Tag: Cadillac

Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum

By Joe Berk

My sister Eileen is a time-share person, and she frequently swaps places to stay with other time-share owners.   She recently landed a suite of rooms at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido, so she and Susie and I stayed there for a week.  I didn’t realize this before our visit, but there’s a very cool winery and museum literally next door to the Welk resort.  The entrance to the Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum is only a few feet away from the Welk resort entrance, so on our first day there we stopped for a visit and a wine tasting.

I was surprised.  I had never heard of the Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum before, the collection was substantial, and there are even a few motorcycles (vintage Indians, to be specific).  Wow, this was going to be fun.  I did not have my Nikon, so everything you see here I shot with my iPhone.

Vintage Indians. You gotta love those paint themes.
An Indian Four.
An Indian V-twin.

When we entered, I asked the guy at the counter if the Museum had a focus, and his answer was immediate:  Convertibles.  And boy oh boy, did they ever have an impressive collection.

A Franklin convertible. These were a luxury American motorcar. They had air cooled engines.   See our blog on the Franklin Automobile Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
A beautiful 1948 Chrysler Town and Country convertible.
Imagine that: A woody convertible! At $3,395 (a lot of money in 1948), Chrysler only sold 8,369 of these. Like the initial years of the Chevrolet Corvette, the Woody Town and Country convertible’s job was to get people into the showroom, where salesmen could convince to buy less-expensive models.
There was real Arkansas white ash beneath what you see here; the wood grain is a decal over the real wood.  Even back in 1948, wraps were an in thing.
I like this car. I took a lot of photos of it.
Nice. Very nice.

The Museum consists of three buildings that display over 100 cars.  It starts with a collection in the main entrance building.  After seeing it, walking a few feet down the sidewalk brought us to another display area, with a lot of cars parked side by side, crammed into sort of barn-like building.  These were cars mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, and they were fun to take in.  I think they are, for the most part, restored and repainted cars.  I grew up in that era.   Lincolns, Imperials, Buicks, and many more, and all were convertibles.  A Pierce Arrow was just inside the entrance, parked in front of a 1950 Buick.

A Pierce Arrow convertible.
A close up of the Pierce Arrow radiator cap. I can only imagine what such a radiator cap would cost today.
A 1950 Buick convertible.
A 1960 Imperial Crown convertible. Imperial produced 618 of these costs. MSRP in 1960 was $5,774. They had a 413-cubic-inch engine and a 129-inch wheelbase. Fuel economy was not a concern in 1960.

When walking from one building to the next, we saw other convertibles scattered around the grounds in unrestored condition.  They were cool, too, wearing the patina you’d expect on cars that were new when guys like Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johson were in the White House.

A late ’60s Camaro convertible awaiting resoration.
A 1959 Cadillac limo. I’d kind of like to own one of these, too.
Another view of the ’59 Caddy.
An 1950’s Caddy convertible. It’s not on display yet. I spotted walking around the Deer Park grounds.

The entry building and the long barn-like building were interesting.  The best part was yet to come, though.  It was showroom on top of a hill.  We made the trek up to that building, and I was blown away by an absolutely stunning 1953 Cadillac convertible in showroom condition.  It’s the photo featured on top of this blog.

The Museum’s centerpiece: A 1953 Cadillac convertible.

The Cadillac you see above was recovered from a fire.  The restoration process was essentially a manufacturing venture.  The car was stripped down to the frame, and then rebuilt with all new, hand-formed, hand-painted, hand-dubbed body panels.  It is stunning.  I want it.

The ’53 Caddy convertible’s wire wheels.
An obligatory selfie: Me in the ”53 Caddy’s bumper.

We enjoyed a leisurely walk down the steps to get back to the entrance building, where the Deer Park Winery and Museum offers wine tasting for a modest fee.  The wine tastings include five varietals, which vary depending on the time of year (or, you can opt for six wines and select the ones you want).  We went with the five wine option.  They were all good and the tastings were not small.  One was exceptional.  That was a dessert wine that I believe would pair exceptionally will with a slice of carrot cake (I went to a sommelier presentation once many years ago, so I now consider myself an expert qualified to make such pairing suggestions).

