Harold LeMay, a Tacoma businessman, loved cars and managed to collect more than 3,000 automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles over forty years of collecting. A number of the vehicles from his collection form the nucleus of the LeMay—America’s Car Museum. This collection of more than 300 cars, motorcycles, and trucks is displayed in a four-level building in Tacoma, Washington.
Shown above is an overview of the top floor of the museum.
Shown above is a 1949 Kumza-Offy Midget Race Car.
Shown above is a 1949 Crosley Midget Racer.
Shown above is a 1965 Lotus 35. Designed to be a multi-purpose racecar, only 22 of these were built.
Shown above is the 1960 Rambler, “The Ferrambo” which features a Ferrari 360 Modena drive train. The front end styling resembles the early Lusso Ferrari.
Shown above is a 1972 Dodge Challenger, Chi Town Hustler.
The museum includes a slot-car track for those who want to try their hand at racing.
Shown above is an 1883 Columbia Expert Ordinary High Wheel Bicycle. This bicycle was sometimes called a “penny-farthing” because the difference in wheel sizes reminded people of the difference between the penny and the farthing (quarter penny). These expensive bicycles were ridden primarily by urban upper-class men. Quick breaking would sometimes create the phenomenon known as “taking a header” as the cyclist would be thrown from the bike head-first.
Shown above is the museum’s one boat: a 1955 Greavette 24-Foot Streamliner. This was built at a time when the boat industry was switching from wood to fiberglass.
Shown above is the Auto Care Center where museum cars are preserved and prepared for displays and museum events. The car on the lift is a 1917 Crane Simplex Model 5 with a coach body built by Brewster & Co. in New York. The 7-passenger touring car was ordered by John D. Rockefeller Jr. as a birthday gift for his father, John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s 78th birthday.
Shown above is a street rod which began as a 1939 Ford Deluxe Convertible. This is a total re-design with only 20% of the original Ford remaining. It is powered by a 2006 Ford GT supercharged engine with a Ford 4R 4-speed transmission.
The third bay of the Auto Care Center held the 1946 Ford Super Deluxe, 2-Door Coup, shown above.
Also in the Auto Care Center was the 1959 Cadillac Coupe deVille, 2-Door Hardtop, shown above.
