It started as the young boy’s passion of Witold Ciążkowski. When other children drew animals, flowers and houses he would always be doing drawings of cars or a motorbikes. He bought his first motorbike when he was eight, paying with his own savings. Then the next ones came, followed by old cars to which he could return their old glory and technical efficiency using his more and more elaborate skills. Finally, he decided to show his collection to people and thus the idea of establishing the Automotive Museum was pursued. The implementation of the idea was not the easiest of processes but he finally succeeded. The venue of exhibition was located in an old reconstructed hall of the shipyard which was rearranged to imitate an urban corner, and here the various pieces of automotive history were placed, which in many cases miraculously avoided being just scrapped as waste. Each of the acquired vehicles, a car or a bike, was deconstructed into the smallest pieces, cleaned, preserved, and fixed by the museum creator, who was highly skilled and educated in automotive mechanics. The collection of Witold Ciążkowski is huge (30 cars and 150 motorbikes), but, the museum only contains the exhibits which are fully repaired and display their full glory. There are ten beautiful cars from inter-war times and 28 motorbikes, all available to be viewed in the museum hall. The exhibition changes over time as new objects are constantly being added and there are also many objects attributed to automotive history and the history of motor sports.
Mercedes, Fiat, Ford – these makes are still popular on the roads all over the world, and in the Gdynia museum their older siblings can be admired – or rather the grandparents of the models produced nowadays. Among the exhibits there are also marques no longer made. Beauty of design, quality of finishing and the great technical condition of these cars and motorbikes, the oldest one harking back to the end of the first world war, are astounding, not only to those who share the passion with the museum creator but just to everyone who cares to visit.
