Author: Healey

Immortals Pee?!

I recently presented at the Driving School of America’s conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As part of my involvement the organizers graciously invited me to attend the conference dinner. Normally, I am not a big fan of conference dinners because there is a lot of time spent just sitting at a table and listening to people tell me about their job, research goals, or family life. Don’t get me wrong, I very much like to talk with people about this stuff, it can be energizing at times, but not at the end of a long day when I would prefer to hang out with friends and relax. However, this dinner could be different…this dinner was to be held at the Unser Racing Museum.  This was a chance to kill two proverbial birds with a single stone.  I love car museums and I heard from Albuquerque-based vintage racers that one of the Unser’s are usually at the museum to greet guests, so this was also a chance to visit a new museum and also meet racing royalty.

The two busloads of conference attendees were to arrive at 6:30 so I stealthily arrived at 6:10 to talk with the staff and to meet any royalty that might be present without said royalty being distracted by 60 other people. As I walked through the front door I was greeted by wonderfully friendly staff who literally exclaimed “Welcome to the Museum, we are glad you are here!!!” It was welcoming from the moment I walked into the museum.

The woman at the door asked if I wanted to meet with Al Unser Sr. and, of course without a moment’s hesitation, I exclaimed in return “Yes!!!” Al Unser is a four-time Indianapolis 500 race winner and that alone gives the man significant “street cred” in my book and just about any other racing fan, but Mr. Unser is so much more as his race history is long and filled with many race wins, trophies, ribbons, etc. I remember seeing him on TV winning Indy 500 races, my dad had signed Mr. Unser photos from back in the day, and, well, I just respected him.  He is racing royalty to me.  Well, no, that’s not quite true.  With everything that he has accomplished he is a racing immortal…like Zeus or Hercules…but only better. He will be recognized for a very long time because of his amazing accomplishments.

The woman at the entrance led me over and introduced us.  God-Unser, who he is now known as, is starting to show his age because of all those years of being shoe-horned into race cars and leaning into engine compartments. He has a full head of gray hair, big bushy eye-brows, and a slightly awkward walk…but you can still recognize his calm and happy eyes. He looks like a quintessential grandfather. I introduced myself and he replied in a joyful voice “Very glad to meet you, I’m Al Unser.”  As if I was a fourteen-year-old kid I blurted out “You are a legend to me, sir!”

I was embarrassed to let him know I placed him on such a high pedestal but then I thought that I was unlikely the first to do so and likely not the last. We spent the next few minutes talking about racing, race tracks (e.g., Road America…I had raced Road America for nearly 15 years), and his family. I liked him all the more due to his approachable nature…he was more than a simple God…he was a high God.

Then the conversation between an immortal and a mere mortal was crashed when the two bus-loads of conference attendees walked through the door. “Ahh shit” I said to myself.  To my chagrin, the wonderfully friendly staff asked the mob if they wanted to meet Al Unser and I knew our time was up. I thanked him for his time and wished him a good evening. Although our time was short, it was very special to me…I was able to interact with this God and was able to verify that he truly deserved that title.

The Unser Museum is a wonderful place that captures key moments and key machines in racing history relative to the Unser family.  As you walk through the front doors you are faced with the all too common gift shop but you can see directly to a bright yellow Indy car on a revolving table. This is not a run of the mill car but the 1987 Indy car in which Al Unser won his fourth Indy 500 race.  From there you are treated to a variety of legends cars, a pink NASCAR car, and a few other notables. The Johnny Lightning 1970 Indy 500 winning car was absolutely spectacular as was the 1962 Novi. The 1968 Indy 500 winning car of Bobby Unser was on display. I have to admit that I think I drooled on that car a bit…it is absolutely gorgeous…the paint, the attention to detail…everything. It looks like it could be raced today if I could only sneak it out the back of the museum.  If I could drive one car in the museum this would be it.

The 1987 Indy car in which Al Unser won his fourth Indy 500 race.

The Johnny Lightning 1970 Indy 500 winning car.

1968 Indy 500 winning car of Bobby Unser.

Later in the evening the mob was then escorted to a second building located behind the first. This appeared to be the main office building but the first floor was dedicated to additional cars.  There we found among other things a 1986 Indy car driven by Michael Andretti, a 1991 Uno Lola-Chevrolet Indy car driven by Arie Luyendyk, and a variety of classic cars and trucks.

