A few things have been going on in my life recently - like 3 weddings. :-) Enough with the excuses... I promise - I'm gonna try to catch up on things.
So, in January, my wife (still weird to say that) and I met up with Nate and Bekah in Hartford, WI at the Wisconsin Auto Museum. "Why," you ask? I got a tip from a friend that they had a real-life Sno-Runner on display. So what? Well, my dad was lead project engineer on it at Chrysler outboard.
Yup, that's Steve Quick. This was Dad's pride and joy of his engineering career, and he was lucky enough to be able to take charge of it very early in his career. To summarize, Chrysler outboard (of Hartford, WI) was very close to closing its doors. And to expand markets, they decided to develop and sell the "Snow bike," as Dad lovingly referred to it, to compete in the snowmobile market.
Above, is the real deal. You can also see some of the outboards from Chrysler with the "hoods removed." Sweeeeeeeet. [Insert Tim Taylor grunt]
And much to my surprise, there was one we could actually touch in another room, tucked away with the "small engine" section of the auto museum. I almost pooped my pants. You see, all the stories and number of times that Dad talked about it, I never saw one in real life. It was a really emotional experience for me...
Then I got brave - why not sit on it?
For anyone interested the least bit in cars, this is a great museum. They have all sorts of unique stuff - obviously.
After roaming around the room of very early automobiles from the end of the 19th century... some Model T's, we were taking note on all the horsepower ratings of the various small engined beasts of the early years. Nate walked up to this one and said, "I don't even have to read the sign for this one - it's one horsepower." We all had a good laugh...
Bekah stepped up to this old mechanic garage timing light station. For the first time in the boring man-cave of cars, engines, and associated toys, she had a smile on her face - they had hairdryers!!
This is a BEAUTIFUL Tucker. Very unique rear-engined car. And VERY fast. The owners still come to the museum a few times a year to take it out and drive it. It'd be a shame to let this beauty dry rot all the seals!
And then, we came across this LEGENDARY automobile. The DeLorean DMC-12. Unfortunately, Steven Spielberg deceived us into thinking the little 2.8L Renault-made V6 (that put out a pathetic 130HP) sounded like a heavily-loped V8. Such a cool car... too bad for Mr. DeLorean...
Some other bit hits (for me) were a pair of Nash Ramblers ("Beep, Beep... beep, beep... his horn goes beep, beep, beep.") and 1913 steam locomotive made by the American Locomotive Company. Yup - still fully functional. They make runs with it on special occassions. Also, of particular fascination, a C3 Corvette Stingray - man, that's a beautiful car - and the only generation that GM got right...
Anyway. It's time for bed!
Stay tuned for more.
