There is a Sonic franchise...
There is a Sonic franchise right next to the Wellborn Musclecar Museum. With a roller-skating car hop in the center of the lot as the sun set, many of the 1971 Chargers plus others that came out for the 40th Anniversary held at the museum last fall came in for a burger, a Coke and our cameras.
The trees in the hills of central Alabama change color just like they do over much of the eastern seaboard. This year in Alexander City, home of Tim and Pam Wellborn's legendary musclecar collection and museum, those colors included Tor-Red, Sassy Grass Green, and Citron-Yella as fans of the Dodge Charger came out for the museum's first scheduled show, the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Charger, final year for the Hemi, the R/T and the Super Bee. The Wellborn Musclecar Museum filled up the display parking lot with both the legendary first year G-series Dodges and other Mopars, new and old.
"This is a blast, having all these cars here," said Tim with his trademark smile. "We wanted to do something to honor our favorite model, the '71 Charger, and cars came from as far away as Florida, Oklahoma, and Delaware for our show. We hope this will be the beginning of a yearly Mopar show here, and this was a great start."
One reason that people may have missed this first show was that the website info on the show stated it was limited to 150 cars and it would be held to honor the Charger, leading some to think that if they did not have a Charger, they could not be invited. The opposite was true, and Tim said he would make sure next year that people will understand that while a particular car will again be honored, all Mopars are welcome. The 150-show limit is based on space for car display and special activities, not general attendance, which is free when getting a museum admission.
Check this out - its an unrestored...
Check this out - its an unrestored 1971 440-powered pace car from the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway back over Memorial Day weekend that year. Owned by Steve and Lisa Howard, the car features a sunroof and a a rarely-seen black-white paint scheme; a group of the events attendees are seen around it. Check out the special billboard on the wall in the background.
The lucky attendees at last October's gathering had two full days of meeting other fans, displaying their cars, and enjoying Tim and Pam's well-known hospitality. For instance, on Friday evening, invited vehicles were parked around their restored estate home, where several personal vehicles in their collection could also be seen. Dinner was served in the carriage house and consisted of sausage and wings - hand-made bison sausage and quail wings prepared by a world-class chef, as well as custom salad, fresh vegetables and bread, and custom dessert. The carriage house was built to English tradition features a full bar, a theatre, hardwood floors, and several of the Wellborn's cars.
On Saturday, the lot adjacent to the museum served as the primary show location, as the museum unveiled a special billboard size banner honoring the 1971 Charger. A row of performance 1971 Chargers - 383 to Hemi, restored to custom, were lined up under this and the Daytona Charger billboard. Each one had a story.
Currently, Tim is developing plans for doing two events a year - one will likely be a spring-time show for general musclecars, and the other will be in the fall and be exclusively Mopars, likely close to the weekend of the Talladega NASCAR race, which is when the Wellborns have hosted the once-every-five-year NASCAR aero-styled Winged Car gathering (to occur again in 2014).
24 Broad Street
Alexander City, AL 35010
(256) 329-8474
Hours: Sun Closed; Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; Sat 10am-4pm
How often do you see three...
How often do you see three Hemi Super Bees in a row...with sequential VIN numbers? These end in 2617-2618-2619 with various options, and Tim has recently found the location of 2616, also a Hemi machine. 2618 is owned by the museum; the other two came in from private owners.
While the 1971 Charger was...
While the 1971 Charger was a focal point of this event, other vehicles like these late models were welcome and on display; Petty Enterprises had one of their supercharged street Challengers on display as well.
One of the cars the museum...
One of the cars the museum recentluy debuted was the 1971 pilot Hemi Charger, which Roger Gibson carefully restored to its as-built shape. Many parts on it were not used on the production cars.