Normally when we go to a “car show,” we are there primarily to see the automobiles that are participating for the event.
The venue is usually secondary, nice to check out, but not the main goal of the day.
Stahls Auto Museum (56516 N Bay Dr., New Baltimore, around 26 Mile & Gratiot), runs contrary to our standard operating procedure.
The weekly Stahl’s car show generally brings in 30-80 assorted hot rods, which is a neat bonus to actually visiting inside the museum.
We make it here at least once a year (you should go if you haven’t!).
They have their regular base of many cars, but bring in specialty autos for limited time appearances (or acquire new modes of transportation every year).
One of the cooler vehicles that’s been here for a short time is a rare (1 of 12 made) 1934 GM Futurliner bus (reported to be worth $4 million).
[ “General Motors Pride of Progress,” is plastered in large letters on the sides ]
Built for the 1939 NY World’s Fair, this tall and long behemoth is pretty unusual in its design.
We came specifically to see it, along with anything new that’s arrived since our visit last year.
[ Note that even though this vehicle is labelled as a “bus” there’s mainly only room for 1 person (and perhaps 2 people behind the driver in the small seats)! The rearward of the cabin is probably for storage, the engine compartment, etc. ]
The cabin is kind of small, with just 1 seat for the driver.
The steering wheel is huge, and the view looking downward thru the windshield is amazing. The white wall 12-ply tires are very large!
AND only 713 miles on the odometer!
(which is a bit odd, considering 1 of the employees stated that this bus was going to be DRIVEN back to Indiana tomorrow. So, round trip to here, about 500 miles total. Meaning it had just 213 miles on it previously? In 87 years? Hmmm.. Was this the ONLY long-trip place that this vehicle has ever been driven to? It has a 6-digit speedo, so we doubt it rolled over – 1,000,713 miles? We know 1 of these 12 buses were used in NY, as well as another event {which may or may not have been the same as the NY bus}, and we’d assume that they were all driven to those as well, but we’d guess THIS one wasn’t one of those, based on the mileage)
[ FUN FACT: the gauges inside the bus are made by SW- Stewart Warner, the same company that supplied the instrumentation for the Buick GNX! ]
Most notably today, The Back to The Future Delorean (a copy) was on display, along with a 1911 Oldsmobile Autocrat Yellow Peril Speedster (right-hand drive), and one of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang replicas. We saw a few other new additions as well.
The museum layout has changed since we last visited, where they now have automobiles strategically placed to guide you thru the entire tour.
(and it looks like they have removed some of their auto collection, too, in doing so)
You’ll also find antique musical items, an old diner (a display only), gas pumps, and signs/banners galore hanging within.
This isn’t our normal sight-seeing (G-body) activity that we always like viewing, but how often do you get to see something like these rarities in person?
We’re into weird transportation, so that bus falls right into that category.
As for the show outside, apparently the weekly Thursday shows have ended (but we didn’t know that!), as there were only about 5 hot rods in the lot (including our GN).
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THE SHOW OUTSIDE (which wasn’t really a show):
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INSIDE THE MUSEUM:
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