Camouflaged C8 visits National Corvette Museum

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Still covered in camouflage, the mid-engine C8-generation Chevrolet Corvette did a lap through the roadways at the National Corvette Museum during the annual Michelin NCM Bash. The car was driven by Jon Andrews of the Bowling Green Assembly plant, which is across the road from the museum.

While the C8 will have its camo covering removed in July, the museum continues to offer its C7 Corvette Experience program. For $599, those registered can drive a Stingray Z51 for laps around the 3.15-mile NCM Motorsports Park road course. The day includes classroom instruction, on-track driving, lunch and a VIP tour of the museum. For information, visit the motorsport park website.

Speaking of the motorsports park, it offers Friday night go-kart racing through August.

Ed and Teresa Foss of Roanoke, Indiana, donated the cutaway 1953 Corvette to the museum for display in its new Gateway feature | National Corvette Museum photo

Also taking place during the recent Bash was the opening of the museum’s new Gateway exhibit and the donation to the museum of the 1953 Corvette chassis 003 educational cutaway car, a fully functional vehicle built for display purposes.

The chassis was discovered in the mid-1970s under the body of a 1955 Corvette that was being restored. 

The new Gateway exhibit focuses on the Corvette’s creation and vehicles that influenced its development including a 1946 Stout Y46 fiberglass-bodied concept car, a 1947 MG TC roadster and a 1951 Crosley.

Bulgari collection on display at America On Wheels

Nine cars from Nicola Bulgari’s NB Center for American Automotive Heritage have moved into a special display at the America On Wheels museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The exhibit, “A Lifetime Devotion to the American Automobile,” runs through mid-October. 

Vehicles on display include a 1922 Oldsmobile Model 47-F Super Sport Touring, a 1933 Marmon Sixteen Victoria Coupe by LeBaron, a 1951 Nash-Healey LeMans roadster, a 1933 Graham Blue Streak Sedan Model 64, a 1935 Nash Ambassador 8 sedan Model 3580, and a 1942 DeSoto DeLuxe 2S10 sedan.

New museum planned near Portland, Oregon

Newspapers in the state of Washington report that 81-year-old car collector Ron Wade plans to open a museum, The Museum, Cars By Ron Wade, in a former auto dealership showroom in Hazel Dell, just north of Portland, Oregon. 

Wade, who in 1981 started a business to sell Chevrolet car and truck parts, had been keeping his collection in a farm building but acquired the former dealership building several years ago.

The Columbian reports that Wade also has made arrangements for theWestern Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum of Hood River, Oregon, to take ownership of his collection and building after his death.

Indy racing documentary debuts May 24

Rapid Response, a documentary movie exploring motorsports safety, makes its world premiere May 24 at the Indiana State Museum’s IMAX Theater in Indianapolis. The movie, produced by Roger Hinze and Michael Miles, is based on Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life-Saver, by physician Stephen Olvey, who with another doctor, Terry Trammell, led the effort to make racing safer for its participants. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=55&v=Aw_B31yKP_c

Indy museum expands visiting hours

With so much activity on the track this month, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum offers extended visiting hours, and not only for the month of May but running through November 10. Specific hours during May generally will coincide with on-track activity. 

Gilmore museum offers Wednesday car shows

Weather permitting, the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, hosts Wednesday Night Cruise-Ins on its campus on a weekly basis from May through September, from 5 to 8 p.m. The campus includes a 1941 Blue Moon Diner that will serve hot dogs, hamburgers and frozen custard throughout the evenings. The Gilmore Grill also will be open.

Simeone seeks cars for Demo Day

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia is looking for cars to fill out its May 11 Demo Day theme of “The Sports Car Comes to America,” especially cars with links to Max Hoffman, Kjell Qvale or Luigi Chinetti. If you have such a car, use this link to contact the museum.

Special events this weekend

“My dream is longer than the night,” a radio play about Bertha Benz and her influence on the early motorcar, will be performed May 3-5 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany. 

On May 4, the North East Motor Sports Museum in Loudon, New Hampshire, hosts Historic Motor Sports Exposition featuring a variety of displays from various museums, racing teams and companies.

1894 Black is the oldest car in the ACD Museum collection | Museum photo

An 1894 Black will be featured Saturday at 2 p.m. when the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in northeast Indiana stages its monthly “If These Cars Could Talk” program with curator Sam Grate sharing the history of the Indiana-built Black, which is the oldest vehicle in the museum’s collection. The car was built by Charles Black, an Indianapolis carriage builder who had driven a neighbor’s 1891 Benz.

The National Corvette Museum NCM Motorsports Park hosts an Auto-X autocross event May 4. “No classes. No course working. No trophies. No drama,” the museum said of the program designed “for folks who just want seat time.”

1989 ‘Batman’ movie car among those on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles | Museum photo

More than 40 vehicles that have played roles in science fiction films will be featured in a new exhibit, “Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction and Fantasy,” opening May 4 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. the exhibit runs through March 15, 2020.

