The Cars

e often say we're not 'just' cars. And while that is certainly true, the fact remains that no amount of memorabilia can upstage our cars. From a 1901 curved-dash Oldsmobile to a 1970 Plymouth Super Bird, our cars take center stage. We have such American icons as the 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, and the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible, the car that took Harley Earl's and Frank Hershey's futuristic fins to the extreme.

Listed below are just a few of our forty-five vehicles. Be sure to check out our featured vehicles on the right.

Our Featured Vehicles

As you stroll through the museum, you'll see amazing automobiles from many time periods. The room pictured at left has a very strong 1930s focus. The vehicles in this grand gallery are true automotive works of art. Marmon. Pierce-Arrow. Cord. Packard. Cadillac. All the rolling sculptures are here for you to marvel over.

One-of-a-kind describes many of our vehicles. One such example is the Bantam pickup truck pictured at right. This truck is actually a prototype vehicle built by Bantam for the U.S. Government's call for a new multi-purpose military vehicle. This Bantam eventually went in to production and became known as the Jeep. Unfortunately, Bantam was too small to meet production demands, so the original military Jeep contract was awarded jointly to Willys/Overland and Ford Motor Company.

This original, unrestored fire truck is a 1937 Ahrens-Fox Quad, the most coveted collector fire engine on the planet. The massive Hercules engine and the giant, chromed, pressure equalization dome up front make this enormous truck truly imposing.

How many vehicles have you seen that sport hand-carved mahogany body panels? We have such a vehicle in this 1937 Packard hearse. This car is powered by a V-12 engine and sits alongside a companion 1937 Packard flower car. The flower car looks much like a 1930s version of an El Camino.

The car at left resides in our Canton Room. It is a gorgeous 1937 Studebaker President Bullet-Proof Police Car. You can step right up and admire the bullet-resistant window glass that is over an inch thick. Each window features a closable Tommy gun porthole.

Another unique vehicle is the 1962 Amphicar. The German-built Amphicar was a perfectly street legal car which could be driven straight into a lake for use as a pleasure boat. The rear of the car is fitted with dual propellers while the then-submerged front wheels would act as dual rudders.

A northeast Ohio favorite, this 1957 BMW Isetta was used by Fox TV-8's Neil Zurcher as his 'One Tank Trip' car in 1998 and 1999. You're looking at the front of the car, which also serves as the door to get into the car. An identical car was featured several times on the television show 'Family Matters'.