BY LUISA YANEZ

 The motorized red and yellow car he happily rode in the front yard as photographers snapped away is there. So is the Batman costume he wore at Halloween, and the sleek race-car-style bed in which he slept.

 On a more somber note, there is also a giant poster capturing the moment federal agents knocked down a bedroom door at this 1950s Little Havana home where then-6-year-old Elián González lived for five months before being reunited with his father and returned to Cuba. The banged-up door that held back agents is there, too, but back on its hinges.

 Now the public can see where Elián González played and slept while staying with his Miami relatives, as they battled with his father for custody.

 On Sunday, the former residence of the González family will make its debut as a museum to Elián, who became a symbol to Miami's Cuban exile community.

 Empty of furniture, the home is lined with glass display cases housing Elián's toys, and poems dedicated to him. There are hundreds of photograph collages of the boy.

 Inside the display cases are his favorite toys. A bright red fire-rescue truck. A replica of the USS Kitty Hawk fighter jet given to him by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In his bedroom is his bed -- broken by the agents during the April raid but now repaired -- and a school book bag. In the closet hangs his karate outfit and camouflage soldier jacket.

 ``We just want to preserve his memory,'' said one of the boy's great-uncles, Delfín González, who on Thursday gave a tour of the home he bought after the boy's return to Cuba. Plans for turning the home into a museum have been in the works for months.

 ``With all this terrorist stuff going on, we thought this would be a good time to open and give people a distraction, a relief, comfort,'' said Delfín González, who spent
 thousands of dollars to open the site dedicated to the boy. The nonprofit attraction will be known as: Unidos en Casa Elián -- United in Elián House.

 Now the curious will be able to do more than drive by the home where Lázaro González, his wife Angela, and daughter Marisleysis lived with the boy.

 Elián was found floating on an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day 1999. His mother was among those killed in the ill-fated crossing. His Miami relatives led a seven-month legal battle to keep him.

 All the boy's relatives, along with one-time family spokesman Armando Gutiérrez, have helped create the displays that now line the home at 2319 NW Second St.,
 abandoned by the family after the raid.

 The site is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Sunday. Entry is free, but donations are welcome.

                                    © 2001