I Found A Secret Car Museum With An Incredible Collection Of Entirely Ordinary Cars - The Autopian (2024)

Museums are wonderful windows into the past. Everyone of every generation can take a trip back to their childhood or eras before they were born. Many museums rack up the most iconic vehicles from their era, but it’s also awesome to see regular cars saved from rust and abuse. I found one of these museums here in Illinois and you won’t find it anywhere on the Internet. The Crazy ’80s Car Museum is an epic time warp to the Malaise Era and beyond.

This car museum came as a tip from Autopian Discord server user Cat. To illustrate how secret the Crazy ’80s Car Museum is, there’s no website for it, no Facebook page, and no Google listing. You won’t easily find its address, any information on it, or when it’s open. This is a museum where the old saying “if you know, you know” is the truth.

Even better is that the Crazy ’80s Car Museum is more than just a collection of cars. It’s a dream made reality and an educational tool for generations.

Cars And Dreams

The Crazy ’80s Car Museum is the work of two men here in Illinois. They’re private individuals and the cars in the museum are their own cars. One of the owners of the museum told me that he and his friend long had a dream of opening up a car museum after retirement. They’re due to retire this year, but they opened up the museum early, anyway.

The museum’s location is in Dwight, Illinois at the former site of a 1970s furniture store. Your only clue that there’s something special going on is a small Crazy ’80s Car Museum sign out front next to an immaculate first-generation Chevy S-10 with just 60,000 miles. That’s the daily driver of one of the owners and a hint at what you’re about to look at.

Walk into the door and you feel like you hopped in Doc Brown’s DeLorean and drove straight into the late 1970s and 1980s. The former furniture store has been largely preserved. Look up and you’ll plush carpet ceiling tiles, which hasn’t been a huge thing for decades. The walls are wood panels and mirrors, features the owner told me are straight from when the store was selling furniture 50 years ago.

The building has the calming aroma of an antique shop mixed the the rubber and fluids of cars older than you are.

One of the owners of the museum tells me that every car in there is from the personal collections of the owners. They’ve never intended this museum to be something like the Lane Motor Museum or even like the Illinois Railway Museum. Instead, the guys figured that they already owned a bunch of cars, so why not show them off to locals and take people back in time while they do it?

Since these cars are personal cars, they aren’t exactly museum pieces. Yes, the guys tried to find cars in good condition, but I’m told most of the cars have some sort of problem that made them cheap to acquire. Maybe the car has a wonky carburetor, a screwdriver jammed into the ignition, or a misfire at idle.

When was the last time you’ve seen a Pontiac Astre?

Or a first-generation Honda Civic?

In addition to picking up regular cars that were once daily drivers, the guys left the cars largely as they were, including rust and potentially questionable modifications. There’s a reason for this. All of these cars were once daily drivers who carried their owners to wherever they needed to go. These aren’t just cars, but reflections of their owners and the time. These cars are snapshots of several lives lived.

There’s even a whole section dedicated to how the multiple oil crises of the 1970s changed cars. So much of car history dates back to that time. The 1970s was just the perfect storm to redirect car history. Many cars of the immediate era before were emissions-spewing gas guzzlers and Americans simply couldn’t afford to fuel them anymore. Fuel prices surged, the economy struggled, and inflation increased. People really started caring about the environment, too.

The cars of the 1970s and the 1980s reflect the changing world. Vehicles got smaller, more fuel-efficient, and cleaner. We also switched from advertising horsepower in SAE gross to net, which was part of why the mighty V8s of the late 1960s suddenly became so weak. Early smog equipment dealt another beating. Meanwhile, Americans were buying up a flood of compact and affordable imports while the American brands made their own interpretations of the same.

Something I love about this museum is the fact that you won’t find a Cobra or GTO in here. Instead, all of the vehicles in here, with the exception of the Bricklin SV-1, are cars that you or maybe your parents owned in the past.

All of the vehicles in the museum are cars that you perhaps thought had all rusted away or had been driven into the ground.

Every Car Has A Story

Another wholesome part about the Crazy ’80s Car Museum is the fact that every car there has a story. First, let’s just take a look at the museum’s mission statement:

This museum is dedicated to the mid-1970s to late 1980s; a time I remember of coming of age in America. A time in life of freedom and carefree living. This was a special time for me, and I just want others to remember.

You won’t see any muscle cars or hot rods in this museum. I have dedicated this museum to mid-size and compact automobiles of the time. These cars were driven by working men and women of america; factory workers, teachers, and students driving to and from school. These cars were brought to life because of the gas crisis and the new emissions and pollution rules. Inexpensive and gas efficient; or some would call disposable. I am not a car collector; I am a car saver. I have tried to save as many of these examples as possible and the stories behind them. Who, where, and why they were saved. I hope you enjoy my effort of saving this part of Americana. Welcome to the Crazy ’80s Car Museum.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to visit.

The owners of this museum have spent so much of their lives surrounded by the cars that populate the museum today. So, taking a stroll through their own collection takes them back to a different time. They want to share that magic with others.

I didn’t count the cars currently on display, but there have to be more than a few dozen. I’m told these are just the cars they were able to fit in the building. There are more, including a DeLorean DMC-12. The building is also only half-finished. There’s an entire wing waiting to be finished so more cars can pile in. That’s why the Nissan Stanza above Wagon is all by itself next to a Saab Sonett under a cover.

To give you an example of every car having a story, here’s a red Yugo.

I was amazed by its condition, and then warmed by its story. A gay couple owned this car for many years, taking it all over. The couple loved the car so much that it was as inseparable from them as they were to each other. When the primary owner of the vehicle passed, the car ended up in some sort of legal limbo with the owner’s family. The family wanted to get rid of it, but Yugos aren’t exactly known for having much value. The Crazy ’80s Car Museum saved the vehicle from a potentially sad fate. Now, the spirit of the couple lives on in the red Yugo that brings smiles to those who walk by.

All of these trucks also have a story.

The green one at the end, which I totally forgot to get a picture of, was owned by some hippies in Oregon. They made a bunch of modifications to the truck, including a screwdriver-based ignition after a key was lost. The Subaru Brat between these trucks was sold new without its iconic rear-facing seats, so it is on display here in Illinois as it was sold decades ago.

Even the mannequins have a story! The museum acquired the mannequins after a store shut down. They were also eventually doomed for the garbage bin, but now they represent the 1980s as well.

Some of the vehicles in the museum reflect the owners’ favorite bits of engineering. You will find a rare diesel car in there and more than one pace car replica. You’ll even find things that aren’t cars like vintage hovering lawnmowers and toys from the 1970s and 1980s. When I say that this place is a time machine, I mean it.

This museum has become an inspiration for me. I’ve frequently talked with my wife about one day just opening up a space displaying my own regular cars. These guys achieved this dream almost exactly as I’ve imagined it, but with cars 20 years older.

If you’re interested in taking a trip back in time, the Crazy ’80s Car Museum is free to visit, but donations are welcome. The owners of the museum are trying to keep it low-key and small, so try not to go overboard with telling every person you know about it. Otherwise, you can find the museum right off of I-55 on W Waupansie St in the town of Dwight, Illinois. The museum is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I’m told the museum is constantly evolving, so what you see today can be different the next time you visit. Have fun!

(Images: Author)