National Automobile Museum National Automobile Museum The National Automobile Museum, located just south of the Truckee River in Reno, Nevada, displays historic automobiles from the late 19th century and from throughout the 20th. Most of the vehicles displayed are from the collection of the late casino owner William F. Harrah, and so the museum is sometimes referred to as The Harrah Collection. The museum opened in 1989. William F. Harrah had collected approximately 1,450 automobiles, which he stored inside warehouses in Sparks, Nevada. It was the world's largest collection of historic automobiles, and was opened to the public. When Harrah died in 1978,
BYD Auto a year after its 2002 acquisition of the Norinco-owned Qinchuan Machinery Works, which may have been made solely to acquire the passenger car production license held by the purchased company. Qinchuan, who also used the Xian, Beifan, and Fuxing trade names, had already rented out their license to Beijing Zhonghua Automobile Industry Company for building their plastic-bodied QCJ7090 car. Qinchuan's best-known product is the QCJ7181 Flyer, which was later sold as the "BYD Flyer." While the Chinese state is credited with development of an indigenous auto industry, BYD Auto may have been created in the absence of a State policy