Tour of Fabulous Lyon Estate Car Collection and Lunch Planned for Saturday May 20

Our Lincoln & Continental Owners Club tour of the Lyon Estate Museum scheduled for Saturday, May 20, 2023, shapes up as one of of our best for 2023! We’ll arrive at 10:00 a.m. for tour of a truly outstanding private collection that you won’t want to miss!

The Lyon Estate is located at 24331 Coto de Caza Drive, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679. LCOC will share the visit with our friends from the Southern California Imperial Owners, Inc. Attendance is strictly limited so you must register early. To register, first contact Jim Ayres, by phone, 949-689-8471, or e-mail, jayres01@ca.rr.com.  After you are confirmed, send a check for $10 per person made out to  LCOC Western Region to Jim at 621 S. Orange St. Apt B, Orange, CA 92866.

General William Lyon (1923—2020) served in WWII and eventually became Commander of the U.S. Air Force reserve.  In 1954 he established William Lyon Homes and over the next 60 years built more than 100,000 homes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. 

His home is built on a hill in his Coto de Caza development (South Orange County) that overlooks a lovely tract of homes below.  Beside his large home he also constructed a 25,000 square foot building (architecturally designed to match the house) where he kept one of the most significant private automobile collections in the world.  At one time the collection even included the Hope Diamond of priceless automobiles—a Bugatti Royale. 

We’ll enjoy a private showing of General Lyon’s personal car collection.  Focus of the collection is primarily coachbuilt American Classics like Packards and Duesenbergs. It also includes the first and last Bugatti as well as several important Mercedes among other cars of all eras and marques.  Son Bill Lyon has added a number of ‘50s and ‘60s sports and racing cars to his father’s collection, including some historic Porsches.  

To reach the estate, take the 5 Fwy south to Oso Parkway. Exit to the east. Continue up the hill on Oso until it dead ends at Coto de Caza Drive, South Gate Entry.  Please check in at the gate as LCOC visiting the Lyon Estate at 24331 Coto de Caza Drive.  Go through the gate and turn left. Proceed on Cota de Caza Drive about 2.5 miles. Look left for the white colonial style home on the hill and enter the long driveway.

Below is a snapshot of the Lyon Estate off Coto De Caza Drive. Parking will start at the blue arrow (before the second roundabout). Park in a single file line to the right side of the driveway as cars ascend the driveway. Once the event ends, drivers will use the roundabouts to descend the driveway. The red arrow indicates the entrance to the car museum.

Following our visit to the estate, we will head to the nearby Tijeras Creek Restaurant, 29082 Tigers Creek Road, Rancho Santa Margarita, for no-host lunch.

Directions to the restaurant: Head south toward Coto De Caza Dr., Turn left onto Coto De Caza Dr. and travel 2.0 miles, Use the left 2 lanes to turn left onto Antonio Pkwy. and travel 2.6 miles. Turn right onto Tijeras Creek Rd. and travel .3 miles. Destination is on the right, turn right. .