This Thursday, February 1st, Adam Carolla presents Paul Newman’s Championship Race Cars!

The exhibit includes:
1977 Nissan 200SX
1987 Nissan 300ZX 2+2
1986 Nissan 300ZX
1979 Nissan 280ZX Twin Turbo V8
1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass
1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass

Paul Newman, renowned for his acting prowess and philanthropy, left an indelible mark in the racing world as both a driver and team owner.

“This exhibit is a tribute to Paul Newman’s extraordinary racing legacy, capturing the essence of his passion and success on the track,”

says National Automobile Museum’s President, Phil MacDougall.

Don’t miss a chance to experience the speed, innovation, and history embodied in Paul Newman’s Championship Race Cars. 

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Race over to the National Automobile Museum and catch a glimpse of Lightning McQueen in all his glory! The Lightning McQueen replica will be on display through June 2024, so don’t miss the chance to experience this fun vehicle.

The Lightning McQueen display is included with paid admission or membership. Whether you’re a Cars fan, an automobile enthusiast, or just looking for a day of family fun, this is an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Not a Museum member?

Throughout December, the National Automobile Museum invites you to become one during our special buy-one-get-one individual membership drive. For just $45, experience the joy of membership benefits and support the Museum’s mission top reserve automotive history.

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Get ready and rev up your engines, this exhibit features the car that Speed Racer drove in the series which was built and designed by “Pops Racer”. 

“We are constantly updating and changing our collection to keep it fresh. The Mach 5 is just the latest addition to the collection, we have several new additions arriving later this month,” says Museum President, Phil MacDougall.

The Mach 5 was made famous by the classic anime series “Speed Racer”.

The Mach 5 boasts a sleek and aerodynamic body that is engineered for optimal performance on the road. This exhibit is now open and is included with admission!

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The National Automobile Museum (NAM) has collaborated with Aaron S. Hagar to bring a new rockin’ exhibit to the Museum featuring art, artifacts, and vehicles from his personal collection.

Grand Opening/Press Conference: Thursday, June 15 at 10:00 a.m.

The exhibit runs from June 15 through July 31, 2023, and is included with membership or the price of admission.

“Aaron’s passion, creativity and dedication to the arts is unequalled, we are extremely honored that he has selected us to showcase his talents.”

-Stated Phil MacDougall, President of the National Automobile Museum.

Aaron Hagar is an artist, designer, and entertainer and he is the owner of Rat Runners Garage in South Lake Tahoe, California. Rat Runners Garage is about the “Art of Resurrecting and Preserving Old Metal”. This is an art-based, hot rod and custom shop where he and his team create outrageous and over-the-top Rat Rods, motorcycles, painting, and original art. Utilizing and preserving old relics in his builds, Aaron and his crew love to re-purpose objects when creating their full-blown hot rods. No doubt a bit of Aaron’s talents came from his father, rock star Sammy Hagar.

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The exhibit includes:

●      1961 Roth Beatnik Bandit Custom Hot Rod

●      1994 Roth Beatnik Bandit II Custom Hot Rod

●      1992 Roth Conestoga Star Wagon

●      1992 Roth Fink Mobile Motorcycle

●      1969 Roth High Flyer Trike

●      1993 Roth Yankee Blitz Wheelbarrow

On display through May 15, 2023

The exhibit is included with admission or membership.

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(Taking License with a Pun-ny Report)

You know full wheel that Reno, NV is best in gas for vintage vehicles, antique autos, and classic cars. Technophilic motorheads cruise in from gear and far for the experience, style, and craftsmanship of these timeless treasures at the Hot August Nights® show, and the Nevada Day Parade.

Many patients and families have reported losing their bearings after seeing the “Ghostbuster-Like Ambulance” at Renown’s Regional Medical Center. This week, Renown Health employees were auto-ly delighted to donate a historic heirloom, a rare 1949 Superior Cadillac Ambulance to the National Automobile Museum in Reno. Yes, a car is reborn! In ignition, the vintage auto will be added to the museum’s collection, keeping the ambulance which had last been in service in Clark County, fuel circle and back to its gas roots.

Despite the health system being known for intensive car and stroke, it set tongues wagon for a hospital to own such a radical roadster. Renown was aheadlight of their time, thanks to a tank of Renown employees, who on a rim in 1987, suggested that they would door to be different with this differential of the medical center’s long-standing commitment to health and wheelness. A six-month search ended in January 1988 when this curious clunker was found in Tecopa, CA, near Death Valley.

It was love at first light from the northern Nevada community, and through their tireless efforts, a team transformed the wrecker into a classic showpiece for what was then called Washoe Medical Center. The classic car was named the White Knight and showcased each year at employee appreciation events and driven in Hot August Nights and the Nevada Day Parade.

In 2011, employees turned up the seat by adding purple cushions and door decals for Renown’s 150 birthday celebration. However, driving the 1949 love buggy without power steering, brakes or seat belts became a motor of life and death and increasingly unsafe. To stay on the safe ride, the ambulance received an honorable suspension and sat in tire straits for the last six years in the Regional Medical Center garage.

On a recent road trip to the hospital, Phil MacDougall, National Automobile Museum president and executive director, beamed when he saw the nostalgic rescue wagon. On a rim, he rolled over to the Renown team and recalled, “there’s always vroom for one more classic coupe in the National Automobile Museum!”

Dr. Brian Erling, the president and CEO of Renown thought it was a wheely good idea and gave the o-key. But it wasn’t a slam trunk. It was a spoiler. Why? I hate to brake it to you but the rarified rambler wouldn’t start! Everything grinded to asphalt. Were the connection cables corroded? Was it an arrested alternator? A faulty fuse? Finite fossil fuel? A highly polished team of Renown mechanics and engineers shifted into gear to repair the roadster.