Perhaps the most special thing to see besides the magnificent cars was the large glass-walled room that holds an amazing array of the Unser family racing memorabilia including hundreds of trophies, dozens of championship rings, many racing suites, and more. The breadth of the collection was breathtaking. It is here, looking at all those awards, that we are able to get a full appreciation of the scale of the Unser family racing accomplishments. It is here that one realizes the Unser family was a racing dynasty through their decades long accomplishments.

A small selection of Unser family awards.

The mob then returned to the first building and it was here that I was truly stunned. While the conference participants were distracted by mediocre catered food I saw God-Unser walk into the restroom. I was speechless. This seemingly simple act, performed by all mortals, was performed by God-Unser. Gods don’t pee!!! Particularly high Gods!!! I had to recalibrate my mental model of the world.

So God-Unser may not have been a God but a mere mortal who ascended to God-like status. I smiled a bit because it reminded me that everyone has the capability to ascend to this status in their own areas of life. The conference attendees didn’t even notice that they were ascending to this status through their work in driver education…helping new drivers drive safe.

A map and Piston Vista ratings can be found at the Piston Vista Unser Racing Museum page.

A map and Piston Vista ratings can be found at the Piston Vista Saratoga Automobile Museum page.

I encourage you to visit the Sarasota Automobile Museum because you too can have a Superman experience. As I turned off South Broadway I entered the Saratoga Spa State Park which is a public space with an ample amount of runners, bikers, dogs and their owners, and families just enjoying the wonderful New York weather on the day I visited in June 2017 day. The grass was green, the trees tall, and the space was inviting. Nestled in the bucolic setting is the former bottling plant. The building has inspiringly large windows that look out to the park from the former plant floor.  You can almost imagine the sound of bottles bumping into each other as they make their way around the building.

You don’t see any vehicles when you first enter the building so you are unsure whether the sign outside is wrong but you are soon rewarded, after paying admission, with a lovely display of old Harley Davidson. Just beyond that gem of a motorcycle is the museum’s first floor. A few of the cars on display during my visit included:

• 1928 Franklin Airman owned by Charles Lindbergh
• 1952 Fiat Topolino 500C Belvedere 2 door station wagon
• 1957 Continental Mark II
• 1956 Chevrolet Corvette
• 1987 Ferrari Testarossa

All the cars were restored and it was readily apparent that some received proper attention while others needed a bit more. The 1956 Chevrolet Corvette was an example of the former. The door gaps were perfect, the paint was nearly flawless, and the copious amounts of brightwork made for a rewarding experience when I stood there for close to ten minutes admiring the vehicle’s beauty. Restorations don’t get much better than this.

 

The Porsche 356 coupe fell into the latter category. The car received a restoration at some point during its long life but, as I stood there, I felt the car was calling out to me…asking to be restored properly. The body panels had more ripples than a potato chip and the door gaps were as wide as the Grand Canyon in some areas and barely visible in others. I wanted to reprimand the restorer…what an awful thing to do to such a beautiful car.

The museum’s second floor was much smaller than the first but in some ways was more remarkable experience. Among a few dirt track racing cars were four very special vehicles. A 1931 Pierce Arrow stopped me in my tracks. The privately-owned car oozes style and class from the 1920s. This is the kind of car that was likely not owned by someone who went to work like most of us but rather by someone who owned something like a very large business, unlike most of us. The 1928 Franklin Airman was an air-cooled vehicle manufactured in New York and was owned previously by Charles Lindbergh.

Then there are two race cars. I have a strong appreciation of these types of thoroughbred machines having vintage races for nearly 15 years. Every part has two purposes…be functional in some way and be light to reduce weight. Sometimes, and only sometimes, does the arrangement of these parts achieve the first two purposes and a third and higher purpose…creating something of beauty. The 1956 Ferrari Bardahl Special and the 1935 Maserati V8RI are perfect examples. The Maserati was raced on the Grand Prix circuits, the Vanderbuilt cups races in 1936 and 1937, attempted to qualify in the Indy 500 in 1938 and 1939, competed in Watkins Glen, New York, and many other races. The supercharged V8 was a magnificent engine that contributed to the long-running success of the car.

