The Private Museum

Once we got back from Bowling Green, I had some free time on Friday afternoon to visit a personal collection of cars, owned by the son of the Chevrolet dealer who had sold cars to my family for several generations. He asked of me only one favor, and that was not to display any of my pictures on the web. There was one car there, that had previously been on the Internet (via this blog) and that was my mothers 1990 Chevrolet station wagon with less than 30,000 miles on it. This gentleman had agreed to repurchase the car for restoration, as it was fully loaded with every option available. It also had sat in a garage in Sun City, Arizona, for five years without being driven. And when it had been driven, it was driven by a 70 year old woman who used it to haul her harp around.

The car now is awaiting minor body work, and the challenge is to find the "woody" side decals. Paint is in dramatically good condition (at least to me), and the upholstery is very good. The car has "returned home" to the man who sold it, and we wish him the best.

His museum has a number of cars, many are GM vehicles, logically. I had two favorites, one of which was a Ferrari 255 "custom" convertible. I say custom because it has no top, and the seats have been moved back 20 inches, which required moving the gas tank to the front of this rear engined car. The seat has an "S" in the shape of the old Superman logo stitched in the headrest. Prior owner was an NBA player whose name also began with the letter "S". It had 90,000 miles, but could only be driven in the sun, since the custom work eliminated any chance of a power top (no room - but when you're seven foot one inch, you've got to make adjustments to legroom and pedals).

Also in the museum was the Corvette Pace Car driven by Emerson Fittipaldi in 2007, and autographed by the two time Indy 500 winner (1989, 1993). Emerson signed the underside of the hood on this 2006 Atomic Orange convertible. As the primary dealer for 500 pace cars, this one came home to the dealership and was put into the private collection.

There was also a 1994 Pontiac Fiero 500 Pace Car, which holds the distinction of being the only mid-engine car to ever pace the race. The pace car model exceeded the normal 4 cylinder 2.5 litre 92 horsepower version - it was bored out to 2.7 litres and produced 232 horses, and could turn a lap over 135 MPH.

One other favorite was a 1964 Corvair Monza Spyder, which pulled 140 horses from an air cooled "flat 6" (cylinders were horizontally opposed). The Corvair inspired another sporty Chevrolet, the Chevelle, and Ford the Mustang in 1964. Ralph Nadar's book came out a year later, and while the original plan was to retire the Corvair model in 1966, Chevrolet kept it alive through 67,68 and 69 in order to disprove his book. In 1972, the NHTSA exonerated Chevrolet on all charges leveled by Nader's "Unsafe at any Speed", concluding it was no more prone to accidents and rollovers than any comparable car of the period. If we want to talk about crappy Chevrolets - let's go to the Vega, of which there are NONE in this private collection.

A final car of note was the 1963 "Split Window Coupe" Sting Ray Corvette. This was also the year of the model name Sting Ray, spelled in two words (a later incarnation was to spell it "Stingray" as one word). It was also the lead year of the second generation (C-2) Corvette, which would last until the 1967, when the third gen (C-3) came upon the scene and lasted until 1982.

All in all, a great collection of cars, all quietly hidden away in buildings of a former car dealership. My thanks to the owner (and my brother who introduced us) for letting me see his treasures.