Yvan Mahy collection, Leuze-en-Hainaut, Belgium
Visited in 2016
This is a very interesting museum. Not just because of the varied and historically interesting cars on display, of which there are over 300, but also because of the hundreds of other old cars that are not officially on display. However, you can view them from an elevated walkway. Condition varies between near-perfect and requiring ground-up restoration. For me, this part of the collection was the most fascinating. It was like discovering a barn-find.
During the 1950s and 1960s the late Ghislain Mahy amassed a collection of old vehicles, bought for their scrap value and stored them away. In 1986, the Autoworld museum was opened in the grounds of the Cinqauntanire Park in central Brussels. The huge hall, which at one time housed the 1880 Great Exhibition, is now home to more than two hundred and fifty cars and motorcycles, jewels of the Mahy Collection. Unfortunately, it cannot hold more than a quarter of the Mahy collection.
In 1997 Ghislain’s son Ivan Mahy found a redundant textile factory in the town of Leuze-en-Hainaut, to house the rest of the collection.
Address:
Musée de l’Auto MAHYMOBILES Rue Erna 3, 7900 Leuze-en-Hainaut, Belgium
Website: mahymobiles.be