A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM...

IN THE NORMAL course of events, you wouldn't think an Australian car museum would become the target of a tornado, but this was the case late last year when the popular Gold Coast Motor Museum was ground zero for a devastating tornado.

- CHRIS BEATTIE

And literally one of the owner's prized exhibits suffered a direct hit.

Museum curator Carl Amor takes up the story. “Our area was one of the worst hit,” he recalls. “It just came straight at us - pretty scary actually.

“At the time, we were standing in front of a large, multi-paned glass wall as Carl looked outside, pointing up to a tall and imposing tree next to the museum.

“A branch snapped off the tree and was blown through the windows before it bounced off our '57 Buick's window and embedded itself through the roof of my late father's 1913 Rover.”

The window glass also claimed another victim, crashing on to the bonnet of the museum's spectacular 1958 Buick Limited coupe.