Two landmark car museums - the National Car and Truck Museum and Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum
Two must-see car museums in Auburn, Indiana
The National Automobile and Truck and Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museums in Auburn, Indiana are two of the “must see” museums for anyone who loves vintage cars. There is so much to see there and so many examples of pre-war automobiles that one day may not be enough if you’re truly an auto nut. Plus you can camp there.
Your $25 ticket is good for two days’ admission to the two museums on the property which are housed in the former Auburn automobile plant in the city that bears its name.
The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum
Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg were three brands that were absolutely at the top of the game in early automobile times. Each of these three brands were pinnacle brands that represented the epitome of style and grace at a time when automobiles were finally takin hold in the US.
While most folks are likely familiar with the Ford Model T, that was a prime example of popularizing automobiles through ever-increasing efficiencies in manufacturing and production. In fact we mention the Henry Ford museum several times in our Michigan travel guide.
But each of these three marques was on the polar opposite of the scale. These each had custom bodies and advanced engineering and were built to serve very wealthy clientele. For example, the Cord was the first American production car to feature front wheel drive at a time when just being relatively reliable was a hallmark feature.
The most advanced of these three marques is the Duesenberg which had things like a double overhead camshaft engine and hydraulic brakes at a time when some cars only had brakes on two wheels. The Duesenberg was the product of Fred and Augustus Duesenberg who made their name in racing.
Each example of these cars was truly a work of art. The Duesenberg, in particular, was mostly a company that built chassis and then shipped those off to custom coach builders.
So the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum is a treasure trove of stunning cars on two floors. At a time when just one of these spectacular cars can go for millions of dollars the sheer volume of beautiful machines is mind boggling.
There are also a couple of planes and even Horace Dodge’s (yep, the co-founder of Dodge Brothers car company) boat.
The displays here incorporate history, culture and panache along with the cars themselves.
Sadly, the Great Depression and just increasing competition had these three brands merge and, ultimately, fail but not before leaving us with some magnificent machines.
The National Auto and Truck Museum
This museum is located in what was the factory portion of the Auburn plant and is a collection of a huge number of cars of all sorts. The common thread here is that these are much more attainable machines, ones you may have seen in earlier days roving the streets of this great country.
But the pinnacle of this collection is called a GM Futurliner. Yep, that’s spelled correctly.
The Futurliner was part of GM’s Parade of Progress where 11 of these plus a parade of other vehicles would traverse the US visiting smaller towns in a technological circus, of sorts. The idea was to show off advances in technology along with GM’s latest vehicle choices so the parade would go from town-to-town and set up a whole event.
The Futurliner in the NATMUS, as it’s called, was one of these giant two-story-tall machines. All of these had a single center driving pod on the second floor with the driver’s head about ten feet off the ground. Yikes. There was a provision for a relief driver to sleep behind him.
The Futurliners had these doors that would open up on the side to reveal a display - each had something different. There were demonstrations of jet engines, science, and so much more. They even demonstrated microwave technology…in an unshielded example. Yikes.
This Futurliner is a beautiful working example and I’ve wanted to see one of these in person for decades. I finally did!
There was a slew of other vehicles including a GMC Motorhome and a ton of cars and trucks of all sorts.
If you’re in Indiana, and I suggest you should go, don’t miss these two museums. They are absolute showplaces of what we can accomplish as a country.