Deer Park Peach wine. It’s peach-flavored champagne, basically, and it’s good.

The Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum is located at 29013 Champagne Boulevard just north of Escondido, California (the phone number is (760) 749-1666.  Tickets are reasonable at $14 (if you’re in the military or senior citizen you can get in for $12).

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Indiana’s Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg Museum

The Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg Museum is somewhat misleadingly named.   Yes, they have a stunning and visually arresting collection of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs (one of the best I’ve ever seen), but the collection of more than 120 vintage automobiles includes more than just these three marques.  There’s even a vintage BSA motorcycle (I’ll get to that in a bit).

The Museum is housed in what used to be the Auburn factory.  It’s in Auburn, Indiana, where they used to make Auburn automobiles.  Auburn is north of Indianapolis (the quick way in is on Interstate 69); we stopped there on our way to Goshen to visit the Janus factory.  Janus was fun and I grabbed a ton of awesome photos there, too.  Grab the September/October issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine and you’ll see it.  But that’s not what this blog is about.  Let’s get back to Auburn and the Museum.

The Museum is magnificent and the automobiles are stunning.  The Duesenbergs are beyond stunning but don’t take my word for it.  You might consider seeing this magnificent collection yourself.  I took enough photos to fill a book and I had a hard time picking just a few to show here.  I probably went a little overboard, but the cars are so nice it was hard not to.

Here’s a 1931 Duesenberg Model J.  The body was built by the Murphy company of Pasadena, who made more Duesenberg bodies than any other company.  The car has a straight 8 engine.

This is a V-16 Cadillac, another truly magnificent automobile.

Next up is a supercharged 1935 Auburn.  It is an 851 Speedster, with a Lycoming straight 8 engine.  It cost $2,245 when it was new (less than a used Sportster, if you’re using that as a benchmark).  The lines on this car are beautiful, and the colors work, too.

This next car is a 1929 Ruxton, a car I had never heard of before visting the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum.  It’s a front-wheel-drive car, a competitor to the Cord in its day.  According to what I found online, the Ruxton was lower, lighter, and handled better than the Cord.  The looks and the colors work for me.

Check out the Ruxton’s headlights.   These are Woodlite headlights, which  are very art deco.   They look like helmets.

Here are two 1937 Cord 812 automobiles:  A convertible and a coupe.  The colors and the style are impressive.  When I was a kid, I built a Monogram plastic model of a Cord that I think was based on the convertible I saw in Indiana.

Here’s a 1948 Lincoln Continental Coupe with a V-12 engine.  1948 was the last year any US automobile manufacturer made a V-12.  This one had 305 cubic inches and it produced 130 horsepower.  The car you see here cost $4,145 in 1948.

This 1933 250cc single-cylinder BSA is the lone motorcycle in the Cord Auburn Duesenberg Museum.  This one was E.L. Cord’s personal motorcycle, which he kept on his yacht and at his Nevada ranch.

Another magnificent Duesenberg.  This one is a 1931 Beverly sedan, with a 420 cubic inch, straight 8, 265-horsepower engine  It went for $16,500 when it was new.

This is an XK 120 Jaguar.  I think this is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.  It’s my dream car, in exactly these colors.

Here’s a first-year-of-production, 1953 Corvette.  Chevy introduced the Corvette in the middle of the 1953 model year, so there were only a few made.  The 1954 Corvette was essentially the same car.

Chevy was going to discontinue the Corvette due to its low sales, but the dealers convinced them otherwise.  The dealers didn’t sell a lot of Corvettes, but they sold a lot of other Chevys to people who visited the showrooms to see the Corvette.

Another view of the first year Corvette.  Note the mesh headlight protectors.

Ford’s answer to the Corvette…the two-seat Thunderbird.  The little T-Bird never matched the Corvette’s performance.  After three years of production (1955 to 1957), Ford redesigned the Thunderbird as a larger four-seater.