Tim Considine will autograph copies of his three-volume Twice Around the Clock – The Yanks at Le Mans from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. May 4 at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, California. 

The Simply Ford gathering May 5 at Britain’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu will feature the 60th anniversary of the Ford Anglia 105E and the 50th birthday celebration for the Ford Capri.

The documentary movie Bob Kart Viu: When History Becomes Sport will be screened at 5 p.m. May 5 at the Museo Dell’Automobile di Torino in Italy. The movie tells the story of sport and passion, history and racing, ecology and fun and of Marcello Gandini and the decision to stage the European Championship in Viu in 2017.

Mark your calendar

“Tucker: The 50 Production Cars” is the subject of a special program May 11 at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where one of Preston Tucker’s grandsons will be among the speakers.

The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, hosts a Crawford Coffee & Cars cruise-in May 11 from 8 to 11 a.m.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum will stage a special Speedway Cars & Coffee event May 11 limited to the first 100 registered cars. The car show runs from 9 a.m. until noon, but those registered can partake in a full day of activities at the track, where the Indycar Grand Prix starts at 3:30 p.m.

The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California opens its new Fireball Gallery of automotive art with a special event from 6 tol 10 p.m. on May 11.

The British Motor Museum stages its fifth annual “Gaydon Land Rover Show” on May 11-12 with a special appearance on May 12 by the Ferguson 4 Wheel Drive Club and its vehicles. 

The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California opens its new Fireball Gallery of automotive art with a special event from 6 to 10 p.m. on May 11. 

LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, opens its “Cadillac – Standard of the World” exhibit with a “Champagne and Cadillacs” event from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. on May 11.

The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will offer free admission to mother’s on May 12.

“Colors of Speed — 50 Years of the 917,” a special exhibition of 10 of the famed Porsche racing cars, opens May 14 and runs through September 15 at the Porsche Museum in Germany.

The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, hosts the C4 Gathering from May 16-18.

Spectre concept car among those to be featured in the AACA Museum’s ‘Studebaker Cool’ exhibit | Museum photo

The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, opens two new summer exhibits on May 17 — Studebaker Cool: 114 Years of Innovation, and Harley-Davidson: History, Mythology and Perceptions of America’s Motorcycle. Both exhibits run through October 20.

“Time Travel” is the theme of the Pre-1942 Showcase car show and swap meet scheduled for May 18 at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, where the vintage vehicles will parade around the roadways within the msuem campus. Featured will be 1909-1925 Cole Motor Cars, holding their largest reunion.

Britain’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu hosts both its silver-anniversary spring autojumble (swap meet) May 18-19 and a 60th anniversary celebration of the Mini. 

LeMay Collections at Marymount in Tacoma, Washington, offers Model T drivers education classes May 18, June 8, July 7, August 4 and September 8.

The IMS Museum presents the 21st annual Indianapolis Historic Racing Exhibition on May 23-25 when around 70 Indianapolis 500 racing cars are expected to return to the track for exhibition laps and to be displayed in the museum parking lot inside Turn 2. The event is open to cars that raced at Indy between 1911 and 1994.

The California Automobile Museum in Sacramento hosts a Memorial Day Car Show on May 27.

The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut, will stage its second “Barracudas, Sting Rays & More Show Cars from the Sea” car show on June 8.

Britain’s National Motor Museum and the Montagu home at Beaulieu will host a major exhibition of sculpture from May 25 through July 14. “Sculpture at Beaulieu” will feature more than 350 works by more than 60 sculptors.

LeMay Collections in Tacoma, Washington, stages LeMay Motorcycle Days from June 13-23 with 200 motorcycles on exhibit and with rounds of motorcycle soccer.

The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California, will stage its annual Father’s Day car show on June 16.

The Miles Through Time museum in Toccoa, Georgia, hosts its second annual car show from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on June 22. 

The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California, hosts its seventh annual vintage trailer show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 29, with more than 40 vintage trailers and campers on display.

LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, will be the finish line for the 2019 Great Race and plans to celebrate with a “Shine Time” car show on June 30. 

“The Car. The Future. Me” is the title of an exhibit scheduled to open July 13 at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, UK, to explore “futuristic car design and (to) challenge your idea of how we will interact with the cars for the future,” the museum said. 

The Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, inducts new members Sergio Marchionne, the late chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles; Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify as a driver in the Indianapolis 500; Richard “Dick” Dauch, co-founder of American Axle Manufacturing; and Patrick Ryan, creator of the first auto dealership finance and insurance department, on July 18 in Detroit.

On August 3, the British Motor Museum will be the site of the Classic Mini Mosaic world-record attempt that is expected to draw more than 600 classic Minis. The following day the museum will be the site of the National Metro & Mini Show.

The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, inducts racer Briggs Cunningham, Corvette designer Tom Peters, and Dollie Cole, Corvette enthusiast and widow of former GM president Ed Cole, into its hall of fame on August 30.

“Legends of Speed,” a showcase of nearly two dozen historic racing cars, opens November 2 at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Does your local car museum have special events or exhibitions planned? Let us know. Email [email protected].

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