Hoons Day Out: LeMay – America's Car Museum – In the Parking Lot

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Two weekends ago, a few of my good friends and I made a southerly sojourn, about 35 miles south of Seattle, to the Lemay -America’s Car Museum. It’s been around for just a few years, and this was our first trip. One of the largest car museums in the world, it can house up to 350 vehicles at a time. Sounds impressive? It was. Take a trip with me below the jump.

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We got to the museum just after opening on a cool Saturday morning. This would prove to be a stroke of genius, as the line to get in was out the door just a few hours later. This is a first-class facility all the way; the parking was easy, admission was reasonable, and there was several unusual cars right there in the lobby, as you can see from this shot.

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Before we ever got to the museum, though, we saw this Ferrari on the way down. I will freely admit I know little about the myriad Ferrari models produced over the years, so please feel free to educate me in the comments. We all agreed that this one was cool, but the proportions were odd.

Now, as olelongrooffan and MadHungarian have told you many times, sometimes the best cars can be found in the parking lot. For me, this was no exception. Check out some of the machines we saw, parked just feet away.

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You no doubt have noticed that there were quite a few Ferraris in the parking lot. As it turns out, the Ferrari Club of Washington was holding its annual meeting in the museum, and we were the lucky beneficiaries. I didn’t take a picture of all the prancing horses in the parking lot that morning, but there were dozens of them, trust me.

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Optimistic.

We later learned that one does not need to actually own a Ferrari to be in the Ferrari club; I can only imagine the guy who drives a Camry but dreams of prancing horses is one such person.

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A nice little Jensen Healey as well, near the entrance. Right-hand drive, manual transmission. Excellent. With a worn driver’s seat and a map in the passenger seat, this car is clearly a daily driver. That should make any hoon happy.

Of course, my favorite car in the lot wasn’t a car at all.

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There’s nothing quite like a brown truck. Especially a 1977 F-Series Ranger with chunky tires and just enough chrome. As I mentioned in my last post, I love these generation trucks. The round headlights with the black housing and turn signals on top just look great to me. 

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I can’t really add much to this picture. It’s a big, brown, beautiful truck.

Thanks for following along with my first installment of what I hope will be an interesting series of posts about my trip to Lemay – America’s Car Museum. We had a great time, saw some amazing machines, and made some good memories. See you next time.

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22 responses to “Hoons Day Out: LeMay – America's Car Museum – In the Parking Lot”

  1. Buickboy92 Avatar
    Buickboy92

    Really nice to see those Ferrari out and about, around town and not stuck in a garage. Love that 330 GT, what a great grand touring car it is, I imagine.

    1. MVEilenstein Avatar
      MVEilenstein

      Stay tuned for the Ferrari exhibit post. Even I, Ferrari novice that I am, was impressed by the machinery I saw.

  2. Dean Bigglesworth Avatar
    Dean Bigglesworth

    The one you saw in traffic is a 456. The later 550 and 575 are much better looking. And this was one of the first results on google..
    <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Ferrari_456_GT_Venice.jpg&quot; width="600" </img>

    1. hwyengr Avatar
      hwyengr

      I'm hoping the 456 continues to suffer the wrath of the 2+2 Ferrari depreciation curve.

      1. Maxichamp Avatar

        Yeah, the 456 (along with the 599) are some of my favorite modern Ferraris (I've got a thing for 2+2s).

        1. Number_Six Avatar
          Number_Six

          Oh man, so much 456 respeck. Totally fits the legacy of the 365 Daytona.

    2. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      Another car comissioned by of The Sultan of Brunei from Pinifarina. IMHO better looking than the original two door and much better looking than the four door sedan version or the convertible http://www.ferrari-collection.net/sultan/index3.h… When he went into an austerity program and cut back spending, Pininfarina was hit quite badly. He was quite a lucrative client
      Oh and then there's the Bentleys http://www.bentleyspotting.com/2007/03/sultan-of-
      and some of the 500 plus Rolls Royces http://www.bentleyspotting.com/2007/08/sultan-of-

  3. Bret Dodson Avatar

    Fortuitous Ferrari finds. I've noticed Hooniverse has been obscuring license plates. Why is this?

    1. MVEilenstein Avatar
      MVEilenstein

      If nothing else, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

    2. Lotte Avatar
      Lotte

      A while back Antti was receiving some complaints from his Finnish Line carspotting posts; they didn't want their personal car being posted all over the internet plates and all.

  4. mdharrell Avatar

    <img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8251/8663487652_0b32f51211_z.jpg&quot; width="600">
    The LeMay Museum has appallingly low standards.

    1. MVEilenstein Avatar
      MVEilenstein

      You say that like it's a bad thing.

      1. mdharrell Avatar

        Oh my, no! Heck, I got to keep the sign afterwards (although not the cool base):
        <img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4091/5188042372_bf22599a48.jpg&quot; width="450">
        Please note, however, that they only bothered to rope off the BMW….

        1. MVEilenstein Avatar
          MVEilenstein

          Apparently LeMay has another collection, too, which is basically everything else they own, something like 2500 cars. I need to get back and check out that one. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

          1. mdharrell Avatar

            That's the LeMay Family Collection. It is quite something, although I was last there before the new museum was spun off from it.
            http://www.lemaymarymount.org/

          2. MVEilenstein Avatar
            MVEilenstein

            I plan to get down there in the next month or two.

  5. Wolfie Avatar
    Wolfie

    Those old Ford pickup trucks are easy to like.
    Lots of interchange on parts.
    Sent by Carrier Pigeon from Far Away.

  6. racer139 Avatar
    racer139

    Love to visit that place someday. Maybe next time Im on the west coast
    hammered in stone and digitally remastered by me

  7. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    Who is (or was) LeMay, anyway? Any relation to Curtis LeMay?

    1. mdharrell Avatar

      Harold LeMay made the bulk of his fortune in garbage collection. He passed away in 2000. I've never heard of any connection with Curtis LeMay.
      http://www.lemaymuseum.org/page.php?id=218
      By all accounts a nice guy, but I never got the chance to meet him.

  8. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    Having lived in the immediate area from '83-'85, I am just amazed that Tacoma has a world-class anything.

    1. MVEilenstein Avatar
      MVEilenstein

      Trust me, this is about it. This and the Sonic Drive-In are the only reasons I have to go.