We took a road trip in early June to Wisconsin for our niece’s high school graduation party and toured 3 museums during our travels.

    First stop was the yet unopened Pontiac Transportation Museum. Terry Connolly graciously showed us around.

 

Wish we could have met up when you were here in Pontiac.  Thankz for sharing N glad you were able to get in.  There is usually someone there.

    That would have been great. I am sure we will cross paths in the future.

  Next we headed west to the Gilmore Museum. Amazing place with a wide variety of vehicles in great displays.

Great photos! Looks like some great cars and history!

31pontiac - Welcome to our fair state of Michigan. I echo Justa's comments. I wish we could've hooked up. I hope we can do so in the near future.

So what is your impressions of the Gilmore and the PTM?

I have had the pleasure to go through both of them a few times now, so I appreciate a fresh, first impression. To be the Gilmore is an absolute treasure, given the number of buildings and the diversity of the collection. My only complaint is that it is truly in the middle of nowhereville.

The PTM is a work in progress. That much is clear. I have seen it since the beginning. Several chapter members are also volunteers to the PTM. So I get the occasional updates. I think there will be an open house or soft open later this year.

Another collection two places I would recommend if you have the time is Stohl's Auto Museum (New Baltimore MI) and the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village in Dearborn.

   Hi Frosty,  thanks for the welcome. Sorry we couldn’t get together with any of you while we were there, it was a whirlwind tour on the way to Wisconsin.  
   I agree, PTM is a work in progress , but still very interesting to me. I can certainly see the potential that building has and enjoyed seeing the various vehicles and items currently “on display”.   As a side note, the large Oakland Pontiac sign was donated to the museum by the widow of my late close friend, Frank Kemp.

    The Gilmore was amazing! As you stated, it’s close to nothing, but well worth the effort to get there! The cars, displays and buildings were incredible and I would highly recommend it. We certainly would  have spent more time there if we could have.

   Haven’t been to Stohl’s, but we have been to Henry Ford and Greenfield Village and the Flint Museum when we went to our second POCI convention in Detroit 1979.   I’m sure things have changed a bit since then!

They JUSTA finished the renovating the Sloan Musuem and the Buick Gallery this year. It’s been under going a two year renovation. It reopened two weeks ago. I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet.

I had the pleasure to see Van Seymore’s factory light weight GTO in the muscle car display at the Gilmore awhile back. I worked with Van’s wife, Pat, in the late 70s and early 80s. Their son, Keith, is a member of our chapter and he is now the car’s caretaker. 

Thank you for the story about the Pontiac Oakland sign too!

   After our high-speed ferry trip across Lake Michigan and graduation party/ family reunion, we headed south to Pontiac, Illinois for a Tim Dye guided tour of POMARC.  I’m sure some of you have been there, but for those who haven’t, it is an amazing collection of Pontiac and Oakland cars, literature, memorabilia, promotional items, signs, and many other things that I am probably forgetting. Tim took us beyond the normal museum into the “behind the scenes” basement and upstairs behind “behind the scenes”.  It was AWESOME! After seeing this, I just know the Pontiac MI museum will be just as good, if not better!

  So that's what happened to Havoc.  Painted his car, went camping and never returned.  Hmmm thinkin Big Foot has a part in this story.   Fantastic shots and thoughts on the museums.  Thank you for sharing 31.

Edited July 10, 20223 yr by JUSTA6

Did you get a picture with you car next to the big Route 66 mural in alley behind the hotel around the corner? 

I’ve been to POMARC twice but I’ve not had the VIP tour by Tim or Penny upstairs or downstairs! So kudos to you! The restored Standard Oil gas station in nearby Odell IL is a real cool stop too! 

thanks 31 some super cool pictures 

3 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

  So that's what happened to Havoc.  Painted his car, went camping and never returned.  Hmmm thinkin Big Foot has a part in this story.   Fantastic shots and thoughts on the museums.  Thank you for sharing 31.

this is super interesting and i am sure Fitzy will see this ....

holden did this ..........

i guess my question at this point is who copied who ? hahaha 

Love the Pontiac push mower too !!! 

On 7/10/2022 at 1:46 AM, 64 kiwi boni said:

this is super interesting and i am sure Fitzy will see this ....

holden did this ..........

i guess my question at this point is who copied who ? hahaha 

Pontiac first did it with the Ventura II hatchback back in 1976. Pontiac repeated itself with the introduction of the Aztek in 2001.

When did Holden do it?

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Pontiac first did it with the Ventura II hatchback back in 1976. Pontiac repeated itself with the introduction of the Aztek in 2001.

When did Holden do it?

i think it was with the holden  torana in the mid 70's Fitzy would know better 

Looks like 1978. For our Stateside viewers, these Torana hatchbacks are now priced like they're made of solid gold. Add a 308 and a 4 speed, and we're talking $300k and up.

On 7/10/2022 at 5:02 PM, 64 kiwi boni said:

Love the Pontiac push mower too !!! 

I should have bought one of these and left it at that! I now have the GTMow in bits (it threw a pulley) my old tractor mower in bits and, well the GP runs fine.