(first posted 1/29/2018) In the fall of 2014, I was quite active with my union, and they sent me and a small group of grocery workers to Detroit Michigan to knock on doors and work to help elect a labor friendly governor. We worked our butts off and knocked on countless doors, but alas, our candidate did not win.
However, the trip was not a total loss for me. I got to see Detroit, once the epicenter of the American Auto Industry and now a city in with huge problems. It’s kind of shocking to see an American city in such shape. There really are hundreds of burned out, abandoned buildings all over the city. Detroit may never be what it once was, but it looks like they are coming back.
I liked the city and its people. And I have never seen an area with so many American cars. I live in Portland Oregon, where Imports have a very healthy market share. It got me thinking, would the whole country be like this if we could buy American cars at employee discount prices?
We had almost no free time, but one afternoon a small group of us made it to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. If you are a car person, this is a place you simply must visit. It has to be one of the most fantastic car collections on the planet. This is the place to go to see those cars you have only seen photos of or read about. Some of the most historic cars ever made are here, along with the everyday vehicles, race cars, airplanes, trains and farm equipment.
It is a place I could have easily spent a month in, but our schedule only gave us about an hour and a half before the museum closed. My poor cell phone that I had been using for navigation all day was almost out of battery power, or I could have taken 1000 photos of the cool things I saw in my very brief visit.
Some day I’m going to return to The Henry Ford Museum, and I’ll have my good camera with me, and spend the entire day there. Until then, you and I will have to look at these photos to recall my rushed but wonderful trip to this must see automotive destination.
If you have a thing for Presidential limousines, then you are in the right place. Our tour begins with these historic cars. This is Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1939 Lincoln “Sunshine Special.” It was the first car designed and built expressly for a president.
Dwight Eisenhower’s 1950 Bubbletop Lincoln was used from 1950 to 1967.
This is the Lincoln Continental, President Kennedy was assassinated in. It was heavily modified after that tragic event and remained in service for a number of years.
Ronald Reagan narrowly escaped death in 1981 after being shot by John Hinckley Jr. The president was rushed to the hospital in this 1972 Lincoln.
Let’s take a look at some race cars. This 1968 Ford Mark I won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1968 & 1969. It looks gorgeous in its Gulf livery.
1967 Ford Mark IV.
1965 Lotus.
The Ford 999 race car, driven by Barney Oldfield and its designer, Henry Ford in 1902.
Here are just some of the many beautiful classic cars on display here.
This is one of only 55 experimental Chrysler turbine powered cars produced between 1963 and 1964. Chrysler reclaimed the cars in 1966 and destroyed all but nine of these.
The EV1 was the electric car that GM killed, much to the displeasure of the car’s fans. Like the turbine car above, General Motors reclaimed and destroyed almost all of the cars produced. Does anyone know how many of these remain?
I’m sure many CC viewers would find themselves right at home in this wing of the museum.
Of course, they have a Tucker. What mega collection would be complete without one?
The cars of the 50’s had such great style. Detroit must have been a very different place when these cars were produced. They showed such optimism. Designers were unconstrained by such frivolities as safety or efficiency, and the results are some of the most stunning cars ever made.
1963 Buick Riviera.
This has to be one of the only perfect 1981 Ford Escorts anywhere. I like seeing cars like this, that most people drive but never save or restore. They are snapshots from a different time.
I love the color combination on this beautiful old Nash.
Crosley Hotshot Roadster.
This 1939 Dodge fuel truck oozed with style. They certainly don’t make them like they used to.
If you are over a certain age you may remember this RV…
CBS Evening News reporter Charles Kuralt toured the country for years making “On the Road” stories about regular Americans in this one.
If your Model T was to somehow explode, it would look something like this.
I don’t know what car this is, but this Ford Tri-Motor was used by the Byrd expedition to Antarctica. The museum has an impressive collection of aircraft.
I will finish the tour with this Ford Flivver. After the success of the Model T and Tri-Motor aircraft, the company wanted to make an airplane for the masses. It was going to be the Model T of planes. Only five were built, and production stopped after a fatal crash of a prototype into the Atlantic Ocean near Melbourne Florida.
More information about the Henry Ford Museum can be found here https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/henry-ford-museum/
Only an hour and a half? You should have been on the CC tour of the Henry Ford this past summer, an entire day wasn’t enough.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/cc-detroit-meetup-a-recap-but-not-by-firestone/
Nice that you got to see the red GT40 that Gurney and Foyt won LeMans with, when we were there I was disappointed that it was not on display.
Those here who are familiar with me know that I’ll take the 1957 Desoto Fireflite. It’s probably in much better shape now than when it was fresh off the factory line.
The Bugatti type 41 Royale is nice too. I saw one (a sedan) in a NYC museum many years ago and IT IS VERY VERY BIG. I used to draw side profile pictures of Royales in high school when I should have been paying attention to the teachers.
This is one of those places that if I had a bucket list it would be near the top. This excellent write-up left me feeling like I had probably hit the high points if I only had a few hours to spend. Thanks.
BTW, I never knew that Chrysler Corporation used Airflow styling on the Dodge trucks.
