Earlier in March, I discovered another fascinating Museum to better use my empty timeslot of the opening day of the Techno Classica. On a similar occasion last year, I spent a couple of delightful hours in the Classic Remise Düsseldorf, but I preferred to discover something new. Earlier this year, I read about a new Toyota Collection that was set up at the Cologne headquarters of Toyota Germany, thus we set course to Cologne. As the name suggests, the Toyota Collection is not a factory museum, but a private collection of a German Toyota dealer/fan. Following the passing away of the collector, Toyota Germany acquired the cars. According to the Collection’s official website, ad hoc public openings are scheduled to the first Saturdays of each month.
The Toyota site in Cologne hosts the headquarters of Toyota Germany and also the technical centre of Toyota’s sports department (Toyota Motorsport). The latter is however not accessible to the public at all, unlike the collection. After the corporate tennis hall has been transformed and refurbished for the arrival of the cars, the collection welcomes now pre-arranged visitor groups, but unlike the Mazda Museum, it did not have fixed opening hours (or a front desk), when I visited.
The collection is actively managed, traded, occasionally lent for events, and is still being extended with new items. At the same time, the restoration activities are coordinated with other Toyota highlights, such as the Louwman Museum, that still holds the coolest Toyota collection in the continent to date.
Initially, the Collection was a legacy of a private Toyota Museum established by Peter Pichert in Passau, Germany, near the Austrian border. Mr. Pichert was one of Germany’s first Toyota dealers and a lifelong fan of the Japanese brand. In 1994 he opened the world’s largest Toyota museum outside Japan, with more than 100 milestones of the brand’s history. After the collector’s death in 2016, Toyota Germany took over the most important pieces of the collection. Since then, the Cologne headquarters has been taking good care of the collection, which includes 70 distinct cars following a reinforcement with a few racing cars from the sports department resident on the other side of the street.
I start with these latter donations, given the apparent spoiler alert on the right side of the entrance. The first car in the line is Toyota’s winning Corolla’s WRC car. Next to the WRC, there are two Le Mans racing cars, and finally an F1 Car, that was once driven by Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli (the two pilots also signed a Celica from the Collection).
On the other side of the entrance, there are a number of Corollas, and on the far right side of the hall, we can witness a faceoff between a group of typical American and European models of the ’60s, showcasing a rather sharp stylistic contrast. I took some pictures of the interior, the state of some of the cars are truly impressive as if they never left the showroom. On the other side of the hall, there are some exciting cars of this period, which were tailored to the personal taste of the collector or his family.
The show continues with a few off-road and commercial vehicles parked under the main design motive of the Museum (a picture honoring a 2000 GT coupé that was on certified absence, we saw them in Essen). Among others, there was a Land Cruiser owned by Roger Moore for his personal use.
In the middle of the hall, a few dozen modern cars are waiting for those who developed a fable for cars from the 80s and 90s, my personal favourites are the red Celica, the Sera (with gullwing-style glass doors) as right-hand-drive model, never actually sold in Europe, the Prius that served test purposes before the market launch as well as two earlier generation Supras.
The Toyota collection is a must-see hour for all, who are interested in Toyotas from the past 40 years. Although the styling of the Collection cannot be compared with the leading factory museums from the south of Germany (the closest comparison would be the private Mazda Museum near Augsburg), but the contribution by Toyota Motorsport and the historical value of the collection makes it an interesting programme for those who pass by Cologne. The Museum definitely served its purpose well, as prologue to the Techno Classica.
