Andy Gilberg and his March Cars
Andy Gilberg cherishes his collection of March race cars. He was about 14, and his uncle, the track announcer, invited him to an SCCA race in Donaldsonville, Georgia. Gilberg saw a couple of Lola Mk3 Formula Jrs, a Lotus 23 and an Elva Mk 7. “I was smitten.” Many years later, he maintains a collection of vintage […]
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Klairmont Kollections: The Chicago Connection
In Chicago, the Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum (KKAM) displays 300 vehicles — from the Brass Era to Classic Muscle. Lately, the KKAM curatorial team has been focusing on adding vehicles with a Chicago connection. The 501(c)(3) 100,000-square-foot educationally based museum and event space promotes educational programming engaging young people through workshops, field trips and partnerships. All […]
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Stahls Auto Collection
This Michigan car museum has a Tucker and a turbine, electrics long before Teslas, a Civil War-vintage stagecoach, historic organs and automobilia that will make you sing praises for the old times. The collection at Stahls Automotive Museum in Chesterfield, about 30 minutes north of Detroit, comprises 220-plus cars; staff alternates about 100 in the […]
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Budd’s and Laurie’s Garage
At the fifth Arizona Concours d’Elegance in Scottsdale this past winter, Budd and Laurie Florkiewicz showed a 1939 Delahaye and a 1949 Alfa Romeo from their 28-car collection (“Budd’s Garage”), which includes American classics, vintage European and off-road vehicles. “Almost all were in decent condition when we acquired them, and some we started from scratch […]
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Aaron & Valerie Weiss’s ‘Beaters’
Aaron and Valerie Weiss affectionately call their cars “our beaters.” These automotive treasures, showcased in a Pasadena warehouse, include many award winners: a Deusy, Rolls Royce, a Marmon V-16. So, let’s rally to California where we can meet the couple, enjoy their collection and maybe find Jan & Dean’s “Little Old Lady (from Pasadena),” who, […]
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Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum: Carriages to Cars
The Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum comprises 160 horse-drawn vehicles and antique motor vehicles used for the pioneer Wyoming city’s Cheyenne Frontier Days parades every July. The event was established in 1897 to bolster the local economy by celebrating the unique western experience of Cheyenne, explains Mike Kassel, associate director/curator of collections. The annual […]
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Hooked on The Los Angeles County Fire Museum
‘Do you know what a paramedic is?’ —EMERGENCY! Classic cars gain panache and value with racing history: They’ve won at Le Mans, Indy or Daytona or run the Mille Miglia through Italy. Fire trucks and rescue equipment acquire this pedigree at their first call to service. They are the mobile tools first responders depend on […]
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The General Patton Memorial Museum Reminds us this November 11 that Veterans Day is Every Day
‘The highest privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.’ -General George S. Patton Jr. Next time you’re on I-10 east or west near Indio, California, watch for those light-brown road signs noting a point of tourist interest ahead. One is for the General Patton Memorial Museum; if you have the time, […]
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Fred Wagenhals: Life Begins with a Willys
Fred Wagenhals has always been driven. To race, to invent, to thrive, to live. The Paradise Valley, Arizona, resident and chairman and CEO of Ammo Inc. loves driving the four-wheel-drive Telluride he recently bought from Rusty Wallace Kia in Knoxville, Tennessee. A long-time friend and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Wallace was the 1984 NASCAR Cup […]
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Jim Watts: 17 Cars & Cycles on the Coast
Jim Watts has two ’52 Jowett Jupiters, one with a history out of this world. He and his wife Pam steward a collection of nine cars and eight motorcycles in San Clemente, California, just north of San Diego. They own a whale watching and fishing expedition business in nearby Newport Beach. Their two-acre cul-de-sac home […]
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The Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting in Phoenix Honors the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott
‘Hands of Mercy, Hearts of Courage, You have saved us from the flames’ –– ‘Blazing Honor,’ a song by Denise Whitley (Roggio) The Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting celebrates its 60th birthday this year. Nine years ago, June 30, 2013, 19 young men died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire, as 8,000-plus acres burned until the […]
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National WWI Museum and Memorial: War Wheels
‘The moral climax of this, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come.’ ––Woodrow Wilson, War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917 The National WWI Museum and Memorial honors those who died in a war no one today can recall from participation, and most Americans know little about the carnage, other than a […]
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Jim Coles: Garage Mahal, Montana
