My two oldest sons and I took a trip through the LeMay museum today. What a treat. Plenty of classics, vintage race cars, and even one atrociously over-the-top 59 T-bird "custom" along with a well done 1923 T-bucket. They have racing/driving simulators, a very nice slot car track and a good restaurant when you're done with your tour. Plenty of ushers available thoughout the building on all levels to answer any questions that the signage and placards at each vehicle or exhibit may not address. dj
I visited the old location this last year and was blown away. I need to make my way over to the new one. Photos of the building alone are remarkable.
no pics? ---on the Speed Channel the show Hot Rod TV has been showing the Petersen Automobile Museum in Los Angeles, CA worth watching.
How long did It take you to see it all? I was thinking about going in the summer on my way to Puyallup in July.
We went there on New Year Years Day. Well worth the visit! The LeMay homestead open house is the last Saturday in August . Only open 1 day a year. Well worth seeing if you are in the area then.
The LeMay family at Marrymount (old location and World Record for biggest collection at one time) is still operating and somewhat separate from "America's Car Museum" in Downtown Tacoma. The family still lets people in year round.. but only a small portionof the grounds (mostly the old gymnasium). They have several "Events" including charity fundraisers, Valve cover races in May and a few Auctions. Check out their site and get on the mailing list. I volunteer out there from time to time. The new museum is a separate entity but still "Le May". It is worth the trip for sure. I have been to many museums and the NHRA at Pamona, Peterson, Nethercutt all in Cali are great! Le May is a little different in the sense that they just built the thing and it's not a very busy city... so it's a cool building and usually not that crowded. They rotate the displays and have car shows out there on the lawn. Also, lots of really weird cars as Harold LeMay was one of us! There are station wagons, 4 doors, 70's cars mixed with race cars, hot rods, Ferrari's and a Tucker, etc). The concept is "America's love affair with the automobile". Great fun is you are in town, just be aware that the city of Tacoma has a few areas that aren't so hot. Not super dangerous, just run down.
Here's some pics off the web...don't have any handy. The new LeMay museum in Tacoma and the old at Marrymount
The entire tour took no more than two hours (not including lunch). Some exhibits held our attention longer than others. For those of you than have been down to the Spanaway collection, the museum holds a lot of cars, but not even close to his total inventory.
I've also wanted to get up there and see both if possible! My '46 Austin was one of their cast offs when they had the auction years ago. Like to drive it up and see the exhibits!
I work there - one fringe benefit is getting to drive everything from a Messerschmitt to a Duesenberg. We regularly excercise the "drivers" around the adjacent show field. Put this stop on your bucket list!
Got to visit the museum yesterday on the end of a business trip. Very nice way to spend a couple hours. There is a lot of variety of cars, trucks and motorcycles. This was my favorite of the whole place. Never seen one before, and fell in love. 1936 Hudson.
Correction - I used to work there but just retired. There is now an opening for a car mover/polisher/drip cleaner. I would recommend visiting the LeMay Family Collection in nearby Spanaway - more cars (500 compared to 240+/-), no fancy building, and run by people who actually know and like old cars.
Take I-5 exit 127 which is highway 512, go east to the second exit which is highway 7, go south on that toward Mt. Rainier to 152nd St., go left about 1/4 mi. and its on the left. Closed Mondays. The annual open house, the one day a year the LeMay family estate is open with its 300+/- cars, is 8/31 this year. It is in Parkland, about 2 miles north of the Marymount (Spanaway) site, around 132nd, and 1 block west of highway 7.
I got to go on Monday-I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's very well set up. Do to travel constraints, I only had about 2.5 hours-that was enough to see everything, but not a lot of time to study stuff. Skip the gift shop, though-mostly nothing hotroddders would be into and the food area, while good, is way overpriced: Hamburger, root beer float, cup of soup=$18.
I finished up my work early today and took the opportunity to drive down from Issaquah. Glad I did. Well worth the drive. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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