Superman you ask? One of the taglines for the original Saturday morning TV show was “It’s a bird! It’s a plane!  It’s Superman!!!”. I felt this way as I wandered through the museum.  Most museums have a primary theme that they promote like turn of the century cars, American iron, cars of New York, etc. But this was different.  The Pierce, Maserati, and dirt track cars didn’t fit a singular theme and neither did the wide array of cars on the first floor. It was a collection but not really a collection.  Was it a bird or a plane?

As I found out from the docent that morning, the first floor of the museum was dedicated to the cars that will be sold at the Sarasota Car Auction while the second floor was dedicated to their “mostly” permanent collection. At the end of my visit I felt like this experience might approach Superman status. This was a strong collection of cars most of which (first floor) will be ever-changing with each auction, the staff were amazingly friendly, the layout and organization were excellent, and the old building and the park in which it resides made for a wonderful trip.

A map and Piston Vista ratings can be found at the Piston Vista Northeast Classic Car Museum page.

Do you remember the Twilight Zone TV show? Allow me a moment to refresh your memory or, at the very least in true Twilight Zone fashion, implant a memory. The Twilight Zone typically started by depicting a perfectly normal scenario which was followed by Rod Serling’s narrative which indicated things were about to become strange. Shortly after Rod’s commentary, one of the characters would usually see or experience something small that was out of the ordinary. This was the sign that they entered the Twilight Zone. For example, one episode depicted a guy who tossed change into a box and one of the coins came to a rest on its edge. That odd little moment was the start of his trip into the Twilight Zone. The trips get strange from that point forward.

My Twilight Zone moment occurred on a Monday in June 2017 when I visited the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, New York. Like several of the TV episodes, my experience was not scary…just quirky.  Norwich is a relatively small town. You can go from the outskirts, to city center, and out the other side quicker that moving through a black hole at a speed faster than light itself.

The strange thing, my Twilight Zone moment, was when I realized this little town had a relatively large car museum and one that housed the largest collection of Franklin automobiles in the United States, if not the world. Generally speaking, large museums are found in large cities because large cities offer a large number of visitors to support the large museum. Large generally needs large. Small town, large museum…this was different enough to be noticed.

 

I arrived at the museum just a few moments after they opened on a weekday. I approached the ticketing desk but there was no receptionist. Hmmm…just a little strange but I was likely the first visitor through the door that morning so it should not have surprised me…but it did.  After looking at some memorabilia for a few minutes the receptionist arrives, takes my money, and gives me a museum map.  Not overly friendly but not unfriendly either…just like a Twilight Zone character…uncharacteristically uncharacteristic. The map showed a circuitous route through the museum and I was left wondering once again why many museums don’t create a nice natural flow for their exhibits (more on that pet peeve in another article at another time). This is the third strange thing and I suddenly realize that I am likely in The Zone.

I enter the museum after the receptionist invites me to ask the docent any questions. The docent greeted me within five feet of my passing through the main doors. He was an appropriately aged retiree with a passion for cars and a slow but purposeful pace of a senior citizen. He looked like a kind old grandfather with grey hair and glasses. In a calm grandfatherly voice he says “Hello! If you have any questions please let me know.” In a middle-age voice I say “Good Morning. Thank you. I will.” Those were his first words and about the last of mine. I was officially in The Zone. He was a security system wrapped in the stolen skin of a grandfather. He was never more than 10 feet away from me at all times despite my best efforts to move beyond his field of surveillance. I tried to walk faster but he sped up…unreasonably fast for a man his age. I tried to evade but he knew how to cut me off at each pass. I felt like a cow going through steel gates thinking I was about to reach freedom but instead was rushing headlong into a certain slaughterhouse death. I was trapped. How do I get out of The Zone? HELP!!!

The plus side?  The security system was also a mobile information terminal! Vast amounts of knowledge delivered in an easily understood and conversational manner. The museum was fantastic with a wonderful collection of Franklins and other assorted American iron from the 1900’s through to the muscle car era. The main question for viewers of this Twilight Zone episode was “What would you do if you were a prisoner in paradise?” I was a prisoner of the docent but he provided invaluable information.

The Northeast Classic Car Museum represents the passion of George Staley who was an aviation mechanic and engineer during and after WWII.  He apparently prepared the Enola Gay for its historic mission.  After the war, Mr. Staley and three other men started overhauling aircraft accessories. After selling the business he started building garages to house his cars, which grew bigger and bigger until becoming a museum.

