A sizeable group of VMC Members turned out for the one hour opening of the private Ratsoy Museum in Richmond.  The main building with its collection of mostly North American automobiles from 1929-60 was surrounded by memorabillia of all kinds.  An hour was barely enough time to take but a glimpse at the vehicles and collectibles on display.

 

From a Mini perspective, an oddity in the group was a BMW Isetta 300 - one of the "bubble cars" that Issigonis was charged with seeing off British roads.  The Mini accomplished this task by 1962.

 

The Ratsoy Isetta is a 4 wheeler, unlike the three wheelers sold in Britain - cheaper because with 3 wheels and no reverse gear they were taxed as motorcycles.  With the front opening door, if a driver trapped himself or was trapped behind another vehicle, the solution was to open the sunroof, stand up and push the 3 wheeler backwards.

 

The Isetta (little Iso) was designed by Italian refrigerator manufacturer Renzo Rivolta (ISO S.p.A.), but ISO only made about 1,000.  The majority were manufactured by BMW (136,000 or so) and are said to have saved the company.  Isetta of Britain built some 30,000 Isettas, 3 wheeler for the UK and 4 wheelers for export.  Another 3,000 Rami-Isettas were manufactured in Brazil and some 5,000 by Velam, which introduced 5 models with French designed bodywork.

 

Another oddity was the French UNIC...another story.

 

Ron Boyes led the museum attendees off to Steveston on the dike and to brunch at the ABC restaurant on No. 3 Road.  The Dining group included - Ron Boyes, Ed Bulpitt, the Malins, Rob Fram and Brianna, Christine Fram, Mitch McCrea, Stagg, Pat Tillapaugh, the Suttons, Nolan Kitchener and friend, the Higgs.... 

by Rick Higgs

 

 

June Dine and Dash was coordinated by Ron Boyes. He had arranged for us to tour the Ratsoy Museum in south Richmond, followed by lunch a little later.

Contrary to what the name implies, there is no indication from the road that a museum even exists; two Triumph people who came out to join us discovered this the hard way. Apparently they had left the address at home but figured if they just drove down the right road, the “museum” should present itself. Finding no obvious museum they just parked and waited for a Mini to come by. They were embarrassed to admit that they lived within walking distance of the museum yet had no idea it even existed.

The building bearing the correct address was a very simple ranch-style house in the middle of a large plot of meticulously manicured grass. Behind the house and set far enough from the road so as not to be obvious was a very large shed.

Ron had told us that there were two buildings housing cars and one more building that “made Dream Car Garage look like an outhouse.” Unfortunately, due to a problem with the roof in the second building, we could not go in there. We also could not go in the shop as many of the cars from the second building had been moved in there.

This one building open to us housed approximately 50 vehicles, most of which were of the American variety from about 1935 to 1960. There were a few oddities including a BMW Isetta, a French made Unic and an Austin Pick-up. All the vehicles are beautifully restored.

What I found most interesting was the assortment of memorabilia around the perimeter of the building. There was the usual assortment of gas pumps and signs plus unusual things like player pianos, kid’s rides and test equipment. Ex-soundman Larry Sutton went directly to the large collection of vintage microphones and scared himself by noting “I’ve worked with some of these!”

Someone asked the curator how big the collection is and how long it took to acquire it. He said there are about 95-100 completed vehicles. The owner wanted to get into real estate around 1980 and sold most of the collection for cash flow. This lasted about six months and he began buying cars again.

Due to a time restriction, we were only able to stay about an hour. Around 11:30 we headed off for some brunch, and the rest, as they say, is history.

by Steve Malins