Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum

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Hello from Ypsilanti,

It was Christmas morning for my cousin Jeff. We took Trina (my RV) into downtown Ypsilanti this morning - all of a five mile journey. We went to the historic district, Depot Town. We dropped anchor in a parking lot beside the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. http://www.ypsiautoheritage.org The museum is in the world’s last Hudson Dealership. It is also the home of the Corvair Preservation Foundation (CPF) Museum. As we rolled to a stop, Jeff was opening his door to take a peek in the windows. One of the cars on display is the Super Monza. It is a former GM show car commissioned by Bill Mitchell, chief of design for GM; a one of a kind pre-production vehicle. The vehicle was in the Reynolds Aluminum family and was acquired by the CPF in 1988. Cousin Jeff spearheaded the 1990 - 1992 restoration. After restoration it was housed in the former CPF museum in Richmond, VA and was relocated to Ypsilanti in 2002.

The museum houses many other rare automobiles including the Herb Thomas famous Hudson Hornet which the character Doc in the recent Pixar movie Cars was based on. There were many Hudsons, Kaisers, Fraisers and GM cars made in Ypsilanti’s Willow Run Plant.

We had a nice lunch at Sidetrack’s Bar and Grill which was across the street from the museum. The owner has a 1947 Hudson Commodore with a “three on the tree”. She bought it from Jack Miller, the owner of the museum. Jack’s Dad, Carl Miller, owned the Hudson dealership from 1935 until 1958.

After a great time in Depot Town, we drove out to the Willow Run Plant. It is located next to the Willow Run Airport. Henry Ford built the plant - which originally was known as the Willow Run Bomber Plant. The B-24 Liberator, used in WWII, was built at the plant. After the war, Ford sold the plant to Henry J. Kaiser. Later GM bought it and approximately 90% of all Corvairs were manufactured there. GM also built Pontiac GTOs (one of my dream cars).

On the way to Willow Run, we stopped by Preston Tucker’s home. Mr. Tucker engineered his 1948 Tucker Torpedo in the backyard shop. The shop burned several years ago, but the home still stands and is being renovated. Only 51 cars were ever produced at Tucker’s plant in Chicago. The Tucker pioneered automotive features and ideas that became standard on later autos. Some of you may have seen the movie based on his life - Tucker, The Man and his Dream. One of the replicas of a Tucker, used in the movie, was on display at the museum.

It was a great day. A good time was had by all.

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