I had to hurry as I did have time for one more thing this day. I was quite certain that it would be cool but I had no idea how good it would be! I have been to a few historical automotive places in my life but I have to ask myself if this really isn't the best of them all? It is THE place if you love Hudsons! It is beyond fantastic if you want to know more about Willow Run! It is a wealth of info if you want to know about dealerships and automotive history in the area in general! If you love dealership memorabilia it is a showcase of especially Hudson stuff with even a realistic dealer showroom (well, it is an actual dealership, the last Hudson one)! This is a place where automotive history is king, the watermelon (green outside, red inside)mean greenies are somewhere in another dimension and yesterday is today! What a trip! I give you Miller Motors in Ypsilanti, Michigan! Go and see it if you have the chance!
http://www.ypsiautoheritage.org/
When the Willow Run transmission operations were shut down a lot of stuff was donated to the museum, the best thing is that the walls are covered with stuff along with descriptions, this is a place where you want to spend at least a day;
How about a NOS Kaiser body with its ORIGINAL cart....
A lot of interesting Tucker stuff too;
The original car that Herb Thomas raced back in the day! This was the time when Hudsons ruled NASCAR! Jack Miller told me a cool story how it was found. A long time ago a customer was looking for some parts for what appeared to be a factory severe usage suspension and eyebrows started to raise...yes, it turned out to be the Herb Thomas racecar!
http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Herb_Thomas.htm
There was also a letter to Herb Thomas and Smokey Yunick, who prepared the cars, signed by no other than Vince Piggins who later became a legend at Chevrolet. He was responsible for stuff like Z16 Chevelles and Z/28 Camaros;
Mentioned Severe Usage Parts in Factory Bulletin and NOS form;
The dealership parts display was unbelievable with factory race parts and everything else;
Stuff, more stuff;
The service area was a mess but in a cool way;
I sure hope I can get back to Miller Motors one day, what a place! One more thing (actually there would be several but I'm always in a hurry) before leaving Ypsilanti, the home of Preston Tucker! Unfortunately some worthless soul had burned down the garage but the house was renovated and is in beautiful shape;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tuckerhttp://www.economicthinking.org/Americanhistory/tucker-greg.htmlwww.tuckerclub.org
Ypsilanti Machine Tool Company, the Tucker family business was located here;
I had to skip the Gilmore Car Museum which would have housed a wealth of info on Tuckers along with other fantastic things but some other time I am sure?
http://gilmorecarmuseum.org/OK, looks like the Photobucket bandwidth was exceeded even if I used three different accounts...I upgraded to pro so hopefully it works when we enter the next stop, the fabulous Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum!
