We were on the way home from the Bonneville Salt Flats and I was on a mission. And I was excited as I was about to see the car that basically started it all in this world of racing. Yes, indeed.....the "Mormon Meteor." After watching the movie "The Boys of Bonneville" I knew I had to add this to my bucket list. After an internet search I found the car to be on display as a special exhibition of speed at the University of Utah Fine Arts Museum. My sidekick Ron and I arrived at this place on the campus and walked up to the building...
The museum is first class to say the least. We were told not to use flash photography and the nine large rooms that held the cars on display were watched by nine security guards who closely protected the historic automobiles.
I was in awe as I approached the crown jewel of this collection...
Built in 1937 by famed automobile legend Augie Dusenberg, this car was driven by Ab Jenkins to many endurance records and alot of those still stand today in the books of records. Powered by a huge Curtiss aircraft engine and is a one of a kind race car.
Ab was later to become the Mayor of Salt Lake and his own story is fascinating but my focus here is the car itself. Beautifully restored and owned by Mr. Price, this historic relic will live on to enlighten the future as it has embraced it's past....
And then I paused next to another historic race car.....
The "Beast III" that was built and raced in 1952 and used the first series Chrysler 331 Hemi engine as it's powerplant. This was the first salt flats race car to use aeronautical engineering and wind tunnel testing to create a body with the least drag possible. The result was a stunning design never since duplicated. I am happy it has survived and also am thrilled to know it has one of the hemi engines from my own collection in it now as part of it's recent restoration. It was a big deal for me to see this car in person and I posed for a photo with it.
This is no small car....and it looked great from every angle.
Needless to say, Ron and I were on cloud nine and the tour just kept us in awe as the historic cars on display continued....
Each car has significant history of it's own but my blog is intended to show you the overall depth of this fine collection and not to go into alot of detail. The amazing cars continued...
At this point we were thinking this just couldn't get any better-----but guess what? It DID !!!
This huge race car was worth the price of admission all by itself and was a thrill to see up close like this in an intimate setting.
And there you have it....after two and a half hours of mind numbing sight seeing, we bought some souvenirs and left this wonderful place. We had to begin our Eastward journey home and it was a long one. Thank you for riding along on this part of my experience. Let us keep on this track of good times....one day at a time.
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