Lighting quick, Michelle propelled the pit crew into action. With not a minute to spare, Kevin and Alex (seen in this photo), diagnosed the dinosaur. Ably assisted by director of facilities, Chris, and via phone by retired auto aficionado Larry T, the technical team got fired up when they found the amps had stopped cranking in the bygone battery. The auto alliance throttled up the moving machine and the team showed and shined! The victorious champions drove the dusty vintage vehicle out of the Renown Regional garage, into a flashy flatbed and all the highway to the National Automobile Museum at the corner of Lake and Mill Streets in downtown Reno.

The finishing clutch was that the winsome wagon will now join the museum’s collection of more than 200 classics. What’s the road ahead? It may be converted to the Ghostbuster ambulance, and join the many eye-popping cars housed at the National Automobile Museum which have been seen in movies and TV shows such as; Titanic, Rebel without a Cause, Batman & Robin, Back to the Future, Herbie and more! Proving it is never to light to start up a new partnership!

History of Washoe County Hospital (now Renown) and the 1949 Superior Cadillac Ambulance

Washoe County Hospital, the model #1 hospital for Nevada, opened in 1864, the same year Nevada became a state. The community established the Washoe clinic in 1862 during a smallpox outbreak to treat the sick during the Civil War and Comstock Lode silver boom.

Almost a century later, in 1949, the newly minted Superior Cadillac Ambulance rolled off an assembly line in Detroit. Harry S. Truman geared up for his term as the 33rd President of the United States. Penicillin and other antibiotics saved millions from smallpox, tuberculosis, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and malaria; and in 1949, Washoe County Hospital opened its first pediatrics unit.

During World War II, a crew of GM designers fused airplane design elements into the 1949 post-war styling of the Superior Cadillac, igniting the Greatest Era of Cars and propelling post-war American automotive exuberance and luxury. The car’s curved windshield is nostalgic of an airplane cockpit, it’s roof and pontoon fender lines curvaceously beautiful from every angle. The ambulance was built on a 1948 chassis, features a fully shiftless Hydra-Matric Drive automatic transmission, and a high compression V-8, 150 horsepower engine that, combined with revised axle ratios push this ’49 Caddy to reach 100 mph and scale 0-60 mph in 14 seconds, impressive for the day. This marvelous machine could be purchased for $5,450. Cadillac later used fender loving care and the 1948 chassis to develop horse-powered hearses and languid limousines.

Nope, it’s not exactly that Glorious Ghostbuster mobile!

Many mistake Renown’s 1949 Superior Cadillac ambulance for the Cadillac Miller-Meteor, which was called the Ectomobile in the Ghostbusters movie. That famous fueler and specter fightin’ wagon was produced ten years later- in 1959 in the Miller-Meteor plant in Pigua, OH. The production run was very limited with only 400 vehicles produced. At nearly 20 feet in length and weighing 3 tons, the Cadillac Miller-Meteor was an unwieldy car to handle, though it was a smooth ride thanks to an air suspension system and a 6.3 liter V8 engine. It was reported that this 1959 model was purchased for the film for $4,800. The vehicle designer, Stephen Dane, who was tapped by director Ivan Reitman to oversee Ekto-1 also designed the Proton Pack, Particle Thrower, Trap, Giga meter, Slime Scooper and Slime Blower—all within two weeks of the start of shooting of the original Ghostbusters movie. Now that’s a KeyMaster!

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“The Museum is a 501(c)(3) founded for educational purposes. We welcome opportunities to highlight the work of these game-changing STEAM innovators as we seek to fulfill our educational mission,” said Phil MacDougall, NAM’s executive director.

“We strive to bring exhibits and displays that appeal to everyone, and who doesn’t love a superhero?”

The exhibit runs through October 21, 2022, and is included with the purchase of admission tickets or your membership.

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The event will be held on Thursday, June 30, 2022, from 5 to 7 pm. Guests can enjoy the new riverside event patio and bar area, with an official Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting, live music by Garratt Wilkin of The Parrottheads, complimentary appetizers, and a cash bar featuring wine by About Town Deb.

“We’re very excited to share the Museum’s new outdoor venue with 16,000 square feet of patio on the Truckee River, fire pits, and access to the outdoor bar,” said Museum President and Executive Director Phil MacDougall. “You’ll definitely want to check out this brand new event space, which can be used for intimate gatherings up to larger events for hundreds of people. We believe it is the largest outdoor venue on the Truckee River and in Reno.”

Location: National Automobile Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Reno, NV 89501

Date: June 30, 2022

Time: 5 to 7 pm

Registration is free and required http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nam-ribbon-cutting-tickets-371293527937

Please register no later than Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

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There are fun new additions to the Cars of the Stars exhibit at the National Automobile Museum!

Now on display in the Museum’s Changing Gallery are “Guinevere” from Onward, “Grease Lightning” from Grease, Suki’s 2001 Honda S2000 Roadster from 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), “Herbie” from Herbie: Fully Loaded, the 1966 Chrysler Imperial “Black Beauty” from Green Hornet TV series, and the 1966 George Barris “Mongrel T.”

These vehicles joined full-scale models of Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater from the Cars animated film franchise which arrived on April 15^th.

“We’re excited to share these fun vehicles. Everyone who visits has their favorite. The car they want to take a selfie with. There’s something for everyone to enjoy,” said Phil MacDougall, NAM’s executive director. “If you haven’t visited NAM in a while, you’ll be surprised at all the changes happening. It’s a great time to visit with the family.”

The exhibit is now open and included with the purchase of admission tickets or your membership.

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