JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
1/10/11 6:15 p.m.

So the wife and I are currently on a cruise (yay, satellite internet) and today we stopped at Grand Cayman. We've been here several times, so we actually had the "let's just stay on the boat and chill" conversation, but soon decided that heading on shore would actually be "fun" so we went in and got our rental car and did some snorkeling.

JG's helpful marriage tip of the day: Take a piece of bread roll you stole from the breakfast buffet on the ship, tuck it into the butt cheek of her swimsuit while you're snorkeling, and laugh as the fish surround her in a hilarious feeding frenzy. Damn I'm glad that woman still tolerates me.

Anyhoo, after our dip, we had some time to kill before we went back to the ship, so we drove around a bit. Just north of Seven Mile Beach, right next door to the Cayman turtle farm attraction, my wife spotted a handsome new building we didn't remember being there the last time we visited the island.

"Hey. 'Cayman Motor Museum.'" says the wife. "That looks interesting."

So we stop and walk in and it's clean a new and there's a neat gift shop, but we're still not expecting much. We pay our entry, and after we're settled up I play the "press" card (I'm not a dick so I didn't try and haul it out before we paid). The girl behind the counter calls a British gent over who introduces himself and I explain who I am, but we're still not expecting much.

Then he opens the magic door and walks us back into the museum area and both my wife and I nearly pooed ourselves. Three Ferrari 250GTs right when you walk in, a 330GTC, numerous 308s, Boxers, an Iso Grifo, Maserati Khamsin, Alfa Giulieta, 2002 Turbo, and that's just what your brain processes on the first glance through the doors.

Turns out the museum is actually the private collection of Andreas Ugland, a shipping magnate and serious car enthusiast who decided to display a large part of his collection here in the Caymans. Peter Dryden was the nice Brit fella who curates the collection and took the time to show us around. Honestly and unfortunately, it looks like he has some time on his hands. As amazing as the collection is, it's a little out of place on a touristy tropical island, and I think Peter would have taken the time to show pretty much anyone around, press or not.

My greatest regret is that I didn't take my good camera off the ship, but here's a few shots from my underwater point and shoot. If you're ever down here. It's entirely worth checking out.

Oh yeah, and they have a real Batmobile, the last Mini to ever roll off the assembly line, and Idi Amin's old Benz.

jg

EDIT: Link. Duh. Cayman Motor Museum

Chebbie_SB
Chebbie_SB HalfDork
1/10/11 6:21 p.m.

2 words: "Business expense"

"Gotta go do a photo shoot for an upcoming article boss !"

cwh
cwh SuperDork
1/10/11 6:22 p.m.

NEVER underestimate the Islands. Cayman is an extremely wealthy place with a boat load of money from all over the world. They can afford toys like that without stretching the trust funds at all. A lot of world class billionaires from all over the world. I have family and friends there.

SilverFleet
SilverFleet HalfDork
1/10/11 6:23 p.m.

It's always nice making any vacation with the wife/GF/whatever turn into a car-related experience. Nice find!

Stealthtercel
Stealthtercel Reader
1/10/11 6:25 p.m.

Nice find! When people think about "lots of money" + "Cayman Islands" this sort of thing isn't usually at the top of the list.

In case people get the wrong idea from the placement of the M-B sign, the "1954 Silver Dawn" sign surely applies to the silvery car at the right of the picture, not the pre-war yellow and black one that is the main subject of the photo.

Your next mission, JG, is to sneak some shots of the engine room of your cruise ship, so people can continue plotting Wartburg swaps and stuff.

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
1/10/11 6:31 p.m.
Stealthtercel wrote: Nice find! When people think about "lots of money" + "Cayman Islands" this sort of thing isn't usually at the top of the list. In case people get the wrong idea from the placement of the M-B sign, the "1954 Silver Dawn" sign surely applies to the silvery car at the right of the picture, not the pre-war yellow and black one that is the main subject of the photo. Your next mission, JG, is to sneak some shots of the engine room of your cruise ship, so people can continue plotting Wartburg swaps and stuff.

Yeah, the cars were pretty packed in there, so some of the signs in the pictures may be for neighboring autos.

And we're on the Crown Princess, and one of the main reasons we chose Princess for this cruise is we found out they offer a pretty comprehensive ship tour, which supposedly includes the engine room and the bridge. We were pretty geeked about that. We were the last two people to get on the list, and we do that on Thursday. I really hope to leave a GRM sticker somewhere cool.

jg

Javelin
Javelin GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
1/10/11 6:55 p.m.

Awesome

RexSeven
RexSeven Dork
1/10/11 6:56 p.m.

Cool find! SCC did an article on the local car culture they have in the Caymans. Lots of kick-ass cars and the cops actually close off a strip of industrial road to allow them to drag race safely!

http://www.modified.com/features/0404scc_caribbean_street_racing/index.html

HiTempguy
HiTempguy HalfDork
1/10/11 7:02 p.m.
Stealthtercel wrote: is to sneak some shots of the engine room of your cruise ship

My father and I tried this 4 years ago. Good luck, cause it ain't happening Even went and talked to the Captain, no dice!

Kramer
Kramer HalfDork
1/10/11 7:23 p.m.

I'm jealous. The only cruise I've ever booked got cancelled due to Hurricane Wilma. We witnessed it from our hotel in Fort Lauderdale on October 24nd. We got married on October 22nd.

alfadriver
alfadriver SuperDork
1/10/11 7:31 p.m.

That

Is

Totally

Awesome.

When we went to Cayman two years ago, I managed to find one of the very, very few glass blowers who has a studio in the Carribbean. Now I have a new thing to visit.

The best part is that we are back onto the cruise thing, and finding excuses to go on another cruise is easy to find now. Hmmm.... Thanks.

RCCL is a little more restrictive on tours, but I hear the next level of cruiser does get tours. Which will be cool.

Love cruising, love finding little things like that. BTW, there's a track in Jamaica- I wonder if you can get up there from a ship.

Eric

Duke
Duke SuperDork
1/11/11 11:44 a.m.
JG Pasterjak wrote: And we're on the Crown Princess...

HEY! When did you set sail? That ship was docked in St. Thomas when we were there on our way back from St. John on 12/30.

ahutson03
ahutson03 New Reader
1/11/11 2:22 p.m.

Engine rooms on cruise boats are actually pretty boring... shipboard turbines are pretty sterile and plain looking

naparsei
naparsei New Reader
1/11/11 2:36 p.m.

Iso. Grifo. Want.

ClemSparks
ClemSparks SuperDork
1/11/11 3:55 p.m.

I know I'm not the only one that wants to see a photo of the helpful marriage tip. Sounds hilarious.

[and I promise I'm not just scheming to see a photo of your wife in a bikini...I figure it would just be a cloud of fish with a masked-n-snorkeled head glaring out of it.]

Clem

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
1/11/11 5:37 p.m.
Duke wrote:
JG Pasterjak wrote: And we're on the Crown Princess...
HEY! When did you set sail? That ship was docked in St. Thomas when we were there on our way back from St. John on 12/30.

Left on 1/8 and we're back on the 15th. Currently heading from Roatan to Cozumel. We always have these big plans to take "real" vacations, but the closer it gets to the point we have time off together, the more we realize that planning a bunch of stuff like driving and flying trips is too much like work. It's just so easy to press the big button marked "cruise" and let someone else worry about everything. i think when we booked this one we weren't even entirely sure where it went. The date looked good, the money and the room were right, and we just wanted to be somewhere that wasn't work.

Oh, and I have some video of the fish frenzy. I'll see if the satellite internet plays ball and lets me upload it at some point.

jg

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