(I think the unidentified car in the pictures with the Tri-motor is a Stutz.)
That Lincoln Prez limo doesn’t look like a ’72 since it has a ’79 fascia with monster bumper. The Museum website explains this, a good thing since I thought it was a mistake by the writer.
It’s got to be a ’78 or ’79 since it has the entire front clip of a late ’70s Lincoln Town Car, plus the small fender skirts used only in those 2 model years. So much more than just a ’79 fascia.
The Museum says otherwise:
Ref: http://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/186628
They tried to disguise it’s true age by modernizing the easy to change front and rear clips, but the kick up under the C pillar reveals it’s 1972 origins.
Modernizing the fronts of Presidential limos was not uncommon.
FDR’s Sunshine Special was modified with a 1942 model front clip – but its old style greenhouse gives it away. Similarly, the 1961 Lincoln ridden by JFK was updated with a 1962 grille at the time of his assasination.
So it isn’t surprising that Reagan’s 1972 car was updated accordingly.
This quick tour of the HFM finds me in a better state than what I was in during our tour this summer at the CC Meet-Up. I was sick as a dog; about as sick as I’ve been in a very long time, with the (real)flu.
If CC makes it’s way back here in a few years, there are more things to do.
When Fernando Palazuelo bought the Packard plant a few years ago, he put on security guards who are very aggressive about shooing away people. Every time you mentioned going to the plant, I was less than enthusiastic. Only a couple months after you guys were here, officially sanctioned tours of the plant started, with on site parking and hard hats provided.
http://shop.puredetroit.com/PACKARD-PLANT-TOURS_ep_48-1.html
Ideally, the trip could be timed to take in one of the car shows in the area, the “Motor Muster” (cars from 1933 to 1977) and the “Old Car Festival” (up to 1932), both at Greenfield Village, the Orphan show in Ypsilanti or the VW show in Ypsilanti (both in a park about a block from the Hudson/Kaiser museum we visited)
I can’t find a date for when the renovation of the Ford estate is expected to be complete. The work has been in progress for several years already.
Is Ed still working on the e-mail notification issue? I am not receiving notifications yet.
I believe that three EV1 were left running and donated to museums. GM sold the batteries from Delco and eventually they were owned by Panasonic who sell them to all manufacturers.
Wow! What a fantastic collection. I’ve read about the museum and Detroit is definitely somewhere I want to visit. Hopefully things will come together in another couple of years. By the way, here was a big Bugatti display at the Petersen museum in LA that I visited last year.
Here’s a trivia note regarding that DC-3 in the top pic: The plane is in Northwest livery but the placard says Northwest later sold it to North Central. I flew North Central quite a bit in the 60s, including when they were still operating DC-3s, so it’s possible I flew on that plane when it was still in scheduled passenger service.
Here’s the same plane, N21728, in North Central livery.
I wonder if that Ford tri-motor or the similar Fokker F.VII was the inspiration of the Junkers JU-52?
I’ll take the 1956 Chevy convertible right now!
I wonder if that Ford tri-motor or the similar Fokker F.VII was the inspiration of the Junkers JU-52?
The JU-52 is more a development of the earlier, single engine, Junkers W-33, which shares it’s low wing design and corrugated aluminum skin. The Henry Ford used to have a W-33 on display, but I don’t know where it is now.
The Italians also build tri-motors. The engine layout was probably a function of the size of the aircraft being two large for only two engines of the time.
The Tri-Motor is connected to Junkers indirectly by way of William Bushnell Stout. Junkers designs inspired him, then his company was acquired by Ford in 1924. Stout also is famous for his Scarab car.
Corrugated construction was made obsolete by monocoque, commencing with Jack Northrop’s Alpha in 1929. With powerful, reliable Wright and Pratt & Whitney radials, the stage was set for the twin-engined Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2/3 after Knute Rockne died in a wooden Fokker Trimotor.
The twin layout was vindicated when Douglas showed they could fly a DC-2 over the Rockies on one engine.
My first trip to the Museum would have been around 1960, aged seven. I remember even then being old enough to be astounded that (1) the cars weren’t all Fords, and (2) there was a LOT more than cars there.
I didn’t have time to visit during the CC meet up last summer, but now am renewing my desire to get there sooner rather than later. Nice selection of photos, and nice writeup!
LIMO PHOTOS: A really comprehensive collection here (this is just the “Presidential” page), for anyone searching for pics: http://my.net-link.net/~dcline/limopres.htm
One of the wonderful things of first world countries are museums. Every time I am lucky enough to travel, particularly to the US, I try to get to one of the big ones. I can’t explain how humbling it is to enter, say, the Field in Chicago, or the Smithsonian Air and Space in DC. I still have many more to go, but car-wise I have visited Petersen’s in LA, Volo in Chicago, a very nice one in Las Vegas whose name I don’t remember, and several smaller ones. For a car nut born in Uruguay, however, even a 92 Caprice Station Wagon with an odometer showing 800K miles serving as a cab (about 1998) was a wonder.
I will agree with others, a full day is not really enough time to take in that museum, which houses so much more than just cars. Two full days would probably be about right for a really thorough amble through.
