KEY MUSEUM IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MUSEUM
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The Key Museum opened in 2015 in the Torbal County of Izmir. It is Turkey’s most complete museum of classic cars and motorcycles, and it tells the story of how cars got to where they are today. The museum, which is built on 7000 square meters and was inspired by Murat and Selim Ozgorkey’s love of cars, has 76 cars and 40 motorcycles as its main collection.
Main Collection
From 1886, when the first car was made, to the present day, you can see how the first models of top car brands like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, and Ford got to where they are now in this main collection. The Key Museum also has more than 2,000 model cars of different sizes, 300 hood ornaments (mascots), sautomobiles with car themes, and a Shell gas station that was built with original equipment from the early 1900s to the 1960s.
The Founders’ Passion for Cars
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As a child, Murat Ozgorkey started collecting matchboxes. In the 1990s, he started collecting a model car, and his brother, Selim Ozgorkey, a rally driver who also raced for a while because of his love of cars, started buying parts from the Key Museum in 2001 and made a collection that keeps growing every day. Since it opened, the museum has become a place where both people who like cars and people who want to learn about the history of the world through the lens of cars can go.
The Key Museum’s Significance
The Key Museum is one of the few automobile museums in the world, both in terms of what it has and how big it is. Its models come from all over the world and are displayed in a collection. The Key Museum is an important place for museology around the world. It also has a lot of important content and collections for Turkish museology, which is changing and growing. The main collection of the museum is made up of 76 cars and 40 motorcycles.
From the first car made in 1886 to the present day, this main collection shows how the first models of top car brands like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, and Ford got to where they are today. The Key Museum also has more than 2,000 model cars of different sizes, 300 mascots (hood badges) for cars, sautomobiles with cars on them, and a Shell gas station made with original equipment from the early 1900s to the 1960s.
Nuts and Bolts Restoration
One of the most important things that sets the Key Museum apart from other places like it around the world is that the cars on display have been restored with a lot of time and work. Using a method called “Nuts and Bolts Restoration,” cars are taken apart and fixed up down to the last screw and nut.
The cars are then put back together in the same condition they were in when they left the factory. This method, which is very expensive and needs a lot of skill, is necessary for restoring the Key Museum, even though it is not the most popular way to do work in the world for these reasons. The museum restoration workshop’s expert team has kept the automobiles and motorcycles on display in excellent and operational condition.
Location and Tourism Potential
Considering the Aegean Region’s tourism potential, the museum, which enhances significant value to the region, is located on the same route as the Ancient City of Ephesus, one of the most important residential centers in human history. This location is 10 kilometers from Torbalı, where the Ancient City of Metropolis has also been excavated for more than a decade. Another benefit of visiting the museum is that it is only 20-25 minutes from Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport and 30 minutes from Izmir city center. Since its inception, the museum has drawn tens of thousands of visitors from both Turkey and abroad, including universities and various clubs and associations.
The Key Museum, which has received a certificate of excellence from TripAdvisor for two consecutive years due to positive feedback from visitors about the museum experience, is ranked second on the list of “Places to Visit in Izmir.”
Key Museum Entrance Fee and Visiting Hours
Key Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Otherwise, visitors are welcome every day between 10:00 – 17:00.
- Key Museum Fee: (2022)
Students and over 65: 25 TL
Free entrance: Disabled persons and one person accompanying each disabled person, members of the press, children under 6 years old.
Full ticket: 45 TL
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