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If you're one to get excited about a visit to Bunnings Warehouse, put this place on your to-do list.

There's a new tourism attraction in Gosford, on the NSW Central Coast. It's called the Gosford Classic Car Museum and is home to one of the world's biggest private car collections, with over $70 million worth of metal. The museum is housed inside a warehouse formerly belonging to the hardware chain, and still sports its ubiquitous red, green and white colour scheme. The internals have been stylishly re-fitted with polished concrete floors and carpet aisles.

Filling the huge floor space is some 450 vehicles hailing from all corners of the globe. Australia, the US, UK, Italy and Germany feature strongly across the museum, but by the same token there are small niches such DMC Deloreans and Goggomobils covered off as well.

And like your typical Bunnings, everything in store is for sale.

"I come in here and I'm still in awe," says museum owner Tony Denny, a now-Gosford local.

Denny is a car entrepreneur who made his fortunes selling all but 23 per cent of his share in AAA Automotive, Europe's largest used car network recently. The ?220 million sale means Denny, in his own words, can afford to spend nonsensical hours furrowing through EBay and Gumtree pages acquiring new vehicles for the Australian collection.

"A lot of it is about the thrill of the chase," the approachable and totally unassuming owner tells Drive. Denny also dabbles in real estate and is midway through developing 450 new apartments nearby.

There are some vehicles Denny just had to have for the museum ? his $5 million Ferrari LaFerrari being one ? though most have been acquired with a view of profiting from their sales. He points to his noggin when asked how he keeps so much intel on future classic values, but also cites the 2000 or so analysts who work under the AAA Automotive global empire.

"People might think it's a little bit crazy but there is a business case behind every car," he says.

"We haven't gone to extreme lengths, if it was too hard we just didn't pursue certain cars. We just walked away unfortunately. I like cars and I love the diversity here but there is just a certain point where you've got to walk away.

"Every car that's here, there is an investment decision behind it. I wanted a museum to share my passion with everyone, but there still is an investment decision. Many of the cars here are a one to five-year hold."

Denny and his 25-year-old nephew spent 18 months piecing together the Gosford collection. Denny would typically find a lead abroad or in Australia, sometimes sending his nephew on long, protracted missions to seal the deal.

"To buy 450 cars we actually had to purchase about 5000 cars and whittle our way down to the selection you see here today," Denny says.

"We looked in the newspapers, we had people with car collection contact us and generally we were proactive looking for these cars in the market place."

"What does 450 cars mean? It's probably one of the biggest in the world, certainly inside the top five. What we'll try to achieve here is a broad range of cars."

Denny's definition of broad is hardly open to interpretation. The museum is home to all sorts, from an extremely rare 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400S to a 2004 Porsche Carrera GT, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL or classic Corvette Stingray.

For Australian enthusiasts, the collection includes an extremely rare factory-painted Onyx black Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 3, a HSV W427, a pair of mint Toranas (XU-1 and SLR5000) and one of the original HSV GTS-Rs with only 8000km on the odometer.

Ask Tony his favourite car and his face beams: "The EK Holden with 9000 genuine miles and the picnic seats at the back. It's just beautiful and I love it. That and also the HR Premier X2: our family had a HR, we grew up with HR ? it was the basic model and you'd see a Premier version and think 'if only'. To get a HR Premier X2 original is just excellent."

Denny enjoys cars from all walks but, having grown up to Holdens and Fords in North Sydney, has a soft spot for locally made vehicles. For this reason his point about everything being for sale is arguable; you get the feeling willing buyers would need to part with major cash to acquire some of the Aussie heroes.

The museum is located in West Gosford and is open seven days a week. Admission is $20 for adults, $15 for car club members and $12 for children and concessions. Plans are well developed on opening an in-house 1950s-themed caf?. Rest assured the Bunnings sausage sandwich won't be on the menu.

More information is available at http://gosfordclassiccarmuseum.com.au/

Fast facts: Gosford Classic Car Museum

*Site purchased 2015, vehicle acquisition commenced in June 2015

*Most expensive purchase: Ferrari LaFerrari (circa $5 million)

*95 per cent of the collection has been purchased within Australia

*35 Ferraris featured in the exhibit make up approximately 30 per cent of the value of the entire collection

*Full memorabilia store attached to the museum

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