April 17th - Tupelo Auto Museum

The History
Establishing the Tupelo Automobile Museum was a 28 year process. It began when founder Frank Spain acquired his first antique car in 1974. Spain and his good friend, museum curator, Max Berryhill, spent the next many years researching, finding and acquiring the 150 rare automobiles in the collection. Cars were gathered from all over North America and Europe. Until the late 1990’s the vehicles were stored at various locations throughout the United States. Spain and Berryhill desired to develop a museum so the public could enjoy and learn from the collection. Spain’s hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi rallied support for the museum. With the help of the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau and Tupelo Mayor Larry Otis, placing the museum in Tupelo became a reality.
The Tupelo Automobile Museum opened on December 7, 2002 and was designated the official State of Mississippi automobile museum in the spring of 2003.

It constitutes one of the largest automobile museums in North America.
1904 Reo
Pierce Arrow
1936 Lagonda

1929 Duesenberg "J"

Fred and August Duesenberg built what many consider the finest American automobile ever created. The Deusenberg Model J was the most exotic car produced at the time. The straight-eight engine was four feet long, had dual overhead cams and 4 valves per cylinder. The monster would propel the car to well over 100 miles per hour. It would even do 80 miles an hour in second gear. Horsepower was 265 with 5 to one compression ratio. For this magnificent piece of engineering excellence you paid $8,500 for the chassis alone. Then you went to one of the specialty body builders whose prices started in the 3,000 to 5,000 dollar range. Duesenberg lasted from 1929 to 1936 having produced 470 chasses and 480 engines. Today, Duesenbergs sell for over a million dollars.
1957 Ford Skyliner
I thought Aly would appreciate seeing this one!! Looks like it takes up a LOT more room in the trunk than Gpa's Miata top does, right???? We thought it was a NEW innovation when we bought the Miata, but this is a car from the 1950's!!!
Jeff Bridges starred in the movie, Tucker, about the man and his invention...the Tucker automobile. It's a great story, and a good movie to rent. There were only 50 of the Tucker cars ever made with none of them ever being sold. Now, having said that, both of us were curious as to how the museum obtained THIS one, if none of them were sold!!??!! And, where are the rest??? 1983 Camarovette
This sprint car is a combination of Camaro and Corvette parts with a 350 cubic inch engine. The induction system consists of a 6-71 root blower and two dual 4-barrel carburetors. With 16 port nitrous oxide injection, this car is fast, fast, fast. And the paint job on this one costs more than the average car.
The king of rock n' roll was generous; he gifted many close friends with automobiles. The Tupelo Automobile Museum has a 1976 Lincoln Mark IV that was given as a gift by Elvis Presley.
Elvis often played shows in Denver, Colorado where he formed a close relationship with Jerry Kennedy, captain of the Denver Police Vice and Drug Control Bureau. Captain Kennedy was in charge of security for Elvis when he appeared in Denver.
On January 14, 1976 Elvis visited the Kumpf Lincoln Mercury Dealership at 9th Avenue and Broadway in Denver. There he purchased a 1976 Lincoln Mark IV for $13,386.69. The check to the dealership, by Elvis himself, can be seen in the museum. Elvis gave the brand new car to Captain Jerry Kennedy as a gift. The event was photographed.
1982 Barrister Corvette
This is a creation of George Barris, a California customizing operation. George started with a 1982 Corvette and radically changed the body panels. Everyone has a different opinion of the success of this retro-fit. Barris made seven of these which were originally owned by celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Liberace. The Barrister Corvette in the Tupelo Automobile Museum was once owned by Liberace.
Domino's Pizza owner had a bunch of these vehicles made in order to have something unique to deliver his pizzas. I think it said 40, but I can't remember off hand. They had three wheels, one in the front and two in the back. However, he couldn't get them licenced for travel on the roads, so the idea had to be scrapped!!!
We both thoroughly enjoy seeing the antique car museums. We have been to several of them in different parts of the country, and never get tired of visiting them! This one was quite spectacular, and had an audio recording at each car that told about the original purchase price of the car and all the details about the engine, etc. Of course, when I am taking the photos, I am enthralled with the beauty of the units and forget that I might need to identify each one afterwards. Thanks to the museum website, I was able to retrieve some of the information, but I'm not sure which is which on the unidentified cars above. BUT, it really doesn't matter.....they are just so beautiful to look at!!! Just imagine the price of gas to run one of those heavily chromed vehicles today!!!!!!!! These are just a few of the wonderful photos I was able to take. So many beautiful samples of automotive history! The museum had many unique examples of automobiles and all of them were in incredible condition. Well worth the couple of hours we spent there!