Las Vegas Imperial Palace auto car collection review

The car collection at Imperial Palace is an institution.  I've been going there since I was a wee boy in the 1980s.  Back then, the highlights of my trips to Vegas involved visiting the collection and being given a $10 roll of quarters to use at the video game arcade at the oh-so-pink Circus Circus.

Most of the cars on display are for sale.  If you visit once a year, I guesstimate the turnover of cars is around 20%.  My biggest complaint involves the display.  This place seriously needs freshening up.  The fluorescent bulbs and ugly 1990s high school classroom blue carpeting have got to go.

Without further ado, here are my favorite cars:

1963 Ford Thunderbird Italien concept car

Engine bay of 1987 Buick GNX ($95,000; 5,480 miles)

Lancia 037 bought new in Guatemala

1 of 2 RHD Ferrari Superfast Series II ($1.8 million) (and look at that atrocious lighting!)

1968 Toyota Corona RT-52 Coupe with 2,274 original miles ($25,500).  I love the diversity of the collection.  So long as the car is cool and interesting, it's in!

Yugo!

1980 Peugeot 505 sedan with less than 8,000 km for $39,500

1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Vignale Saloon ($450,000)

Ford RS200 traffic jam

1956 Lancia C10 Appia panel van ($65,000)

1954 Alfa Romeo 1900SS Ghia coupe ($325,000)

Jaguar XJ220

Ferrari Daytona and Datsun 280ZX

1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Superleggera

1966 Bizzarini P538 Spyder prototype (red) and 1967 Bizzarini P538 Coupe (white)

2007 Concorso D'Eleganza Villa D'Este

I just came across a site called Supercarfrance.  I'm wasting my Sunday afternoon away looking at pictures of dozens of rare, coach-built cars.  Here are a few from the 2007 show.

This Monteverdi 375/4 may be my favorite sedan of all time.  I never knew it existed until today.  I can't get over how long the front doors are.  It looks like an Italian GT up front and a ZIL in the back.  Only 30 of these were made.  A Chrysler 440 was used (that's 7.2 liters) and almost all of them went to the Middle East.  Supposedly, the Qatari royal family still has five of them and uses them regularly.

This BMW 2002 GT4 Frua prototype looks very Japanese.

I have never been a fan of Maserati Ghiblis but this SS Spyder looks perfect.  Is it the paint or the angle of the shot?

Every car show has to have at least one monstrosity.  Here is the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI Frua drophead coupe.

BMW 3200 Michelotti Vignale.

Rolls-Royce Phantom VI cabriolet by Frua (at Las Vegas Imperial Palace)

If you've ever been to the Imperial Palace car museum in Vegas, then you must remember that behemoth of a car on display, the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI cabrio by Frua.  This one-off is simply gargantuan.  At 21 1/2 feet in length, it is MORE THAN FOUR FEET longer than a new BMW 760Li.  It was made for a giant, who happens to be blind.

The Frua-bodies cabrio was based on this Phantom VI.

Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong Rolls-Royces

Since 1970, the luxury hotel has been using Brewster green Rollers to shuttle its guests around.

Here is a Silver Shadow in Bond's The Man With the Golden Gun.