecting, Guy Mace is reportedly ready to move on to other projects, and the museum’s collection is expected to be auctioned off in May 2026. That makes visiting feel a little bittersweet, especially knowing this unique stop along Route 66 won’t be around forever.
Beyond the cars themselves, there’s also a surprisingly large gift shop filled with Route 66 souvenirs, toy cars, model kits, vintage license plates, and old-school oil and gas memorabilia. Even if you’re traveling with someone who isn’t a huge car person, there’s enough nostalgia packed into the place to make it worth a stop.
How to Visit the Route 66 Car Museum
Address: 1634 W College St, Springfield, MO 65806
Website: https://66carmuseum.com/
Hours: Open daily 9am-5pm
Admission: Adults $15, Seniors/Veterans $13, Kids 10 and under $5, Kids 2 and under Free
The Route 66 Car Museum will be closing forever April 17, 2027
Our Review of the Route 66 Car Museum
We honestly ended up liking the Route 66 Car Museum way more than we expected to. Back home in Illinois, we’ve visited the Volo Museum multiple times, and with hundreds of vehicles on display there, most car museums feel pretty small to us by comparison. Because of that, we usually go into smaller museums expecting to walk through fairly quickly.
But what made the Springfield museum stand out wasn’t the size, it was how many genuinely unique and rare cars they had packed into the collection. Out of all the car museums we visited along Route 66, this one was easily our favorite.
At this point, we’ve been to enough car museums and car shows that we tend to move through them pretty fast. Usually it’s a lot of “oh that’s cool,” followed by realizing we’ve already seen something similar somewhere else before. Here though, we kept stopping to actually read the information signs because there were so many vehicles we had never heard of or cars with surprisingly interesting backstories.Some had histories tied to celebrity owners, others had stories about where they were discovered or restored, and a few had details about how they were originally used that made them even more fascinating. It felt less like a generic showroom and more like a collection assembled by someone who genuinely loved the stories behind the vehicles as much as the cars themselves.
That’s also part of why it was such a bummer to learn the museum is closing while we were writing this post. Private collection museums always have that uncertainty hanging over them a little bit, and in this case it sounds like owner Guy Mace, now in his 80s, is simply ready to retire and move on to other things after decades of collecting. Completely understandable, of course, but it definitely makes us even more glad we got the chance to experience it while it’s still around.
A Few Highlights From the Collection
These are just a handful of the cars that stood out to us during our visit to the Route 66 Car Museum. Part of what makes this museum so memorable is that it’s full of vehicles with unusual histories, rare restorations, little-known manufacturers, and designs you just don’t run into very often. Honestly, this is only scratching the surface of the unique things packed into the collection.
1971 Gotham Roadster
As a huge DC Comics fan, this was one of my personal favorites. The 1971 Gotham Roadster was inspired by the 1966 TV Batmobile and looks incredibly close to the original design. It was built by Batrodz, LLC, a company that specializes in creating Batmobiles. Even among all the rare classics in the museum, this one immediately grabs your attention.
ECTO-1
Another great movie car in the collection is the ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters. This particular vehicle is one of only five ECTO-1 replicas officially licensed by Sony to promote the 2016 Ghostbusters movie. Whether you’re into movie memorabilia or classic cars, it’s one of those vehicles that instantly makes people stop for photos.
1926 Hudson Speedster Grapes of Wrath Movie Car
This was probably one of the most unexpected cars in the museum for us. All along Route 66, we kept running into museums talking about John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, so it was really cool seeing an actual movie vehicle tied to that history. This 1926 Hudson was transformed into the Joad family car for the 1940 film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath.
After filming, the car disappeared into storage for nearly 70 years before eventually being rediscovered and restored. Because the vehicle had extensive termite and structural damage, restoring it back to its exact film appearance would have been incredibly expensive. Instead, it was restored as a period-style racecar while still preserving its fascinating history.
1963 Morgan +4 and 2005 Morgan Aero 8
Before visiting this museum, I honestly had never even heard of Morgan cars before, but they ended up being some of the most beautiful vehicles in the entire collection. The 1963 Morgan +4 especially stood out to us. Only around 4,500 of that model were produced between 1950 and 1963, and this particular car was once owned by General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the famous Desert Storm commander.
The Kissel Collection
Kissel was another manufacturer I knew absolutely nothing about before this visit. The company operated from 1906 through 1931 and produced around 35,000 vehicles total, but today only about 150 Kissel cars are known to still exist. The museum’s Kissel collection was one of those areas where we found ourselves slowing down and reading every information sign because it’s such a forgotten piece of automotive history.
1936 Horch 853
This was the rarest and most expensive car in the entire museum collection. The 1936 Horch 853 was originally used to transport German officers during World War II before eventually being appropriated by the United States military. Over the decades, it passed through multiple museums and private owners before ending up forgotten in South Dakota, where it reportedly sat parked for 55 years. Eventually the car resurfaced at auction and made its way to the Route 66 Car Museum. It later earned second place in the Pre-War Preservation class at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which is a pretty incredible accomplishment on its own.
1934 Ford Brewster
This might have been one of my favorite-looking cars in the entire museum. The 1934 Ford Brewster was a prototype vehicle and the first of only 60 cars produced with its distinctive heart-shaped grille. The grille honestly looks more like a sculpture than part of a car, and once you notice the smaller details, like the textured doors and elegant trim work, it becomes hard to stop staring at it. It’s one of those cars where the craftsmanship feels truly artistic.
1939 Packard Safari
The 1939 Packard Safari may have had the most fascinating history of any car in the museum. Packard only built three Safari wagons for African big game hunting expeditions, and this is believed to be the only surviving example in the world today. That alone makes it one of the rarest Packards ever made. What makes it even more interesting is that this specific vehicle was reportedly used by Winston Churchill during hunting trips in Africa. Between the rarity, the unusual purpose it was designed for, and the historical connection, this was easily one of the most memorable cars in the entire museum.
More Things to Do in Springfield, Missouri on Route 66
If you’re spending a day or two exploring Springfield, there’s honestly a lot more to do nearby beyond just the Route 66 Car Museum.
Springfield is packed with classic Route 66 diners, roadside attractions, historic neon signs, murals, museums, and vintage motels, so it ended up being one of our favorite stops along the Mother Road during our three-month Route 66 trip.
Be sure to check out our full Springfield itinerary for even more fun things to do, great Route 66 stops, and hidden gems around the city:
Route 66 in Springfield, MO: The Most Unique Stops in the Birthplace of the Mother Road
And be sure to check out all of our Route 66 posts:
