One needs to make the best of a situation. During a recent bout of insomnia, I was thumbing through some old pictures and stumbled upon these.
While heading for Oregon in 2010, my family and I stopped at the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo, South Dakota. If you are ever traveling on I-90, it is about 70 miles or so east of Mt. Rushmore and well worth the stop. Let’s take a quick stroll.
The museum sprawls over several acres, with a small western town plunked into the middle. Around the perimeter are various buildings with cars and motorcycles. This 1970 AMC Machine (this and the top picture) is but one example. The muscle car building also contained several Fords and GM products, although this AMC most captured my interest.
Also in the same building was this 1969 AMC Scrambler. If memory serves, there were three different paint schemes on these; I’m not sure which was the most common. Can somebody tell us?
Doesn’t the Ford sign gazing over its shoulder give you a mixed message?
Another of the buildings housed some of the older iron on display. This is a 1919 Apperson. No, it is not the rare Apperson Big Dick. How times have changed.
There was a sizable agriculturally related display at the museum with this Ford F-5 being in a prominent position. Too much time has elapsed to remember any details on this conversion.
Here’s another angle. Can anybody fill in the blanks?
The main building featured a number of higher end cars in better condition. This Buick wagon was one of those fortunate ones. Another was a ’69 Dodge Charger, reported to be one of the original five used on The Dukes of Hazzard. All inside photos turned out rather sketchy, so this one, as well as the AMC Scrambler, required some adjustment.
I had visited the Pioneer Auto Show once before in 1995 and many of the displays, such as the F-5 shown above and this Nash wrecker, had not moved in that time frame. Given the environmental conditions of South Dakota are not as harsh as elsewhere in the United States, there was not much deterioration in that time frame.
Even the Elite enjoy being at the Pioneer Auto Show!
Recently, the History Channel aired an episode of American Pickers in which several items were purchased from this museum. It was insinuated the museum was not as financially strong as it had been. The museum’s website is still up and running, so it appears it is still in business. If going to Mt. Rushmore, Sturgis, or the Badlands, this is not very far away and is less than a mile north of I-90. It’s time well spent.
Judging by what looks to be a boiler in the back, the F-5 is probably running a steam engine.
I am not sure I will ever “just happen to be passing through South Dakota,” but the museum looks very interesting.
The AMC Rebel Machine has to be one of the most underappreciated muscle cars of the era. Of course being an AMC product, it naturally gets tagged with the goofy label, and the rags of the day skewered it accordingly. With that said, it was a hell of a car and one of the fastest production vehicles of its time. I have seen Machines equipped with radial tires, but otherwise completely stock run well into the 12s in the 1/4. AMC equipped the rear of the Machine with station wagon leaf springs giving it a raked look but that did causes problems for some drivers and the practice was stopped and dealers would swap springs. The first 1,000 cars were red white and blue afterwards they could be ordered in any standard color. I am usually not an AMC fan, but if I had a garage that held 50 cars I would have one of those.
There are a couple of classic car dealers in South Dakota that advertise periodically very nice cars. Which is interesting because winters there are brutal.
Nice Machine! From the cowl back it’s the same as my old 72 Matador. These cars have coils in the back, not leaf springs, and mine had airshocks to achieve the same stance.
Neat steam conversion on the Ford truck, but between the boiler right behind the cab and whirling flywheels up front I sure wouldn’t want to crash it.
Nice patina on the VW Beetle too.
Comment of the day, I managed to get stance and patina in the same one!!
The Dakotas don’t use road salt the way other midwestern states do. They often have 20-30 year old vehicles on the road that are in very good shape.
On the flip side, travel can be nearly impossible through there at times during the winter months.
Wrong. They use a ton of salt. Murdo is off the interstate which requires “salt”. Vehicles actually rust out completely. The reason why older cars are still around is because they are rear-wheel drive–the older folks will thus use their pickups in winter.
~Dolr
(And I’m not sure quite why the author noted South Dakota doesn’t have harsh environmental conditions–100% humidity in summer with temps over 100 degrees, 0% humidity in winter with 40 degrees below zero. Tornadoes, blizzards, floods, droughts–it gets them all.)
I said “not as harsh as elsewhere”; there is a difference.
I guess I shouldn’t have spoken for SD. When I lived in ND, many places didn’t use copious amounts of salt and chemicals- rather more sand.
That F-5 looks like it’s had an external combustion (steam) conversion…
We bought gas at the exit where Pioneer is on our trip West last year, but the schedule didn’t permit a visit through – not to mention I was already pushing my luck with the wife by posting a CC article every day of the trip… (c:
Definitely a steamer. Looks like two double-acting engines in a belted-together-Vee configuration. The squarish box above the steam feed is an engine-driven lubricator. These have a few outlets and will feed steam oil (usually has a lot of tallow–animal fat–in it) to the engine. I think the 1 qt tank on the fire wall is a lubricator for the shaft bearings. Not too much I can pick out on the boiler–no signs of a stack, telling me it’s not wood fired (not much wood in the Dakotas, anyway), so maybe oil or even something lighter.
Rough guess, the two engines could be good for about 10-20hp if the boiler could do the job. However, I doubt the boiler is good for more than 5hp. Hope this isn’t the future of transportation for the US….
