On March 3, 1934, John Dillinger broke out of jail in Crown Point, Indiana, took fellow prisoner Herbert Youngblood, mechanic Edwin Saager and deputy sheriff Ernest Blunk as hostages, and fled in sheriff Lillian Holley’s brand-new 1934 Ford V8.
Blunk drove the getaway car but skidded off the road 23 miles to the west of Crown Point. The car was freed from a ditch and the trip continued. Blunk and Saager were dropped off near Peotone, Illinois, and Dillinger and Youngblood drove on to Chicago, where the car was found abandoned two days later at 1057 Ardmore Avenue.
That car, along with a collection of Dillinger artifacts — including a Thompson submachine gun that Dillinger and his gang stole from the Auburn, Indiana, police department — will go on display beginning October 27 at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum.
The exhibit opens at 5 p.m. with a free presentation by Dillinger expert and the car’s owner, Mark Love, at 5 p.m.
The car and artifacts will remain on display until September 2022, the museum added in its announcement.
Miles Through Time gets a turntable
When Sean Mathis learned that the The Henry Ford museum had a vehicle turntable available to donate to another museum, he and his 13-year-old son hustled up from his Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in a Penske rental truck to claim the 6,500-pound device and drive it back to Clarkesville, Georgia.
“This is pretty cool,” Mathis said as he left for Dearborn, Michigan, “because for one, MTT would not have the budget to get a turntable anytime soon.”
Segerstrom Shelby museum postpones opening
The grand opening of the Segerstrom Shelby museum and event center, scheduled for October 14 in Irvine, California, has been postponed until January 20, 2022, according to an announcement.
Beaulieu opens its ‘No Time To Die’ exhibit
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles isn’t the only facility with a special No Time To Die exhibit of James Bond movie vehicles. The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, England, has opened its exhibit, which runs until November 2022.
The opening of “Bond in Motion” in England featured the movie’s filmmakers including special effects supervisor Chris Corbould and designer Tim Browning, who showed the submersible glider, called “Stealthy Bird” by Q, that he created for the newest Bond movie.
Lambo museum gets redone LP 500
The original 1971 Lamborghini LP 500 Countach perished in crash testing in 1974, but the company recently invested money and 25,000 hours of labor into reconstructing the car.
The redo debuted recently at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and at a special shakedown event at the Vizzola Ticino race track. Through November 15, the car will be displayed at Mudetec, the reborn Lamborghini museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy.
LeMay restoring Model A convertible
After completing the restoration of a 1963 Studebaker Avanti (serial number 1001) in 2018, the Collection’s Department of the LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, recruited members of the Galloping Gerties, the local chapter of the Ford Model A Club of America, to help with the next project, the restoration of a 1930 Ford Model A convertible.
The goal is to complete the restoration in early 2022, and the museum is hosting a series of workshops so visitors can see the progress. The most recent one was an upholstery workshop on October 16.
Quiz Night, E-sports at the British Motor Museum
The British Motor Museum at Gaydon launches a new series of events November 9. The first is Quiz Night, with teams of contestants testing their knowledge of classic cars. The event will be hosted by Danny Hopkins, editor of Practical Classics magazine.
The event includes time to explore the museum (and to look for possible quiz answers) from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. A “pie and mash” meal begins at 7:45 p.m. after the quiz.
“We are delighted to be hosting our inaugural quiz which promises to be a great, fun night out,” said Catherine Griffin, museum curator. “Don’t worry if you’re not a classic car buff, we promise there will be a mix of questions to keep you entertained.”
Proceeds from the evening will go to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust. The Quiz Night is the first in a series of “Museum Lates” programs planned for the winter months after the museum’s usual visitor hours which typically close at 5 p.m.
But even before the first Quiz Night, the museum hosts special youth-oriented programs during the British schools “half term” recess.
From October 23 to October 28, the museum will host the University of Warwick with 24 E-sports gaming stations so visitors can try their skills at auto racing games with university experts on hand with coaching advice.
And from October 23 to October 31, Professor Pickle and Doctor Pumpkin will have special science of lights and mirrors projects to fascinate school students visiting the museum.
