Today was a really fun day. I started out in South Bend at the Studebaker National Museum, which I had seen last year and thoroughly enjoyed. Well, same this year. The Museum is very well laid out and features vehicles from horse-drawn farm wagons from 1850 to Studebakers up the last car produced by Studebaker in the USA. There is a lot of interesting history about the company presented, and you can even go into the basement where they are storing cars not on display.
This is the front of the museum on Chapin St. in South Bend:
On the grounds is the actual old family mansion, which is fully restored and where you can take a guided tour, although I did not.
This'll give you some idea of the quality of the display inside the museum:
This is the oldest Studebaker gasoline-powered vehicle in existence, a 1904 Model C:
And, this is the last Studebaker produced in the USA in 1964:
In between, there were a lot of innovative, beautiful cars produced by the company. Here area few that caught my eye:
This is a 1931 Studebaker Model 6:
This is a 1932 Studebaker President Convertible Coupe:
And I thought this was remarkable. It's a 1919 "Big Six" that has almost 500,000 miles on the clock and still runs:
There was a lot more to see, and I didn't get pictures of everything, but if you're ever in the neighborhood, this is worth the stop.
As I was leaving the Museum, I thought it was fitting that this was sitting outside the door:
I left South Bend going south on US31 then east on US6 about 100 miles over to Auburn, IN. I've visited Auburn twice before and it's really a nice little town with a rich automotive history. Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs were all built in Auburn up until the company folded in 1936 and the ACD Museum is just spectacular. Each year, the week before and including Labor Day weekend (in other words, next week), they have an ACD Festival in Auburn that is really something to see. The ACD Museum is in the original Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Corporate Headquarters building dating from the 1920's and the building itself is magnificent.
Anyway, here are some of the jewels I saw today at the ACD museum:
This is a 1931 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Coupe that is right inside the door to the museum:
This is a 1932 Auburn 12-160A 12-cylinder Speedster that raced competitively in the US and Europe throughout the 1930's:
This is a 1936 Cord Convertible Coupe that rotates on a turntable in the front window of the museum:
This is a 1/12th scale clay model of the car above, the Cord 812, just in sedan form:
It was this clay model that was scaled up and from which the tooling was made to produce the actual vehicles, an innovation that Cord created that, I believe, is still used in designing automobiles today.
In addition to cars, there is a lot of information in the museum about how the cars were designed and, just as interesting, other businesses that the companies were involved in. This is a V-16 aircraft engine that Duesenberg built for the US Army in WWI:
The engine had a capacity of 3,400 cubic inches and produced 800+ horsepower. Unfortunately for it, the war ended and it was never installed into an airplane.
I took something like 60 pictures at the ACD museum, so let me say what I said before...if you get a chance, you ought to go. The museum is absolutely first-rate.
Next door to the ACD museum is the National Automobile and Truck Museum of the United States, actually situated in the only surviving building from the original ACD factory. This museum is interesting, although not nearly as well-heeled, but it does have some interesting vehicles on display.
You can see a few here:
Below is the 1951 Chevy that was driven by Gene Hackman in the 1986 movie "Hoosiers."
And, this was on the sidewalk leading out of the building:
You may have to double-click to read the signs...
Anyway, that was it for the day. I would recommend all three museums to anyone who is interested in old cars...it's worth the trip.
I'm leaving tomorrow for home and should arrive by mid-afternoon. Incidentally, tomorrow is August 24th, and that was the same day I returned home last year from my Alaska trip. Must mean something??
Miles today: 105. Total: 6,865.
