Attention car clubs: there is a new destination for the tour on the club day. In the Betuwe town of Buren, Bavo Galama visited a new car museum with 140 cars, two crane trucks and 40 mopeds.
Some museums have already been lost in recent years. Think of the Ford museum of the Den Hartogh family in Hillegom or the AMC/Rambler museum in Berlikum. It is not uncommon for a hard-earned collection of special automobiles to fall apart as soon as it is distributed among the heirs. That is why it is a joyful event when a new car museum is added. We look at Visschers Classique Automuseum in Buren, a town between Tiel and Geldermalsen.
“First an old 404 and then it never stopped”
The man behind the museum is a born host. His name is Henk Visscher. Every visitor is warmly welcomed and provided with coffee as soon as possible. Until a few years ago, Henk led a dealership for PSA Peugeot-Citroën and Hyundai, among others, with six branches in the Betuwe and the Groene Hart. So not a little boy. But none of his children wanted to continue the business. Now that Henk has turned 65, he has sold the company and the great enjoyment has begun.
That pleasure is certainly not in a comfortable armchair behind the geraniums. A quarter of a century after he bought his first youngtimer in 1997, an off-white Peugeot 404, he has collected so many oldtimers and youngtimers that you could fill a museum with them. And that’s exactly what he did this year. Henk Visscher: “Whoa! By no means all the cars in the museum are mine! Such is my brother Chris’s Renault collection and some of my friend Mario Müller’s Peugeots.”
The French cars of my youth
At first glance it seems like a hodgepodge of brands and cars on display. Yet, if you walk through it in peace and quiet, the collection feels like a self-evident unity. You soon realize that the collection mainly consists of post-war French cars. Not surprising, because the dealerships of the family business mainly focused on the Simca, Talbot, Peugeot and Citroen brands. Many old, almost forgotten Simcas are there. I see Citroëns of all shapes and sizes, Peugeots of all ages, and cars from PSA competitor Renault.
Matra in Panhard
You will also find brands in the museum that were once related to better-known French brands, such as Matra or Panhard. For someone my age, the journey takes you straight back to childhood. Look, a Simca 1000! Cousin Michiel had one with which he blasted up and down from Friesland to Nijmegen one afternoon like a wild man. Just for a cup of coffee. And there a Simca 1100. My aunt Jo from Borne had one, somewhere in the early seventies.
A car collection as a company
“I grew up surrounded by cars,” says Henk. “My father had a garage. In 1961 he became a Simca dealer. One of my earliest memories is the introduction of the Simca 1000 in Avifauna in Alphen aan de Rijn. I was four years old. My brother, my sister and I had to sit in that Simca 1000 for a photo. I drove a car when I was ten and sold my first car when I was fourteen. I was a sweet little boy who apparently inspired confidence. If one of the customers broke down with the car, my brother and I fixed it and then we drove the customer home. I wasn’t super technical, but I knew how a car worked.”
Children chose their own path
“It was clear that my future and that of my brothers was in the automotive world. But my children have chosen their own path and that’s totally fine. I hope to pass on this collection and this museum in one way or another. “The museum received a catering permit and events and meetings can take place. Commercially, it must soon be able to become an independent company. That’s how I see it. I’m 65 years old, so I still have some time to develop this further.”
A Maserati as Sinterklaas surprise
Besides a number of real classics, and the cars that were daily fare in my early childhood years, I also run into hardly known copies. I see an experimental Citroen M35. It looks like an Ami 8 in a curious coupe version. But even more special is the Wankel engine that was developed together with NSU. Citroen wanted to test the whole concept with a number of loyal customers and built 267 of them. After the test period, they were returned and destroyed by Citroën. A few copies have escaped the dance and one is in Buren.
The Peugeot 205 Break is also special. The real car connoisseur will now frown; it doesn’t exist at all! Indeed, this is a gray prototype with a modified back. It was signed by the Belgian Benoit Contreau. Pininfarina also submitted a proposal for a 205 Break, but it did not make it either. Peugeot ultimately saw no market for it.
Henk Visscher takes the lead
“Look, that’s nice for the photo in your magazine! How do you want me to stand?” And before I can wonder whether I think such a photo is such a good idea myself, I am already obediently shooting pictures of a proud grandfather with a surprise for a Maserati. This man can sell a car, that much is clear to me. But his talent now serves a common purpose. If he manages to sell this new car museum with the same panache, we will hopefully be able to peek at cars in Buren for many years to come.