Las Vegas has a car culture that runs way deeper than the valet line at the Bellagio. Beyond the Strip you’ll find a museum housing vehicles from more than 100 films, the house that Carroll Shelby built, and garages full of hot rods. I’ve walked the floor at a few of these myself, and the rest earned their spot on reputation and sheer weirdness. Here’s where any car enthusiast should go to see iconic cars up close.
Hollywood Cars Museum & Liberace Garage
The big one. Michael Dezer — one of the world’s foremost car collectors — filled a 25,000-square-foot warehouse on Dean Martin Drive with his collection of cars from film and TV. The complex, just west of I-15 near Allegiant Stadium, is billed as Hot Rod City Las Vegas.
This is where the icons live: KITT from Knight Rider (one of two in the world), the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard, Batmobiles from the TV series and the Batman Returns film adaptations, the Back to the Future DeLorean, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cars, Herbie the Love Bug, Doc Hudson from the animated Pixar film Cars, the RoboCop pursuit car, Starsky and Hutch’s Grand Torino, the Munsters’ coffin dragster, a replica of Bonnie and Clyde’s death car, and stunt cars from the first Fast and Furious film — including Paul Walker’s green Mitsubishi Eclipse. A real treat for James Bond fans: Roger Moore’s Lotus Esprit submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me, the centerpiece of one of the biggest James Bond displays anywhere. Three Flintstones cars (climb into Fred’s for a photo) and a 40-foot pink hot tub convertible limo round out the weird.
Inside the same building, free with admission: the Liberace Garage. When the original Liberace Museum on Tropicana Avenue closed in 2010, the Foundation’s collection of his own rides moved here — the crystal-covered roadster from his final Radio City run, the 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V he drove onstage at the Las Vegas Hilton (Michael Douglas drove it in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra), a London taxi with the meter still installed, and a piano car. Lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous excess, preserved as entertainment history. The Garage also works as an event venue, corporate events included.
Practical stuff: $20 adults, cash only (ATM inside), kids under 16 free with a paid adult. Open daily 10–5; closed July 4 and Christmas. Free parking.
Shelby Heritage Center
The story of Carroll Shelby — Texas racer turned creator of the AC Cobra and the Shelby Mustang — lives at Shelby American’s headquarters, 6405 Ensworth St. across from Town Square. More than 30 Shelby vehicles rotate through the gallery, parked beside the 150,000-square-foot factory where new Shelbys are still built: a working crash course in automotive history. The lineup changes, so some cars are only on the floor for a limited time.
Best part: the self-guided center is free. Walk in Mon–Sat 9:30–5 or Sun 10–4, read the placards, browse the gift shop. The $59 VIP tour goes behind the scenes of the production floor.
Nostalgia Street Rods
A hidden gem among Las Vegas automotive museums: the Goldstrom family’s private collection of 150+ vintage automobiles, mostly 1910–1965 — street rods, hot rods, muscle cars, scooters, even semi trucks. The memorabilia rooms go beyond cars: signed gear from Elvis, Hendrix, and Ali, plus pieces of old Vegas history.
Guided tours only, Mon–Fri 9–5 (last tour at 4; weekends by appointment). $20 standard, $50 VIP. 5375 Cameron St., minutes southwest of the Strip.
Count’s Kustoms
Danny “The Count” Koker’s shop — the one from Counting Cars — runs a free public showroom and museum at 2714 S. Highland Dr. I’ve been through it: a rotating lineup of TV-featured builds, custom cars, hot rods, and motorcycles, plus a gift shop that will absolutely separate a fan from his money.
Free, open daily 10–4. Two tips: enter the driveway off Presidio, not Highland Drive, and check ahead — the showroom occasionally closes for TV production.
One that’s gone
Skip the old Imperial Palace Auto Collections — the 125,000-square-foot showroom on the LINQ garage’s fifth floor closed December 30, 2017, though it still haunts old best-of lists.
First time doing the circuit? Start with Hollywood Cars Museum for the movie icons, hit Shelby for the racing history, finish at Count’s. All cheap, all a short drive from the Strip.
The very best Las Vegas museums
Done with cars? We rounded up the very best of Las Vegas’ museums — the Mob Museum, the Atomic Testing Museum, the Punk Rock Museum — in Ep. 169. And if old Vegas is your thing, don’t miss our guide to the hidden history of Las Vegas.