I-Drive’s Orlando Auto Museum jams in history, design, pop culture

It’s bumper-to-bumper inside Orlando Auto Museum, the large car collection at Dezerland Park Orlando on International Drive.

There are about 2,000 vehicles on the property, most of which are accessible with paid admission to the attraction. There’s an international flair there, and history mixes with pop culture. Visitors see military tanks one moment and a set of Batmobiles the next.

“You never know what you’re going to find … what sparks a memory,” says Max Apodaca III, who runs the museum, including finding parking spots for all those cars. The bulk are within the walls of the museum, but there’s spillover outside and into empty storefronts of the building, which has operated under the names of Festival Bay and Artegon in its history.

And the cars keep coming, thanks to purchases by developer Michael Dezer. The collection is worth about $200 million, Apodaca says.

“It’s a never-ending story,” he says. “Sometimes there is rhyme or reason. Sometimes there isn’t.”

The attraction does have a structure that includes themed showrooms such as Americana, micro cars, the Chrysler Lounge, cars of Europe, Gatsby Lounge and the military pavilion.

To see Batmobiles driven by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and Adam West, plus the Batcycle and Batboat, it’s to the Bat Cave. (“Batdance,” performed by Prince, was piped in during my visit.)

One of the most popular areas, Apocada says, is the stars of the cars room, which features vehicles seen in movies and TV shows. Think “Knight Rider,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Miami Vice,” “Terminator,” “Easy Rider” and “Total Recall.” But also think “Speed Racer,” “Ghostbusters” and “Back to the Future.”

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“The producers of ‘Miami Vice’, the TV show, weren’t convinced it was going to be successful. So rather than swing for a fleet of true Ferraris. They bought Corvettes, and made them look like Ferraris,” says Lana Vegosen, director of marketing.

“Well, obviously, it was very successful. Ferrari was very angry. And that’s why you see one of these blow up on screen … the first season, and then replaced … with the understanding it would not happen again,” she says.

There’s also a car from the first “Mad Max” movie there.

“Every month, I get at least five emails from Australia that want this car back because it’s a national treasure,” Apodaca says. There’s been an offer as high as $2.4 million, but Dezer didn’t sell, he says.

The bulk of the experience is self-guided, but there are V.I.P. Tour options with a little more access and a guide. Parts of the museum can be rented for private or corporate occasions. A recent trend among teenage birthday events has been “dapper parties” in the Gatsby area.

There’s a separate space for James Bond vehicles and memorabilia.

“This is a little niche because some people just want to see James Bond – a lot of U.K. [visitors]. This is the only room they want to be in,” Apodaca says.

“It’s neat to see to how public opinion and commerce was shaped by the Bond franchise,” Vegosen says. “This collection kind of shows that. One of the things was the ‘Skyfall’ Land Rovers. Before that film, not that popular, but then when you see Halle Berry drive this as a stunt car, it became really popular.”

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Apodaca appears to have stories for each vehicle. They may be about manufacturing, a possible Kate Middleton connection, shipping from Puerto Rico or the rarity of split-window Volkswagens.

“I try to get every audience to understand what they’re looking at and how significant it is for them at their period of time,” he says.

“I love it because I know where we’re headed as a generation. These are all going to be forgotten,” Apodaca says. “To me, something like this place brings back that new interest of what these vehicles are, why they were made, what they looked at, where we were at in society, when they were created, where technology took us.”

Admission to the museum is $29.95 ($20.95 for ages 4 to 12). For more information, go to dezerlandpark.com.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.