Muscle Cars in East Tennessee – Part I

In addition to model railroads, our friend Bruce is into fast cars.  Fittingly, he owns a Corvette that he lovingly polishes and waxes over and over again, whether it needs it or not.  So, our next stop was an easy decision on my part when planning for Bruce and Margaret’s visit to the paradise that is East Tennessee…

But first... Remember, today is Veteran's Day!

Ronald Allen Myers

Robert Templeton

Thanks to our fathers and all who have served in our military services...protecting our freedom and way of life!

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If you’re not into automobiles, muscle cars, design or nostalgia, the rest of this post may not tweak your interest.

This is Floyd Garrett’s Muscle Car Museum in Sevierville Tennessee.  Floyd said that he loved muscle cars back in his high school days when he worked in a service station. (They weren’t just gas stations!) In time he started his own business and to quote he said “I ran it for 20 years.  But I made a mistake with it: I made money with it so I started accumulating cars.”  At the time he started his museum in 1996, he’d acquired no less than 64 cars!

Today the museum displays 90 or more cars including both modern and classic muscle cars worth millions of dollars.  Many of the cars are on display courtesy of their owners.  I’m not sure who owns the museum at this point.  I found an article from 2010 in which Floyd was quoted as stating that he was retiring and would like to find the right buyer for the operation and possibly for his 69 cars…

This stunning ‘hot rod’, a 1940 Mercury Convertible, greeted us as we entered the museum.  It is named “Afterglow” and it was the last hot rod designed by Harry Bentley Bradley.  It is owned by a resident of Palatine Illinois.  It was ‘built’ in Oregon City Oregon and it took 10 years to complete.

Note: If you’re in the market for a beautiful 1940 Mercury Convertible, (an early California Custom), Overstreet House of Cars in Creve Coeur Missouri has one up for sale.  It’s a beautiful dark green with a white rag top…and it could be yours with an asking price of $150,000.  You can check it out at https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1940/mercury/other_mercury_models/101145642.

For car lovers, especially muscle car lovers, the view inside the museum is a wonderful sight!  Classic cars to peruse wherever you look…

This 1963 Dodge Polara 500 Convertible is called the “Black Magic Mopar”.  Equipped with a 426 cubic inch/415 HP engine and a 5-speed transmission, it has some real get up and go!  This is 1 of only 13 of this version made and it’s the only 426 ‘Ram Air’ known to exist. 

This 1996 Dodge Viper SR II had an original sticker price on it of $69,300.  I found a 10-cylinder 1996 Viper RT/10 Roadster with 40,274 miles on the odometer on the Auto Trader website for $29,994.  This car just looks fast!  

This 1971 Plymouth GTX has been maintained in a climate controlled facility.  It has 10,000 miles on it plus it’s unrestored with all original parts.

This is a 1978 Dodge Lil’ Red Express truck.  It was unique in that it was eye-catching and it had significant ‘muscle’ too!  In 1978 Car and Driver Magazine tested it out and declared that the Dodge Lil’ Red Express was the fastest American made vehicle in accelerating from 0 to 100 MPH!

While it’s mostly about muscle cars at Garrett’s, it’s not just about the autos themselves… There are some period vignettes that hark back to the days when cars were really distinctive and in this case, gas stations were really much more than a place where you pump gas.  Of course, the attendant pumped gas for you, they cleaned your windshield, checked your tires and oil.  Many stations did repairs as well.  Love the period vending machines and signs used in this visual presentation.

Oh yes, there is a 1955 T-Bird (Thunderbird) that has stopped by for service.  This 2-seat sports car had a 292 cubic inch/198 HP engine with a 3-speed transmission and power seats.  This was Ford Motor Company’s answer to General Motor’s Corvette.  A total of 18,255 of these T-Birds were built.   

An East Tennessee resident owns this 1969 Pontiac GTO “Judge” 400 Ram Air III.  The car got its name from the Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In TV show and the skits performed by comedian Flip Wilson using the line, “Here Come de Judge”.  A total of 6,833 1969 Pontiac GTO’s were built with the “Judge Package”.

This is a 1958 Mercury Monterey 2-door sedan with a 400 HP “Super Marauder” engine.  This engine was an option for only one year and apparently no more than 100 of these cars with this engine were built.

This is a 1955 Chrysler 300.  It was a high performance luxury auto and only 1,725 of them were built.  Despite its size and cost, it had a lot of power and it’s considered to be an ancestor of the muscle cars to follow.

Who doesn’t want one of these classic cars?  Two door 1957 Chevrolet Bel Airs are among the most popular muscle and/or classic cars for baby boomers.  I’d have one if I had some spare cash sitting around.  I found a couple ’57 Bel Airs like this on line for between $42,000 and $45,000 but the coolest one I found was a Bel Air Convertible for $80,000!

If you saw one of these Chevrolet Camaro Police Cars in your rear view mirror with the lights flashing, hopefully you just pulled over!  This 2010 Camaro (B4C) Special Service police pursuit car had 310 HP under the hood…

This is a 1956 Buick Century convertible.  It was an upscale performance car back in the day and with its 322 cubic inch ‘nailhead’ engine, it was the first production automobile in the USA that could go 100 MPH. (My red and white 1956 Oldsmobile would cruise nicely at 75 MPH as I commuted back and forth to college in 1962/1963)

Broderick Crawford drove a 1956 Buick Century on his popular TV show “Highway Patrol”.  So where did the name “century” come from?  It’s actually from a British phrase…”doing the century”, which meant reaching speeds of 100 MPH.

This is an original unrestored 1967 Ford Fairlane.  It only has 12,000 miles on the odometer and it’s equipped with a 426 cubic inch/425 HP engine and a 4-speed transmission.  I found a similar car on the Barrett-Jackson website that sold for $77,000!

This 1970 Dodge Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum engine was the 2001 Mopar Nationals “Best in Show”.  This is one of the 112 sunroof models of this car that was built in 1970.

I’ll end Part I of our tour of Floyd Garrett’s Muscle Car Museum with this 1968 American Motors Corporation AMX race car.  Its owner was Herman Lewis, who was known as the ‘godfather’ of AMC racing.  Lewis started out racing the authorities hauling illegal moonshine in Tennessee. 

When he spotted a brand-new AMC AMX he decided that it would make an excellent drag race machine.  He also worked with AMC to improve the performance of their cars.  During his racing career, Lewis won more than 200 events and set 19 records in various racing events…all with the same AMX.  Herman Lewis died at the age of 73 in 2011.

The website for Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum located in Sevierville Tennessee: https://musclecarmuseum.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave