Last Updated: December 21. 2010 1:00AM
Smithsonian asks public to vote on classic car display
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Washington - The Smithsonian Museum is giving the public a chance to choose two iconic and rarely seen cars for a display.
The American History Museum is asking the public to vote online from among eight vehicles selected from the museum's permanent collection for an exhibit, "Race to the Museum," the museum announced today. The cars include General Motors Co.'s electric car, the EV1, and its 1987 Sunraycer solar car.
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Although largely forgotten, some of the cars helped create innovations in use today.
The winning vehicles will be on display Jan. 22-Feb. 21. The museum currently displays 14 of 73 cars in its collection.
GM donated the EV1 in 2005; it was one of 1,117 electric cars produced and leased during the program's eight-year life, which ended in 2004. Most of the vehicles were destroyed by GM.
GM entered the Sunraycer in an 1,864-mile solar car race across Australia with partner AeroVironment. The car reached speeds up to 70 miles an hour and won the race. The aerodynamic solar-electric vehicle has a body made of Kevlar and Nomex, satellite-type solar cells, silver-zinc Hughes batteries, and a GM Magnequench motor.
Besides the two newer GM vehicles, voters can choose from:* A 1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout. The vehicle - built by Ransom Olds from 1901-1905 -- was a huge best seller. His factory was the first to build cars on an assembly line—not a moving conveyor, as Henry Ford would install a decade later, but a parade of partially-completed cars swiveling from one work station to another on dollies, said Roger White, associate curator at the National Museum of American History.
* An 1880 long-steam tricycle, a Massachusetts-built early vehicle built of 350 pounds of mostly bicycle parts.
* An 1894 Balzer automobile, a gas-engine vehicle built by a watchmaker trained at Tiffany & Co. It was the first American-made automobile in New York City.
* A 1948 Tucker; one of just 46 surviving vehicles. Preston Tucker billed it "The First Completely New Car in Fifty Years" and the story of his start-up company was featured in a 1988 movie.
The Tucker had futuristic styling to its rear engine and rubber suspension, the museum said. Tucker emphasized safety innovations, installing a padded dashboard, obstacle-free zone for the front passenger, pop-out windshield, and turning center headlight. But he didn't installing seat belts because he worried they could hurt sales and the company quickly collapsed.
The Smithsonian's Tucker -- the 39th of 51 made, was forfeited in a drug arrest - and was turned over by the U.S. Marshals Service to the museum in 1993.
* A 1929 Miller race car - a V-8 supercharged front-wheel vehicle - is just 1,400 pounds with 230 horsepower.It was driven by Ralph Hepburn in the 1929 Indianapolis 500, and although he didn't win, he set speed records of 143 miles per hour in Europe.
Detroit automakers threatened to pull out of the Indy 500 if the rules weren't changed to bar superchargers and to change the size of engines permitted in Indy cars, White said.
* A 1953 Glasspar sports car - created by Bill Tritt, a California boat builder. He began producing American versions of European sports cars as an extension of his fiberglass boat-building business.
Tritt advised General Motors on the 1953 Corvette fiberglass-body sports car. An enthusiast donated his Glasspar to the National Museum of American History in 1996.
dshepardson@detnews.com(202) 662-8735
From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20101221/AUTO05/12210395/Smithsonian-asks-public-to-vote-on-classic-car-display#ixzz19M67eIA8
