For the past two weeks we have had family in town and with them they brought their nephew from Barcelona, Spain. He is a huge car fan and particularly fond of Camaros, so we knew that we had find a place that would have all of the classic American muscle cars in one spot because you just don’t get to see those in Spain very often.

The Texas Museum of Automotive History at Fair Park fit the bill. It is located directly across from the Museum of Nature and Science just past the pond. There’s only one entrance and it’s on the left side, so if you’re coming from that direction, stay to the left of the building. The cost to get into the museum was $10 per person, which on one hand seemed a little on the high side, but the air conditioning sure felt nice.

The entire building from their logo and welcome desk has an Art Deco feel, which definitely suits Fair Park and their surroundings well. The experience begins here:

The cars in the museum start back at the beginning of automotive history when cars looked more like modified horse buggies:

And then you begin to see the transformation that the automobile makes over the decades from these 1920′s models to the classic muscle cars of the 60s and 70s.

With the 50s classics and more in between:

They also have specialty cars, like this Superman Viper:

And popular foreign models that most of us can only dream about:

Then you have a few of the more “functional” cars that your everyday family could enjoy:

The racing world has not been left out of the mix either:

And here are a few of my personal favorites:

A car given to Babe Ruth

The DeLorean

Are these still legal? I could get a lot done with this one:

And no car museum would be complete without the popular Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

The museum was a huge hit with the family. There are so many classic cars that you forget about over the years, but they have them all under one roof right here. There’s also so many cars in here that you would probably never see anywhere else in the world. The estimated value of the entire collection is about $30 million.

If there’s a car lover in your family or if you’re just looking for a place to get out of this ridiculous Texas heat this summer, then this is definitely a “cool” place to do it.