During a five inch west Michigan snowstorm yesterday...........

[Guest HessLakeGuy]

I finished my registration for the 2014 BCA meet and got it to the post office. (The snowstorm gave me some free time, along with some shoveling).

I think we will ATTEMPT to visit the new LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma, WA before we arrive in Portland. I have seen a lot of places/things in my life, but this collection is right up there. I remember the vehicles actually located in the gym, locker rooms and the pool of an old high school. Hard to describe without actually having pictures to share, but they stored some of their vehicles in some really odd places. The collection just went on and on and on. We actually got tired trying to see everything.

That was their old facility, but in 2012 they moved into their new building (which is located alongside Interstate 5) and exhibits only about 350 vehicles. Looks amazing.

Wonder what they did with the other 1,800 +/- cars in the collection?

Tom

[Barney Eaton]

Like you, I viewed the old collection when we had the BCA national meet in Seattle. The new Lemay seems to be more like other museums, showing only the "nice" cars or rare ones. The may have as much space but the old collection needed 3-4 times the space they had so you could see around the cars. The old collection had no information about the cars and that would be nice for ones you don't see every day. I also hope to stop there on Tuesday before going on down to Portland.

[ol' yeller]

The old high school is actually an old convent. I think the name of it is Marymount. The cars not on display at the new Lemay Museum can still be viewed by the general public on the last Saturday in August. On that day the Lemay family opens up their collection to the general public. There are 2 venues, Marymount and the family home and they run busses between the 2 locations so you can see everything. You need to get there early if you want to have time to see it all. Car clubs set up displays and there is a large car show on the Marymount grounds. In the past there was also usually an auction were the family got rid of less desirable projects. I think they are pretty well done with affordable project cars but I could be wrong. This is not to take away from the new museum which is impressive in its own right but you only get to see a small slice of what Harold had. The Lemay family has done a good job whittling down his collection to a manageable amount of cars. Prior to his death Harold had cars stashed all over the country. Often he would buy some cars and then purchase a garage or barn to house them until he got around to bringing them home.

[Guest HessLakeGuy]

Thanks for your input.

Being from the midwest I did not know anything about this collection until I actually got to see it. This museum is something most car people might want to see sometime in their life.

Hopefully we can see it again (in the new building) just before the national meet starts, perhaps on that Tuesday.

Tom

[Booreatta]

lots of great looking cars, I really liked the Blue Tucker. I have always wanted one of those.

Chuck