Five garages to make you weep

A GARAGE is a sacred place for a rev head. It’s a refuge to hide yourself away from the outside world, tinker on projects and give your pride and joy some love and attention.

They come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are large, some are small. Some are dark and grungy, some are so immaculate you could eat right off the floor.

And for some lucky individuals, their garages look just like these: garages that the rest of us can only aspire to.

Auto Motor Plex

Housing developments are pretty bland affairs for motoring enthusiasts. Oversized cookie cutter houses built as close to each other as possible, with garages only just big enough to squeeze your school-run SUV into.

Not the Auto Motor Plex. Here, each house is designed to the unique needs of the owner and his or her cars. It’s essentially a suburb dedicated to lovers of all things automotive.

There is currently just one Auto Motor Plex location in Minnesota, USA, but a new expansion with 160 ‘Garage Condos’ is planned.

It’s probably safe to assume you won’t be getting a noise complaint for firing up your beast late at night in this neighbourhood!

Highlands Motorsport Park Apartments

Okay, so maybe having a massive garage space isn’t what you desire. Instead, you want to be able to house your race or track car, and be able to cur some laps as easily as possible.

Highlands Motorsport Park is here to help. Just across the ditch in beautiful Queenstown, the complex is owned by motorsport personality Tony Quinn. For the unaware, Highlands is Quinn’s 4.1-kilometre personal racetrack, which he graciously opens to the public on occasion.

Adjacent to the track are the Central Park Apartments, which combine high-end living and a racetrack pit lane. Here you can not only garage your car, but also drive directly onto the Highlands circuit itself. Perfect for track day addicts.

Oh, and fun fact, Mr Quinn’s personal apartment is located above the race control tower, with a Jacuzzi overlooking the track.

505 Conrod Straight

Perhaps the apartments at Highlands Motorsport Park aren’t quite roomy enough for you? Well, say hello to 505 Conrod Straight, the ultimate in housing for Aussie motorsport enthusiasts.

It was for sale earlier this year for $2.7 million. But for that, you get a pool, two separate dwellings, and a nicely sized garage. Oh, and you live on the most famous stretch of bitumen in the country.

We talked to the current owners, and we have to say, it sounds like living on Mount Panorama is pretty damn awesome.

Supercars on high

Maybe you don’t have room for a proper garage because you live in one of our bustling cities. Well, being confined to an apartment doesn’t mean you should give up on your garage gaols.

Take this lift for supercar owners for example. Now you can have a pair of cars in your living room, even when you live 30-stories up!

Built in Singapore, the lift allows owners to add the ultimate centrepiece to their apartment. However it won’t come cheap, with the units costing between $9.7 million and $24.4 million. Offt.

The Ferrari 512BB studio

Holger Schubert is an architect with a penchant for Ferraris. So to treat himself (and his car), he merged a beautifully minimalist studio apartment with a garage.

In it, he houses his Ferrari 512 BB, which the entire space is built around. Who needs wall art when you have a classic Ferrari to adore – not to mention a dwelling that is a work of art in itself.