| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Kevin A | A Prowler in very good company! Anyone who hasn't seen this fantastic museum must go sometime! 
This message has been edited by kevina on 04-12-2005 at 07:40 AM |
| CJ | Looks pretty futuristic compared to the others!  |
| BeWare | The Orange and Yellow car is a 32 Cord Speedster. This car is a replica. The original disappeared. This is my favorite car of all time. Note it's front wheel drive. |
| pumpkin | The Prowler looks great but why in that group of cars????? |
| Dale Beaman | WOW - Thanks for sharing the pictures. May make that a day trip this summer! |
| Lone Ranger |
Where is this museum located?
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| IM PRWLN | The Auburn Museum is located in Auburn, Indiana. You will find other auto related museums just south of there. Well worth a trip. Pat |
| Lone Ranger |
Thank u! |
| tangled up in BLUE | been there many times....always a treat.....great pix.... |
| Bob Harder | Went there in 2004 when I drove Route 66 from Illinois to California... The Prowler was donated to the museum by Alcoa in 2002 as part of an exhibit entitled "From Pioneer to Today's Cutting Edge: 100 Years of Aluminum in Automotive Technology." Here is a news release that explains more...
N E W S FROM
AUBURN CORD DUESENBERG MUSEUM
(29.07.2002 , United States, AUBURN )
ALCOA DONATES 1999 PLYMOUTH PROWLER Alcoa, the world's largest producer of aluminum, has given a 1999 Plymouth Prowler Roadster to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, Auburn, Indiana, announced executive director Laura Brinkman. Alcoa formerly used the high-aluminum-content sports car in trade show exhibitions.
The Plymouth Prowler employs aluminum, durable plastics and sheet molding compounds in innovative ways. It has an all-aluminum high-output Chrysler 3.5 liter V-6 engine developing 253 horsepower. The aluminum found in the frame and body components accounts for about one-third of the car's total weight. The presence of that aluminum reduces the weight of the Prowler to 2,838 pounds, 600 fewer pounds than without the aluminum.
The donated Prowler is from DaimlerChrysler Corporation's second generation of the Prowler that returned to the marketplace in 1999 after a one-year hiatus. The Prowler was Plymouth's stab at a two-door, two-passenger, retro-looking roadster, a concept car introduced at the North American Auto Show in Detroit in 1993. The concept was popular enough for the Prowler to emerge from a production facility for consumers to buy four yers later in 1997. The Prowler was a learning experience for Chrysler, whose staff had to give much time to engineering the car to pass government regulated safety tests.
The base price of the purple-colored Prowler in 1999 was $39,300. With its pointed nose, turning front fenders and radical bumper and lamp sets, the Prowler, reminiscent of a vintage hot rod or customized sports car, was available only in purple, yellow, red and black.
In 2001 Alcoa's Prowler was lent to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum special exhibit, "From Pioneer to Today's Cutting Edge: 100 Years of Aluminum in Automotive Technology." The exhibit of aluminum cars, sponsored by Alcoa, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was open until April, 2002.
Alcoa chose to retire the Prowler from exhibition, and then donate it to the museum, when DaimlerChrysler discontinued production of the Prowler in 2002.
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| ed monahan | The museum is in the old manufacturing plant. They have several displays, including one large room of cars built in Indiana. There are Corvettes, Crosleys, Indy race cars, 57 Chevs. etc. The Cords, Auburns and Deusenbergs are on the first floor, mostly.
The Prowlers have led the big parade on the Labor Day week-end the past two years. Incredible. Definitely worth the trip.
Mike Gatlin has the parade on his DVD from 2003. |
| Dave Mills | That museum is very impressive. We took the Prowler up there for one of the parades. I would like to go back again to just watch the cars. |
| Kevin A | More Museum pics......
This message has been edited by kevina on 04-12-2005 at 07:37 AM |
| Lone Ranger |
What is the first car on your second set of pictures? I'm sure i've seen that car before but i may be mistaken.
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| Kevin A | quote:
Originally posted by Lone Ranger:
What is the first car on your second set of pictures? I'm sure i've seen that car before but i may be mistaken.
I took this picture of the placard in front of the car....
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| ed monahan | Last year in the parade the Mayor of Auburn rode with me. He explained that a man named Cord became a salesman for the company, which was not doing very well. He had the cars painted two tone and they started selling like hotcakes. He took off in the 40s or 50s, leaving people holding the bag for a lot of money and none of the Cord family had been back to Auburn for about 50 years until this past year.
The two tone paint was what started the ball rolling. I guess back then you could get any color you wanted, as long as you wanted black, to quote Henry Ford. |
| Lone Ranger |
Kevin..thanks for posting again. This thread had some very interesting information. Enjoyed reading everyones input. |
| Kevin A | LR, glad to share my enjoyable day with POA.
Kevin |
| CJ | Here are some pictures from the first Auburn parade the Prowlers participated in: http://www.prowleronline.com/scrapbook/neweventview.php?id=331 I thought there were some in the scrapbooks from the following year, too, but couldn't find them. |
| pumpkin | Nice shots CJ. |
| BeWare | I have received some email questions about the Cord Speedster. So here is some more info on ACD Speedsters. There were comparatively many Auburn Speedsters Built (three pictured above, blue, cream color and one behind the Prowler) and even some Duesenbergs. But the Orange and Yellow pictured is a replica (built on an original Cord chassis) of the only Cord Speedster ever built. It was either destroyed or disappeared.
Here is a quote from one of my books. "twenty-three-year-old Phil Wright drew this speedster design for the Cord chassis while employed as a stylist with Murphy. He was seeking a new position in the East when his portfolio came to the attention of Roy Faulkner, then President of Auburn. Faulkner had the speedster executed by Union City Body Company as Cord's centerpiece for the annual New York auto show. In June 1931, the speedster was sent to Europe to be exhibited and drum up sales. In August 1931, the car was returned to North America and exhibited in Toronto, Canada, By November it was back in Auburn. Here the trail ends; the speedster was never seen again."
This message has been edited by BeWare on 04-15-2005 at 10:47 PM |