If he chooses, Jim Coles can joyously fish, hike, ski or boat year round in magnificent Whitefish, Montana. But, without reel, boots, oars or poles, he’s still happy enjoying his 40 Caterpillar and Deere tractors and engines, 1934 through 1968, at his Snow Ghost Ranch, 13 miles north of town and 60 miles south of […]
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Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart: ‘Tradition Meets Innovation’
On June 28, 1926, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), manufacturer of the 35-horse Mercedes in 1901, and Benz & Cie, whose founder shares credit for inventing the first internal combustion-powered automobile 15 years before, merged to establish one of the great automotive brands. Mercedes-Benz Pkw and Daimler Truck are now independent companies based in Stuttgart, Germany. Other great […]
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MoMA –– Cars on the Walls
Here are nine autos you could start your art collection with. They’re beautifully parked at the distinguished Museum of Modern Art in New York City, world renowned for its modern and contemporary holdings in painting, photography, design, illustrated books, films and other collectibles. America’s first museum devoted to modern art, MoMA opened on November 7, […]
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Segerstrom Shelby Event Center and Museum –– The Fast Life in Irvine
Carroll would have driven, quickly, to this opening –– in, of course, a Shelby. The Segerstrom Shelby Event Center and Museum opened October 30 at 5 Whatney in Irvine, California. With the fourth-largest collection of Shelbys in the U.S., Ted and Rae Segerstrom’s venue showcases some of the rarest, low-production and valuable Shelby’s, including one-of-ones. […]
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Of Cycles & Lotus: The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
In the 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama’s George Barber won racing Porsches. Today his home-town Vintage Motorsports Museum is winning both car and motorcycle enthusiasts. Documented in 2016 as the world’s largest motorcycle museum by Guinness World Records, the venue has 1,606 motorcycles, 118 cars (64 of these Lotus classics), although this changes daily, says Lee L. […]
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To Honor Those Who Have Served and Their Vehicles, Land, Sea and Air: The National Museum of the United States Army
The “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”: On November 11, 1918, the Armistice declared the end of hostilities for World War I, “the war to end all wars,” although fighting continued throughout the day –– a dark premonition of World War II, which began just 21 years later. In the United […]
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Jaguar E-Type: 60 Years of Beauty
Sir William Lyons: Cheers on the 60th anniversary of the E-Type. For the Jaguar founder (1901–1985), the starting line for the extraordinary E-Type was in 1922 with Swallow Sidecars, a company he owned with William Walmsley in Blackpool and later Coventry, England. The Jaguar name first appeared on vehicles later produced by Lyons’ S. S. […]
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Alcatraz East: Driven to Crime
Alcatraz West was never a good place. Alcatraz East is, and it’s reopened. Posting notice that it’s the “most arresting crime museum in the United States,” the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, offers guests permanent and temporary interactive exhibits and artifacts about crime history and prevention; our penal and justice systems; CSI […]
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Jim Bridgewater: ‘I am Blessed’
For Jim Bridgewater, 1937 was and is a very good year. Born in downtown Phoenix in 1937, he now lives in uptown Paradise Valley near landmark Camelback and Mummy mountains. In his three garages, Bridgewater, 84, works on and displays his five birth-year Resto-Mods. He also has a 1934 Ford built in Detroit three years […]
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The NB Center for American Automotive Heritage: Classic Clockwork
The collection assembled by Nicola Bulgari runs like no other. Nicola Bulgari, the retired vice-chairman of the Italian luxury jewelry, watches and accessories brand, assembled a collection of 250–300 cars that are cared for in the United States and Italy. Approximately 180-plus cars are owned by and housed at The NB Center for American Automotive […]
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Janet Cussler: Can a Woman Have Too Many Packards?
Janet Cussler’s classic-car garage is completely novel. With daughter Whitney, she owns the Janet Cussler Car Collection in north Scottsdale. For the last 11 years of his robust life, she was married to Paradise Valley’s Clive Cussler (1931–2020), who wrote or co-wrote 80-plus adventure/ thriller novels, including bestsellers Gray Ghost and Raise the Titanic! Their […]
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Steve Kimpton: ‘I Don’t Collect Them and I’m Not Very Good at Selling Them, I Just Love Them’
Steve Kimpton loves every one of his eclectic vehicles. And his new garage. Each car represents his lifelong passion for rare vehicles –– from his early life in a small English village, to Canada and Connecticut and eventually Arizona. That’s why he just built a 1,600-square-foot high-ceilinged garage attached to his north Scottsdale home. Before […]
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