Two full days would probably be about right for a really thorough amble through.
Probably about right. When I first retired, my first project was to see everything in the museum, as I had not been in there since the 60s. iirc it took about a half dozen trips of about 3 hours each to see everything.
thanks tim, this article reminded me of my own quick visit to the ford museum. i remember standing agog at the chrysler turbine and tucker. i had completely forgot about charles kuwalt’s fmc motor home. my interest was piqued and i came up with this interesting article from popular mechanics on the fmc. apparently, it was a very innovative design.
https://books.google.com/books?id=ldQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=fmc2900+motor+home&source=bl&ots=7TgZi-_DD_&sig=s23QB26HhJ7wxlU-wMOl5UNwqQg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimnqeY7P3YAhVkTt8KHb2SAn4Q6AEIVDAM#v=onepage&q=fmc2900%20motor%20home&f=false
I have GOT to go there again! Last time I went was quite a few years ago, and I live in the metro Detroit area…
Legitimately one of the coolest places I have ever been. I was blessed enough to go in around 2006 when visiting for the NAIAS. We also toured the Automotive Hall of Fame (low key, neat, but much less visually interesting), and the Ransom E Olds Transportation Museum (I grew up an Olds guy, and it was dingier but less formal and no less interesting than the Ford).
The cafe in the Ford made a damn good Reuben back then. Wonder if they still do.
The cafe in the Ford made a damn good Reuben back then. Wonder if they still do.
The Michigan Cafe does not have a Reuben on it’s menu currently. We had lunch there after touring the Rouge assembly plant on Saturday.
There is now a traditional roadside diner in the car exhibit that serves lunches too.
Some fact and legend as to the museum’s creation.
Fact is in ’19 Henry flunked his history exam badly when on the witness stand as plaintiff during a libel suit that he maybe shouldn’t have started.
The public exposure of Henry’s shallow grasp of history and his off-the-cuff comments dismissing history as “bunk” were taken out of context and newspapers ran with it.
The legend is that the incidents spurred Henry to show the world that he was in fact a historian like no other, thus the creation of the museum and village.
I’ve been twice, once as a boy and once with my boys–the wife wasn’t too interested in going thinking its nothing but cars but she came away amazed at what was there. My favorites were the huge locomotives and Mustang number 1.
What a collection, and I can imagine you need several days (or trips) to take it all in.
Interesting to see the Lotus 38 with the asymmetric suspension designed to cope with the left turn only ovals.
The Holiday Inn Great Sign behind the Texaco truck … yes!!!
Thank you for your appreciation of the Ford escort. I have a passion for vehicles that are not considered classics, but, we’re driven by the masses. This is one of them. You do still see examples of these first generation escorts in good condition from time to time. The same with K cars and early Cavaliers.
I grew up in Dearborn, 3 miles from the Ford Rotunda,
I spent my formative years, defined as bicycle riding years (8 to 15YO) visiting the Museum, Greenfield Village, the Rotunda, and the Rouge Plant hundreds of times.
I do not remember every paying admission, but it may have been free to my age or that they did not care to check. I remember, as a youngster that the Museum in the late 50s as a jumble of artifacts strewn around the building with not much of a sense of order, except by type and age.
Henry and the museums curators seemed to be more in tested in collecting and displaying rather that explaining or detailing. Lighting was natural, as the museum did not have much in the way of display lighting, so it closed around sundown every day.
In that time, you would see farm implements, kitchen appliances, motors, machines, electrical devices, and automobiles lined up in rows, but not in the type of displays that we have come to expect nowadays. Nevertheless, the amount of items, the huge variety, and the scope of the collection was breathtaking.
Back then, a kid could crawl up the brick fence that surrounded the Ford ‘test track’, sit, and watch the engineers testing the new Edsel. Then roam around the Village and study Edison workshop, the Wright cycle shop, and ride the Suwanee riverboat
Every visit, to my eyes, was a lesson in history and Americana.
Ford was a major motivator to the Dearborn Public school system and encouraged every high school have a vocational program. Shop classes were required at most schools. You started with woodshop, then metal shop, then drafting, and auto. Many graduates went directly to work for Ford. I do not recall any specific program for electrical, as it was melded into the other classes. I moved on the electrical engineering, so I passed Ford’s offer.
When I was a junior, I was a summer intern to help physically sort artifacts for the museum. Fifty some years later, I think there is stuff which has not yet been cataloged. I believe what the public does not see at the museum, in storage or being rehabbed is unbelievable.
Visit the Henry Ford. Stay a couple of days; you cannot appreciate it in a day.
We have visited several times and leaving after only two days gives us reason to come back again and again. So, so much more than cars. Something for everyone.
While there you must visit Greenfield Village. It is amazing!
I was hoping to be the first to use the term “Americana”, but elless beat me to it so a tip of my hat.
I volunteer at the National Automobile Museum in Reno and am astounded the HFM appears to have hardwood floors throughout, and not a drip pan I could see. No skid marks from car movements either! Last year, we pulled out the white rocks that our cars had been displayed on and went with dark, industrial carpet.