Autoworld

The Autoworld museum displays about 200 hundred historic motor cars in one of the Cinquantenaire exhibition halls built for the exhibition of 1880 that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Belgium, and used subsequently for other international exhibitions. The collection has been displayed in the pavilion since 1986 and comprises about 20 per cent of that made by Ghislain Mahy from Ghent, who in 1944 established a large-scale taxi business, for which, in times of austerity after the Second World War, he acquired vehicles from wherever he could, and used them until they ceased to be roadworthy. The display at Autoworld includes cars from France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and the United States. It has a comprehensive selection of cars vehicles made by Belgian manufacturers before the industry came to be dominated by international companies. There are vehicles by Fondu (1906-12), Germain (1897-1914), Imperia (1905-48), Minerva (1899-1958) and Nagant (1900-28). The remainder of the Mahy collection is held at Le Musée de l’Auto at Leuze-en-Hainaut.