The museum itself is unassuming because it is composed of metal industrial buildings located in a pleasant neighborhood.  You won’t find opulence here unless you are looking at the cars. Today the museum has, quite possibly, the largest collection of cars manufactured in New York. In fact, on a wall in the ticketing area there is floor to ceiling map of New York with the locations and names of all the manufacturers highlighted. It looks like a web with all the lines pointing to various cities….I am stunned…I had no idea New York was so prolific. Mr. Staley created this little museum in part as a nod to the prolific New York vehicle manufacturing scene…although there are also several non-New York vehicles.

The museum is worth the trip through The Zone even if you only see the evolution of the Franklins. Franklins had air-cooled motors before it was cool to have air-cooled motors. I quickly realized that Franklins were more than just an updated horse buggy with a motor. By the 30s and 40s they had created some very exciting looking vehicles that pushed the envelope of styling. Franklin was producing cars with beautiful swooping fenders and lush interiors that would be the envy of fat-cat bankers back in the day.

The Northeast Classic Car museum is a real treat for those car lovers that like the unusual.  Besides the Franklins, they have the following plus much more.

• 1899 Leggett
• 1907 Cadilllac
• 1909 Victor Runabout
• 1910 Firestone Columbus
• 1915 Scripps-Booth
• 1921 Mitchell
• 1934 Franklin Airman Sedan
• 1948 Playboy

My complaints? I don’t dare talk about them for fear of another trip through the Twilight Zone.

For a map and ratings visit the The Automobile Gallery page here.

I grew up in Southeastern Wisconsin with one grandmother who was Irish and the other Polish. I remember fondly when I would visit them…moments after walking in the door I was always welcomed in further. My Irish grandmother would always offer me a drink which was a blend of English Breakfast tea, plenty of creamer, and brown sugar. After this I would have enough energy to run around the house, up the walls, and across the ceilings. My polish grandmother would always offer food usually in the form of ham sandwiches or, if we had the time to wait, pierogis. At both places we had to mind our manners but it was very inviting and comfortable.

My recent visit to the The Automobile Gallery in Green Bay, Wisconsin in May 2017 somehow reminded me of visits to my grandmothers. Once inside the door, I was welcomed in further and the whole place felt comfortable and inviting. The staff were extremely gracious, informative, and generally very fun to be around.

In some ways, The Gallery is a potential contradiction. On the one hand, the Gallery seems to draw its inspiration from large European auto museums like the Alfa Romeo Museum (Museo Storico Alfa Romeo) with its ultra-modern architecture consisting of floor to ceiling glass windows at the front of the building, ultra-white interior walls, and red glass and silver metal accents. The beautifully renovated car dealership building has an equally beautiful collection of highly restored cars. It is in these modern museums that one can feel like a child in a china shop…look, but don’t touch, don’t make noise, don’t get anything dirty, don’t get close to the cars, etc.

Here lies the contradiction. You won’t feel like a child in a chine shop in this china shop. The staff are informative, very engaging, and have warm midwestern personalities that make you feel comfortable from the moment you walk in. Visitors can get up close to these cars to really appreciate their beauty and, in some cases, sit in some of them for unique photo ops. The only things missing are my grandmothers’ tea and ham sandwiches, but being in Wisconsin, they might be nice enough to make you some. If not, there are local establishments were visitors can grab a beer and a bratwurst for a true midwestern experience.

The Automobile Gallery is the brainchild of Red Lewis, founder of PDQ Touchless Carwash, who converted this old Cadillac dealership into a wonderful car museum with about 40 cars on display. A few of the real treasures include:

• 1919 Dort Speedster
• 1956 Ford F-100 ½ ton pickup
• 1929 Ford Model A Sport Coupe
• 1912 Maxwell Messenger
• 1957 Buick Caballero Wagon
• 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T
• 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS
• 1950 Studebaker Champion

They also have a very nice selection of additional 1960’s American iron…all perfectly restored. The facility includes a banquet room, large meeting room, and lots of places to sit and just spend some time enjoying the car scenery. The cars are exchanged with Red’s personal collection on a regular basis so I expect that on a return visit I will be presented with several different beauties. Also, talk to the staff about the cars, Red, their favorite cars, etc…you will be rewarded.

 

My complaints? More cars please…not because this was a small museum or the selection was inadequate but, because the cars were so well restored and presented, I really wanted to see the rest of Mr. Lewis’ collection. But that gives me a reason to make a return visit. I will call in my order for tea and ham in advance.