What boy didn't build the Revell model kit of Big Daddy Roth's Beatnik Bandit? (Probably some guy who's now governor of the state, or owns 8% of Gulf Oil, but they only made up for what they lost in soul.)

The rod is amost the first thing you see when you enter Reno's National Automobile Museum. The actual first thing you see is *different* Ed Roth creation, and a DeLoreon plated with real 24 carot gold. There's a gift shop in this area as well, selling diecast replicas, books, card decks, coffee mugs, bathroom towels and all the rest of the sort of claptrap you find in gift shops. But, at least I'd rather wipe my face with a 1962 Corvette than a portrait of Elvis.

Most of the over 200 cars in the museum's collection were donated by the estate of the original collector, a multi-millionaire named Harrah, who owned about half the casinos in the state. When he died, the estate was going to break up the collection, but under public pressure it was donated to found a museum instead.