One of these years, I’m going to do a road trip to Chicago. Have to see if I can fit this on my route.
And how much torque?
Couldn’t give any numbers (“Dammit Jim, I’m an electrical engineer, not a steamer!”), but the forces are present at full amounts at zero speed. Off top or bottom dead center, you’d get a fair amount of torque. An engine like that might have a “redline*” in the 1000 RPM range, but might be happy ticking over at 50-60 RPM. We’ll do that with the Russell 25HP at Collier when we’re done for the day and are letting the fire go out.
If I had to guess, the torque curve is flat from zero to a fair speed, until the piston speed gets ahead of the steam flow. Of course, you can open the throttle and throw more fuel on the fire…
* Not sure there’s a hard number on redline (no poppet valves on this type of engine), but you get a sensation of the flywheel wanting to scatter while the engine is shaking like mad. I suspect V4 steam engines could be quite smooth at high speed. No idea of the Stanley land speed record configuration.
My love of Indiana-built vehicles extends to the Apperson. It was built by a company formed by the Apperson Brothers of Kokomo, Indiana, after they left the Haynes-Apperson company. Elwood Haynes, of course, was one of the earliest horseless carriage pioneers in the U.S.
The body on that car is very interesting, with a single central door on the side. Could this be the precursor to the 2 door wagons that were briefly popular in the 1950s? Probably not.
I also love the Nash tow truck. I just looked these up. According to How Stuff Works, there were only about 5k of these made over 8 years (thru 1954), mostly for export or for Nash dealers. This is a rare one. More here http://www.howstuffworks.com/1947-1954-nash-model-3148.htm
Dang. I was in SD last October and must have driven right past this.
There were 1,512 Hurst SC/Ramblers built. The first 500 had the “A scheme” paint shown on this example. After complaints from dealers who were apprehensive about putting something so “out there” on their lots, the next 500 were painted in the “B scheme”, which put red and blue stripes on the lower body and eliminated the red side panels and blue stripes over the top. The final 512 were painted in the original “A scheme”.
I have been to the Pioneer Auto Show a few times. Last time I was there, they had an unrestored Kaiser Darrin and a Mazda RX-2 with like 10,000 miles on it.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=4Ut1N7lLqkyGeM&tbnid=uS959BnpVnaORM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3A1969-AMC_SC-Rambler_rear_B-paint_trim_2.jpg&ei=t6ZdUffPN_HZyQGx-oHQDg&bvm=bv.44770516,d.aWc&psig=AFQjCNHSKZG4bw8ZyozaL-dAnOzpzfcZlQ&ust=1365178243248609
I just got back from 4 days of photographing the Badlands N.P. I saw all the billboards advertising this place but didn’t know if it’s worth stopping.
Equally as impressive were all the daily driver CCs in South Dakota. I saw K-car wagons, 1980s Mazda B2200s, a few assorted Broughams- just a lot of cars from the 80s still on the road and in good condition.
My wife thought I was nuts for getting so excited over a 91 Dodge Colt hatchback that looked like it was bought new last week.
We passed through SD last summer – the fact that the interstate was well equipped with gates for winter shutdowns told us a lot about winters there. We stayed overnight at Murdo in a cool motel that was built around a converted mansion a block south of town, but our schedule didn’t permit a tour through the museum. Thanks for your contribution!
On my last visit to Minnesota, where I was born, I thought I’d go to Mount Rushmore. I didn’t have a lot of time to drive, so I thought I’d fly. I would have cost more to go round-trip from Mpls. to Grand Rapids (?) than from SD to Mpls. Nuts!
Not sure if this was the correct B scheme but it had the right hood! This was at Midnight at the Oasis last month.
Gorgeous,what a stunning car,a nicer look than the triple tone which looks like the home brewed hot rod of a teenage tearaway.Another car you’ll rarely see at shows or in magazines
They have a neat little firearms collection too. A large BAR & M1a training displays, if memory serves.
That steam powered Ford F-series is fantastic! I just love the look of it. Driver visibility looks a bit comprised but can you imagine the looks you get driving that to the local show and shine.
Not much “shine” on that truck! (c:
(maybe it’s actually a still?)
It’s been a long time since I was driving from Seattle to Iowa City on I90/80. I’ve driven passed this many times. Darn.
My only car recollection of South Dakota is getting stuck in a sudden summer rain squall that stalled my ’65 Mustang for a while. Had to pull over anyway due to zero visibility.
This place has been in existence forever. My family has pictures of us there on our first family vacation, to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands in 1962. Dad probably stopped to look and get a break from the endless drive with four restless kids. I’m sure Mom could scare those pictures up for a comparison-I seem to recall us posed in front of something out of the early 30’s with a long hood, out front of the entrance. Thanks for the memory, and I hope we can provide them with a little more business to keep going.
I don’t think that museum is having trouble getting business. We pulled into Murdo and found the motels all full, one of them with a tour bus. We literally got the last motel room in town that night. This was quite a surprise, as our mindset had been “C’mon, it’s the middle of South Dakota, how could we have trouble getting a room?”
Thanks for posting the Elite. I thought it was my first ride come back to life, but mine had a lighter vinyl on the roof. *sigh*
Phwoar. A Rebel Machine and SC/Rambler in the same post. I need to visit this museum STAT.