One of my Favorites... 1955 Chevy Bel Air

Now for one of my favorites, a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. After doing a little research I found that this car had a lot of admirers and was referred to as, " A Milestone in Automotive Car History."

The first time I ever found that I really liked this car was at a little car show that my family and I just happened to stop at. I was very green in my knowledge of classic cars and cars in general but almost every time I pointed out a car to my dad during my time at that show and asked what it was he said, "That's a Chevrolet Bel Air." This was the start of making this one of my favorites. Granted there are many years that the Bel Air has been around but after looking at the different styles I think that the 1955 model is the one I like the most.

 

The clip of information that I got on this car from LeMay - America's Car Museum web page is that this year was a explosive year for the styling department at Chevrolet. The dramatic design was created by Harley Earle. Which for me was, being very new to cars, the first thing the caught my attention and the thing I still like the most about it.

Compared to its previous models the 1955 version had a better frame and body, brakes, more suspension for the back to give it a smoother ride and it had more than 50 additional features that a person could get including a electric shaver for the car!

I have always seemed to be partial to the styling of Chevrolet cars and trucks, especially during the 1950s and this is one reason why. 

I hope this post has been enlightening and enjoyable.
'Til next time have a great day!

Exciting Renovations!

It was very exciting today when I went to volunteer at the Museum, the new carpet had been put into the gymnasium and I got to see the new caterer's prep kitchen and the new restrooms! It was all so exciting I wanted to share. Here are some of the photographs that I took, but the Museum will be having a open house within the next couple of months so I strongly encourage you to stop on by if you are in the Tacoma area and take a look at it.

Here's the gymnasium with the new carpet and a few cars, there was a meeting to be held in there later on in the day.

A few of the great cars that were left in the room, along with the great new carpet.

Setting up for the meeting that was happening later on in the day.

I certainly wouldn't mind having that car at my next event!

The new caterer's prep kitchen.

Isn't it nice?

Very nice sinks.

This is the entry way between the caterer's kitchen, the restrooms and the orphan room,  the name of one of our car rooms.

New bathroom.

Sparkling red counter tops and lovely red lights.

So that's what I have to report. It's great seeing everything coming together for the Museum. I hope you enjoyed this post and who knows maybe I'll see you at the open house in the next couple of months. Tell them Amber sent you.
'Til next time have an amazing day!

More Pictures of Groundbreaking

Pictures of LeMay - AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUM are up on their flickr page and I just thought it would be nice to pass the information along:
LeMay - AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUM Groundbreaking pictures
They have some very nice pictures of the actual ceremony.

Also here are some more pictures that I took of the cars from the event:

There were so many pictures to share with you all that I liked from the event I thought that it deserved two postings to cover it all.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If you are in the area of downtown Tacoma or happen to pass by where the Tacoma Dome is make sure to glance over, when it is safe to do so of course, and see the new Museum's progress!

'Til next time have a great day everyone,

LeMay Museum Ground Breaking

Last Thursday was LeMay - America's Car Museum's groundbreaking by the Tacoma Dome for the new museum site. It was really quite exciting, not only was it the groundbreaking but was like a car show also because of how many collector classic cars came. One thing that made me chuckle was when Nancy LeMay said that if her husband, Harold the Museum's founder, was here today he would probably be out looking at the cars instead of at the ceremony.

Here are a few pictures of the ceremony:

 Nancy LeMay and the Museum's CEO David Madeira

It was absolutely amazing how many people from the press at the ceremony.

This was before the ceremony started, quite crowded already.

Now here a few of my favorite pictures that were taken at the groundbreaking.

A Hudson Hornet

A whole caravan of Model "A" Fords came to the event.

A view of some of the cars and where we were located at in reference to the Tacoma Dome.

It took thirteen years to get to the groundbreaking and now the construction is finally underway! It was definitely a day of celebration and excitement.

I hope you enjoyed this post and the pictures of the event.
'Til next time have a great day everyone,

1948 Tucker 48

I'm still working on my Vanna White pose but here's me with the 1948 Tucker.

 The 1948 Tucker is one of the cars that got me excited about LeMay - AMERICA'S CAR MUSEUM. It's a beautiful car in waltz blue which was named after the inventor's wife's dress color that she wore the evening that she gave him the okay to start production on the car. 

What's so special about a Tucker?

Well here's some of the reasons why I thought it was cool.

It has a third headlight that turns with the steering wheel when the car goes around the corner, very handy at night.

It has a Franklin air-cooled helicopter flat 6 engine in it! The engine was built in the rear which was quite a novel concept at the time. The engine weighs 320 lbs and produces166 hp.

Then there is the fact that instead of seat belts the car has a huge space for the driver and the passenger to slide into in case they were going to be in a crash, this was a time when seatbelts were thought to be a sign that the car was unsafe. Another really cool safety feature of the car was that it had pop out wind shields that would come out on impact if it was in a accident.

One other thing that made this car special is that there was only 51 produced! (This number included the prototype.)

They made a movie about the man behind the car called "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" which came out in 1988 which re-introduced this magnificent car to a whole new generation. I decided to get this movie from the library and was very glad that I didn't buy it.  It was insightful it but it wasn't really a movie that I would watch over and over again. I did however really enjoy getting to see numerous Tuckers when they came off the production line near the end of the movie and when they went as a sort of caravan to the courthouse.

I hope that you learned a little bit and enjoyed this post about this really cool classic.
'Til next time have a amazing day everyone,



p.s. LeMay Museum's ground breaking is tomorrow! If you happen to be in the Tacoma / Seattle area please come on by, its next to the Tacoma Dome at 3 pm. There is going to be a ton of classic collector cars too. I'm definitely planning on bringing my camera! For more info. check out the Museum's website.

1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Concept Car

So I was doing research for this blog and came across the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Concept Car. It reminded me so much of the Bat mobile from the old television show with Adam West with the spare tire in the back encased in metal and the glass gull wing doors.  It was designed by Harley Earl the director of Pontiac styling and was suppose to be based on American's fascination with rocket design at the time - however, I have also heard that he was inspired by people setting world racing records at the track in Salt Flats, Utah.  There was only two made a green and a red one or copper/ bronze as I have seen it called. In my opinion it is very unfortunate that this car never came to be. I would have loved to have one. Maybe someday I can have one of the originals, though at the last auction one was in was sold for $2.8 million - hmmm... Then again there are a lot of other nice classic cars out there even though this one is nice.
Hope you enjoy this.
'Til Next time have a great day everyone,