rev:text
| - I'm totally not a NASCAR fan. I've never seen the point in watching cars drive around in circles, only making left turns. But this museum really shines, explaining the history of racing, stock cars, and moonshine!
This museum is huge. At $20/person, with no student discounts, this is one of the most expensive museums I've ever been in either.
Your tour starts off with a brief movie showing the history of racing and moonshining in the Carolinas. It all started off with running bootleg liquor from the Revenuers during prohibition.
You get a ID card that has an RFID chip in it, to track you as you view the various exhibits. I really learned a lot about how much science and physics goes into the design and production of these cars. It's not a static design either, they're constantly tweaking and adjusting it based upon race conditions, or driving style. The museum is very well done, paying homage to the great past drivers. Their cars are on display, showing the various sanctioned raceways in the world, and how much bank the track has.
They do offer a little display on moonshining in the back, back corner of the museum. If you ask me, this should be front and center. They have an old pot still with a large setup. They're claiming that it's historical, owned by one of the original NASCAR drivers, but it looked like it'd hardly seen a day of shining in its life. They certainly didn't have any moonshine samples, which was a bummer.
You can race a virtual car, and there's plenty of photo opportunities, as they take shots of you as you marvel at the displays. At the end, they prepare your photos into a little album that they sell for high prices.
The gift shop has lots of advertiser stamped paraphernalia, including t-shirts, hats, key chains, and personalized "Bort" license plates.
This was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and if you have some extra time in the downtown area, this is certainly worth checking out.
No, they don't validate parking, so expect to spend another $6-8 on parking for the time it takes to view the museum.
|