Jason Smith of Speedway Motors and museum
Speedway Motors and its Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska, have announced the passing of Jason Smith, a member of the founding family, after a long battle with cancer. He was 60.
“I worked for my dad basically my whole life,” Jason Smith said in an interview in 2019. “The earliest memory is (when I was) about six or seven years old. My pay in those days was a new grape soda. So if I’d help sweep the floor or pick up something, by the end of the day, I’d get a new grape soda. I think my mom figured out that I should at least get something — so I think I started with a dime an hour or a quarter an hour. My first Social Security payment was made when I was eight years old.”
Jason and his brother, Carson, owned an American Indycar Series team in the 1990s with Robby Unser as primary driver.
Special events this weekend
The Mustang Owner’s Museum in Concord, North Carolina, hosts a Mustang Grabber car show October 23.
The Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, hosts “A Noteworthy Evening with Frankie Ballard” on October 23. The evening begins with a stroll through the museum campus followed by dessert and an acoustic storytelling by the hometown country star.
LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma,Washington, hosts Fred Russell, guest curator and president of the Northwest Alfa Romeo Club, on October 23 for a presentation from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on collecting scale-model cars.
Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, California, hosts Angela Savage and Ted Woperner and their book, Savage Angel, a biography of racer Swede Savage, on October 23.
“Skeletons in the Closet” will be a Packard genealogy tour of Oakwood Cemetery in Warren, Ohio, staged at 1 p.m. October 24 by the National Packard Museum.
Mark your calendar
Chevrolet will unveil the 2023 Corvette Z06 on October 26 and the car will be featured in a special pop-up exhibit that day through October 29 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Opening October 26 at MAUTO, the National Museum of Automobiles in Torino, Italy, is an exhibition titled “Those daredevils on the white roads.” The exhibit features 40 photographs by Adriano Scoffone of the 40-mile hillclimb race held in the Italian Alps in 1930 and won by Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa-Romeo Grand Prix car. The exhibit was developed with help from Angelo Sala, former director of staging at the Theater alla Scala.
The Mustang Owner’s Museum in Concord, North Carolina, stages Foxtoberfest October 28-30, and a Fords on Sunday event October 31, with a chili and cornbread cookoff as part of the Fords on Sunday event.
The British Motor Museum at Gaydon stages the Great British Model Railway Show on October 30 and 31, featuring 30 scale-model railroad layouts in various gauges.
LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma,Washington, will host a Happy Halloween scavenger hunt on October 31 beginning at 11 a.m.
The Tunnels to Towers Foundation’s 9/11 Never Forget mobile exhibit will be at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, November 3-9. The exhibit is an 83-foot tractor-trailer that transforms into a 1,100-square-foot memorial exhibit with 9/11 artifacts and videos.
“The Car Detective” is the theme for Demo Day at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum on November 6. At the event, Dr. Simeone will talk about the research involved in finding special vehicles and will demonstrate by exercising the 1933 Squire roadster, 1948 Talbot-Lago T25 Grand Sport coupe and 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. That program runs from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. At 3 p.m., the museum welcomes former racer Willy T. Ribbs to share the story of an American history maker.
The North East Motor Sports Museum in Loudon, New Hampshire, stages its Legends Day on November 7, this year honoring New England midget racing.
LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma,Washington, stages a Pinewood Derby intensive workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on November 11. The program is designed for those in grades 3 to 6 to build a derby racer from scratch. The registration fee includes all materials, lunch and a snack.
The Canadian Automobile Museum in Oshawa, Ontario, will feature Canada’s first automobile at its Third Thursday presentation November 18 at 7 p.m. The subject is “Father Belcourt’s Automobile Untangled,” with historian Rudy Croken sharing facts and legends behind the automobile imported to Prince Edward Island in 1866.
The new Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, midway between Chattanooga and Atlanta, has announced December 8 as its opening day for visitors. The museum is on a 35-acre site and includes three buildings with 65,000-square-feet of display space and a cafe. It is part of the Georgia Museums Inc., which includes the Booth Western Art Museum, Bartow History Museum and Tellus Science Museum.
Does your local car museum have special events or exhibitions planned? Let us know. Email larrye@classiccars.com .
