Nettleton native Wallace Flurry won a 1959 Chevrolet Apache pickup truck raffled using the Tupelo Automobile Museum on Saturday. The museum, which celebrated its fifteenth-anniversary last week, bought an extra than 5,000 tickets for the raffle. It changed into the first raffle the museum has finished in five years. The preceding raffle was held in 2012 and featured a 1965 pink Mustang convertible.
This yr’s raffle vehicle is valued at $50,000. Museum proprietor Jane Spain stated the Apache pickup was nicknamed “Tweety” due to its bright yellow exterior. The truck also had shiny LED lighting fixtures below. “It’s without a doubt in impeccable condition,” Spain said. “You may want to get in it tomorrow and power to California with confidence.”
The vehicle was previously owned by way of Tupelo Ward five City Councilman Buddy Palmer, a severe collector of old vehicles who presently owns 9 antique pickup trucks. He had the truck for a decade before finding out to sell it to the Automobile Museum.
Palmer bought the antique pickup in Ohio 10 years ago from a character who took 4 to 5 years to redesign it. “My collection was given to wherein I couldn’t keep all of them, so I determined I would sell this if the museum wanted it; they may raffle it off. I suppose they did quite nicely with the raffle,” Palmer said. Spain said Palmer would lend the museum his vehicles for special reveals of pickup vehicles.
“When I heard it become to be had, I jumped at it; no one takes higher care in their automobiles,” Spain stated of Palmer. She said the museum is capable of preserve special month-to-month famous thanks to donated motors. Spain stated tickets had been offered across the world for the raffle. Some had been bought from people residing in England.
Among the attendees on Saturday changed into region native Cheryl McKee. She said her son, John, offered 5 tickets in April for John McKee’s dad, who became 60 years antique that month. McKee said her husband is fond of older motors and would have cherished an antique model to tinker around with. Flurry, who gained the raffle, did no longer attend the drawing. The Tupelo Automobile Museum is the most important of its type east of the Mississippi River and capabilities extra than one hundred antique, classic and collectible automobiles.
Sommer’s Automobile Museum in Denmark
Although Denmark is a small united state of America, it has an extraordinary repertoire of automobile collections in museums in the course of the nation. While by no means the most important, the Sommer’s Automobile Museum is probably one of the maximum exciting because of its particular historical past. Ole Sommer’s grandfather owned a Ford Dealership, “SIMO” in Frederiksberg, a suburb of Copenhagen. Ole’s parents lived in a condominium above the dealership, so Ole developed an interest in cars at a very young age. Ole went to England in 1949 as a student at the Jaguar Factory.
He then transferred to Jowett, wherein he earned a Certificate of Competence as a toolmaker. Upon returning to Copenhagen, he entered the Copenhagen Technical University and graduated in 1956 with an M. Of Sc. At the same time, he also became the owner of the family-owned automotive enterprise due to his father’s death in 1952. The organization, E. Sommer, imported motors, which include Jaguars. In 1957 however, Ole started his own business enterprise, known as O. Sommer, a Volvo dealership, which might become the largest Danish Volvo dealership. Sommer also started other businesses, including a factory for Optimist dinghies and the import of marine engines from England, France, and Spain.
Then inside the 1970s, Ole tried to recognize his dream of a Danish production car and began manufacturing motors. He constructed a vehicle named Joker, and later in the 80s, he built a sports automobile called the Oscar (Ole Sommer automobile). The Oscar becomes based totally on Volvo elements. Although 20 Oscars have been made, only seven Jokers have been constructed; however, one in every one of them changed into featured in a vehicle chase inside the 1975 movie ‘Familien Gyldenkal.’
The Joker became a boxy style van with a completely flat roof and home windows all around. It was constructed with Volvo 140 components. When it changed into construction, Ole’s Volvo dealership had ended up the largest in Denmark. Over the years, further to his many corporations and other activities, Ole had started gathering vintage vehicles and getting into some of them in Veteran Car Rallies. In addition, he turned into instrumental in organizing the Copenhagen Classic Car Cup, which featured ancient motors racing in front of the Danish Parliament.
The motors had also been loaned out to diverse other Danish museums. Finally, in 1980 they have been all accrued together on the pinnacle floor of the Sommer Car Dealership at Naerum Hovedgade. It is first-class in preference to the amount that draws visitors to this series. The exhibit emphasizes the history of technology; however, it additionally displays Ole’s involvement with the industry. This is obvious in the presence of the Jaguars and Volvos.
A sample of Joker and Oscar, representing Ole’s efforts to create a Danish manufacturing vehicle, is also present. In 2004, the construction, comprising three floors, was designed for museum use. Now on display are greater than 60 veteran and vintage automobiles, electrically driven vehicles, 16 engines from various automobiles, airplanes, and ships, together with a collection of two thousand model automobiles. Each car within the museum incorporates an outline specifying the technical specifications plus anecdotes approximately the car itself.
The Midwest is replete with first-rate automobile museums. Whether you get excited viewing antique racecars or your tastes run more towards a restored Ram diesel truck tricked out with prevalent aftermarket air suspension parts and kits, there is something for all people. Here is a short list of the excellent Midwest vehicle museums:
· Auto World Car Museum & Kingdom Expo (Fulton, MO) – Bill and Marge Backer collected and restored 70 motors over forty years in the past. Go here to see them.
· Doc’s Museum (Jamesport, MO) – a set of antique tractors and conventional motors.
· Memoryville U.S.A. Autos of Yesteryear (Rolla, MO) – a museum that contains a restoration save and vintage cars.
· Highbanks Hall of Fame National Midget Auto Racing Museum (Belleville, KS) – if you are into midget vehicle racing, then that is your shrine of choice.
· Walter P. Chrysler Boyhood Home and Museum (Ellis, KS) – from modest beginnings rose this titan of the car enterprise. Mr. Chrysler lived within the one-tale domestic from 1878 to 1900.
· Ellingson Car Museum (Rogers, MN) – Over a hundred vans, bikes, and motors dating back to the 1920s. Includes “muscle motors” from midcentury.
· National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (Knoxville, IA) – see over 30 restored motors, along with the dash and midget cars.
· Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (Auburn, IN) – an Art Deco manufacturing unit housing over 100 automobiles.
· National Automotive and Truck Museum of the U.S. (Auburn, IN) – often publish World War II automobiles, however, some older antiques as nicely.
