Inside the World’s Greatest Classic Car Collections – Part 13: Evert Louwman

Ranked second in The Key – Top of the Classic Car World Top 100, Evert Louwman belongs to that narrow élite of collectors who did not build a collection in pursuit of the singular excellence of one model, but to tell the story of the automobile. The passion arose almost inevitably: his father, from 1923, devoted his life to the motor trade, beginning with the Ford Model T before becoming a Dodge importer in the Netherlands. From that moment the growth never stopped, and his son Evert, alongside the business, developed a deep fascination with the evolution of the automobile — its role in society, the technical and cultural heritage contained within every car. This vision took shape in the 1960s, when the family decided to preserve and restore the most significant automobiles traded in by customers at the moment of purchasing a new model. It was the beginning of a collection that, over time, assumed a precise identity: to document more than a century of automotive history through examples capable of representing its defining moments.
Designed by architect Michael Graves, the Louwman Museum in The Hague enters into dialogue with the surrounding landscape, bringing together classical architecture, sustainability, and advanced conservation technologies in service of the collection.
The opening of the Louwman Museum in The Hague in 2010 marked the fulfilment of this project. More than a museum, it is a place conceived to place the automobile at the centre of a narrative. The purpose-built building, set within parkland, now houses 257 historic road and competition cars, each chosen not solely for its rarity, but for the contribution it makes to an understanding of automotive evolution. Among the centrepieces of the collection stands the Benz Patent Motorwagen of 1886, considered the first automobile in history; alongside it live masterworks of engineering and design such as the Talbot-Lago T150-C of 1937, the Ford GT40 of 1967, the extraordinarily rare Amphicar Model 770, and the Spyker 60HP of 1903 — the first car in the world to combine four-wheel drive with four-wheel brakes. A remarkable selection of competition cars is also present, with Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lancia, and Maserati models that have written some of the most important chapters in motorsport history.