Va Va Vroom!

BS Arun visits the car museum in Michigan

Billed as the largest in North America, the Gilmore Car Museum offers the visitor a peek into a superb collection of cars, the oldest of them being the first certified car built in 1886. The museum, in fact, houses a rare collection of over 400 vintage cars and more. 

Situated on a sprawling 90-acre plot in the small town of Hickory Corners near Kalamazoo city in Michigan, USA, the museum takes you back to the era when the newly invented cars first hit the roads in America. Apart from featuring the world’s first car rolled out by Benz, the museum, the dream project of car enthusiast and collector Donald Gilmore, not only showcases restored old cars but also a 1941 Shell gas station along with a car washing area! There is also a display of toy models of various car companies. You can sit in a massive bus-like Walt Disney 1930 Rolls-Royce that was used in the 1967 movie The Gnome-Mobile. This was used in a car chase filmed in a forest and you can watch the chase on a screen next to the vehicle.

Gilmore was so intensely passionate about vintage cars that he purchased over 90 acres of farmland to house his collections. Some of the first vehicles in his collection included a 1927 Ford Model T, a 1913 Rolls Royce, and a 1920 Pierce Arrow. The museum was opened to the public in 1966. Soon, the family established a non-profit foundation to grow and manage the collection over time. The museum leaves no stone unturned in restoring and maintaining the cars of any make of any period. Each of the cars on display looks as though it has just been brought out of a factory with the painting, the interiors, and the tyres all gleaming.

Apart from Karl Benz’s 1886 'vehicle with a gas engine' for which he secured a patent, also on display are the 1906 Cadillac Tulip Roadster; 1908 Stanley; 1909 Ford; 1910 Packard; 1910 National; 1913 Velie; 1916 Packard twin seat racer; 1917 Pierce-Arrow truck; 1929 Stutz; 1930 Bentley;  1932 Lincoln; 1933 Olympic Coupe; 1941 Checker/Bantam jeep; 1950 Cadillac; 1954 Kaiser; the lengthy 1958 Edsel Ford; various models of Dodge, Chevrolet, etc., and the 1992 Cadillac presidential limousine, among many others. Car companies have their separate section of exhibits as well.

Apart from vintage cars, some modern cars such as the Ferrari, the Vector car with a gull-wing door and Lamborghinis are also on display.

The museum says its mission is “to tell the history of America through the automobile” and to "foster experiences which connect people with the history, heritage, and social impact of the automobile through collecting, preserving, and interpreting its story.” Visitors are offered chauffeured rides in cars. There are 14 distinct exhibits and locations to visit while on the campus. Over a lakh car enthusiasts from all over the world visit the museum, a car enthusiast's delight, annually.