New 2015 Exhibits, Including American Muscle, Ford Pickup Trucks and Revamped Route 66 Display

LeMay – America’s Car Museum (ACM), the largest automotive museum in North America, announced at the Seattle Auto Show that at least three new exhibits will be introduced in 2015: “Ford F-Series: The Truck That Grew Up with America,” “American Muscle: Rivals to the End” and a revamped “Route 66” display.

“Ford F-Series: The Truck That Grew Up with America,” opens January 10, 2015, chronicling 13 generations of the Ford F-Series pickup truck from 1948 to 2015.

“The F-Series is a bellwether of cultural change in the U.S.,” said Scot Keller, chief curator at ACM. “’The Truck That Grew Up with America’ tells the story of how the F-Series was originally designed to be a work tool and how it evolved into a family vehicle and luxury car for the working class.”

ACM will reintroduce “Route 66: Dream of the Mother Road” on March 27, 2015, shifting its focus to vintage station wagons, that will be displayed through June 30.

“We all have a station wagon story, whether growing up playing games with siblings in one or taking your parents’ old car on your first date,” said Keller. “The station wagon is the ultimate road-trip car, which makes it appropriate to highlight in our exhibit dedicated to the most famous highway in the U.S.”

Capping off the three new exhibits will be “American Muscle,” which opens July 9, 2015 and takes visitors back to the era when American Motors, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were fierce rivals in showrooms and on the racetrack. Each automaker was bent on one-upping each other with more power and performance throughout the 1960s and ‘70s until stricter emissions, fuel economy standards and an oil embargo brought the muscle car competition to a halt.

“It was a time of freedom that drivers will never have again when gas was cheap and big engines growled,” said Keller. “Muscle cars existed in a feel-good era before the world became truly connected, when the U.S. was still dominated by domestic automakers. ‘American Muscle’ illustrates what cars were like before politics caught up with the automobile.”

Additionally, ACM announced its 2015 “Signature Events”:

• Drive the Blues Away – February 7 – New blues music-themed night of cars and music.
• Wheels & Heels Gala – June 26 – Black-tie event, where the Museum’s Bulgari Award winner will be announced.
• Cars & Cigars – August 1 – Tastings from Pacific Northwest breweries, wineries and distilleries as well as food from Tacoma’s El Gaucho restaurant and Montecristo cigars.
• Vintage Motorcycle Festival – August 22 – Largest gathering of pre-1991 motorcycles in the Pacific Northwest.
• Pacific Northwest Concours d’ Elegance – September 13 – One of the premier Concours events in the U.S. as well as the event that introduces ACM’s 2016 Master Collectors.

About LeMay – America’s Car Museum (www.lemaymuseum.org)

LeMay – America’s Car Museum, which opened in June 2012 in Tacoma, Wash., explores how the automobile has fulfilled a distinctive role at the core of the American experience and shaped our society. The four-level, 165,000 sq. ft. museum with rotating exhibits is designed to be the centerpiece for automotive history as well as an educational center and library. The campus, offering a majestic view above the Foss Waterway, is located adjacent to the Tacoma Dome and contains a 3.5-acre show field, theatre, café, banquet hall and meeting facilities. For information on Museum hours, becoming an ACM member, volunteer opportunities or to make a donation, visit www.lemaymuseum.org.