I’ve been reorganizing our collection of digital photos, and avoiding doing the same for physical photos. Just thought I’d use up some WM’s electrons and show some rarely seen autos. There should be absolutely nothing political about these, just an opportunity to see what many collectors have called America’s rolling art.
I’ll start with probably the most expensive car we’ve seen. In 2009, we visited the Gateway Auto Museum in Gateway, Colorado. The cars there were from the collection of John Hendricks, who built the Gateway Resort. He founded the Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC and other channels, was CEO of Disney for awhile, etc. He still owns the resort but no longer managed it. Much of his car collection was sold at a Monterey auction in 2023, but it still lives on the web site.
This is the 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 concept car, intended to be the Olds’ counterpart to the Corvette. It may be the only one that exists. Hendricks paid $3 million for it at the 2005 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction and sold it for $1.8 million in 2023.
This is a 1971 Oldsmobile 442 (4 barrel carburetor, 4 speed trans and dual exhaust) convertible, purchased at the same auction mentioned above for about $100K (now worth about that, maybe a little more). That was the last year for the 442 and only about 1,300 were built. If I had $4,000 in 1971, I might have had one. But …
This is a 1947 Chrysler Town and Country, a real woodie convertible, and one of the 8,300 made from 1946 through 1949. I’ve included this because of my affinity for things made in 1947.
Lastly, this is a 1954 Buick Skylark convertible, one of about 800 made. I’ve included it because I think it is simply a beautiful car.
That’s it from Gateway. If you like these, see more at https://gatewayautomuseum.com/
I will post more other places as I get my stuff together.
