More than two dozen Ford Mustangs will be on display May 18 through October 14 as the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, presents “Mustangs; Six Generations of America’s Favorite Pony Car.”
As the museum explained in its announcement, “The Mustang began as a brilliant business model: You start with a reliable but inexpensive car, the Falcon, which is well-established that no costly engineering is needed. Then, you design a body with an appealing and unique shape — a short deck and a long hood. Give it a base price that suggests almost anyone can afford to buy one. Then, offer it with enough options that it can become anything its owner desires: a practical and thrifty six-cylinder runabout, a high-performance muscle car, or a sporty-looking luxo-cruiser. Introduce it to the public in a high-profile venue: the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
“The idea worked; the Mustang sold like the proverbial hotcakes, and Lee Iacocca became a household name overnight. But after you achieve this remarkable success, how do you keep it going for over 50 years? That is the story that we will tell as part of this exhibit.”
To open the exhibit, the museum will stage a special opening-night reception and program May 18 featuring Chuck Cantwell, project engineer for Shelby American; Gale Halderman, Ford design director who led the team for the original Mustang through feasibility to production; and John Clor, Ford Performance Enthusiast Communication Manager. Cantwell and Clor are authors of several Mustang-oriented books.
The AACA Museum also has announced that the 1963 Mustang III concept show car is a late addition to its exhibit. The concept is a two-seat fastback built on a shortened chassis. Several such prototypes were built and all were to be destroyed, but the car’s designer, Vince Gardner, reported stole one to keep it from going to the crusher. Detroit police recovered the car several months later. It became the property of insurance company Aetna, which sold it to one of its executives.
Ford museum offers online exhibit on Edsel Ford, artist
The Henry Ford (museum) in Dearborn, Michigan, has launched a special online exhibit featuring 49 artifacts that focus on “Edsel Ford: The Artist in Our Family.”
It was Ford’s son who added a sense of style to what had been Henry’s squared-off Model T and A vehicles and who hired the first true designers to work for the company. He also pushed to bring the Lincoln brand into the fold and was responsible for the stunning pre-war Zephyr and Continental cars.
“Henry Ford once referred to his son Edsel as the artist in the family,” the museum notes. “Explore Edsel’s sense of art and design through artwork from his youth, and Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models created under his leadership.”
Among the artifacts you can view are drawings by Edsel dating as early as 1898, when he was only 6 years old, and a vehicle sketch he did at age 12.
‘Motor Mouths’ at British museum
Photographer and digital artist Richard Jones’ Motor Mouths project is featured at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, Warwickshire. The project features a 17-minute digital installation of “talking portraits” and time-lapse clips with auto workers telling their stories.
The project is the result of two years of planning and 14 months in production. More than 200,000 images were shot for the project and portraits were cut into layers to give a 3D “parallax effect,” the museum noted.
Special events this weekend
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, hosts its Spirits 161 Speakeasy Soiree tonight.
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, Indiana, offers its monthly “If These Cars Could Talk” presentation at 2 p.m. Saturday featuring a 1912 Auburn, that automaker’s first closed car and termed the “Car of Tomorrow” for features such as electric headlamps.
The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California, hosts its “F1rst Sunday” Cars & Coffee gathering May 6 from 7:30 a.m. until 10 a.m., and the first 400 cars receive a 2-for-1 admission voucher to the museum’s collection.
Sunday and Monday (a British Bank Holiday), the British Motor Museum and Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust will display three cars at Stratford Festival of Motoring. The vehicles are the 1948 Land Rover Series 1 pre-production model, the rally-winning 1950 Jaguar XK120 and a 2001 Jaguar XK8 that is a replica of the Austin Powers Goldmember movie car.
Mark your calendar
Monday May 7 is the final day to pre-register for the C4 Gathering scheduled for May 17-19 at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The Newport Car Museum in Rhode Islandwill show Talladega Nights; The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at 7 p.m. May 9 and plans a “hoods up” weekend May 12-13, including free admission for moms on Mother’s Day.
May means the return of Thursday Night Cruise-Ins at the Stahls Auto Museum in Chesterfield, Michigan, and this year the time frame expands from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, stages its Cars 4 Critters car show on May 12.
LeMay-America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, opens its “BMW Heroes of Bavaria: 75 Years of BMW Motorsport” exhibit the weekend of May 15-16, with a grand opening celebration May 12 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Racer Bill Auberlen and BMW motorsports manager Erik Wensberg will be the guest speakers at the grand opening
The Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York stages its annual Spring Auto Show weekend May 19-20. The weekend begins with a road trip to tour a private car collection on May 19 with the car show at the Saratoga Spa State Park on May 20, when the show field will include a special display by the Antique Automobile Club of America.
The New England Auto Museum presents Four Hands on the Wheel, a documentary 1969 film about Mark Donohue, Roger Penske and the 1968 Trans-Am racing season, shown as part of a 50th anniversary celebration May 23 at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The event includes a panel discussion and the display of Penske’s 1968 Sunoco Camaro and 1966 Daytona- and Sebring-winning Corvette.
The British Motor Museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire, celebrates the 70th anniversary of Land Rover with “Adventure, Animation and Land Rovers,” a family-oriented program May 26-June 3.
The California Ag Museum in Woodland stages its Tractors & Brews event on June 7 from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
On Father’s Day weekend, Beaulieu, the National Motor Museum in England, opens its new summer exhibition, “The Art of Kustom,” featuring automotive creations by Andy Saunders, who will drive one of his customs onto the museum grounds and will unveil his newest project, Metropolis, a transformed 1939 Peugeot 202 pickup, found in a field in France and believed to have been requisitioned by invading forces during World War II.
The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia will offer its first Race Car Summer Camp for those aged 10-16, July 9-13. The camp will use motorsports to explore STEM subjects, and each camper will design and race a CO2-powered car. For information and registration, visit the museum website.
The Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, welcomes its Class of 2018 at a gala ceremony July 19. Those being enshrined are Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota; Tom and Ray Magliozzi of Car Talk radio fame; Frank Stronach, founder of automotive supplier Magna International; and Mike Jackson, chairman of AutoNation dealerships.