The Thunderbird soldiered on as a four-seater for years, then it was discontinued, then it briefly emerged again as a two-seater in 2002 (that’s the car you see below).  The new Thunderbird only lasted through 2005, and like the classic ’55/’56/’57 two-seat T-Birds, Ford dropped this one, too.  My buddy Paul drives one that looks exactly like this.

Auburn is a cool little town.  Its population is about 14,000 and the town is about 145 miles north of Indianapolis (it’s a straight shot up on Interstate 69).  The town is rooted in automotive history, and other history as well.  In 1933, John Dillinger and his gang raided the local police station and they stole several firearms and ammunition.  But it’s the automobiles and their history that make this town a worthy destination.  Auburn, Indiana, loves its automobiles and automotive history.  We saw several vintage cars being used as daily drivers.  The murals were cool, too.

You can easily spend three or four hours in the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, and spending the entire day there wouldn’t be out of the question.  One of Auburn’s best kept dining secrets is Sandra D’s, a reasonably-priced Italian restaurant with an exquisite menu.  Try the eggplant parmesan; you won’t be disappointed.

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Nethercutt Cadillacs!

When I was a kid (and that’s reaching back into the 1950s), there was no finer automobile than a Cadillac.  That’s the way it was back then, and even though I’ve never owned a Cadillac, I’d like to someday.  The thought that a Cadillac is the best stuck in my mind.

Today if you’re snooty it’s all about BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, and maybe one or two others.  All foreign stuff.  I don’t know if foreign cars are really better or if tastes just changed, but back in the day, a sure sign of success was driving a Cadillac.   Mercedes was a weird one in the 1950s, and nobody in America had heard of BMW.   Lexus and Infiniti were way in the distant future, and if you were to tell somebody you had a Lexus back then, they would most likely assume it was a medical problem.

I still think the 1959 Coupe de Ville was one of the best-looking cars ever made (anywhere, at any time), but that might be because it’s what I knew as a kid.   Let’s see, I would have been 8 years old in 1959.   Yeah, those big fins and bullet tail lights were cool.

So I grew up knowing that Cadillac meant the best something could be (as in “the Cadillac of…”).   Cameras, guns, bicycles, whatever…fill in the blanks, and if it was really, really good, it was “the Cadillac” of that product line.

Sooooo…….when I saw a series of early Caddies at the Nethercutt last Saturday, I was all over them.  The Nethercutt had fabulous cars of all kinds, but the Caddies really did it for me.

I had been there just a few weeks earlier, we had company in from out of town who wanted to see the Nethercutt, and I was prepared.  I had my Nikon D3300 walking-around camera, I had my 16-35 lens (it’s bigger than the camera), and I had enough light to dial in ISO 1600 and get me some Caddy photos.

Wow, a very classy 1930 Cadillac, the Model 452A Imperial Cabriolet, with Caddy’s 452-cubic-inch V-16. The colors work. I want one.
A 1938 Series 90 Convertible Sedan.  These cars are amazing.
Something slightly more modern…a 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. This car belonged to a Merle Norman executive who gave it to the Nethercutt Collection when he retired. The Nethercutts were the founders and owners of the Merle Norman Cosmetics firm.
A 1935 Model 452D 5-passenger convertible.   Cadillac only made two of these, and here’s one of them.  Wowee!
A 1937 Series 90 Aero-Dynamic Coupe (yep, that’s how they spelled it). It also had the 452-cubic-inch V-16 engine.
The 1933 Model 542-C Imperial Limousine. Sweet. It’s got the 452-cubic-inch V-16, too.
The 1932 Model 452B Deluxe Sport Phaeton, with the same big V-16.  Stunning.

So there you have it.    The Nethercutt Museum has about 250 vintage automobiles, of which 150 are on display at any time.  I’m guessing they have a few more Caddies stashed away, and that gives me a reason to go there again (and I will).   If you’re ever in So Cal, you don’t want to miss the Nethercutt.  It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.  You might even say it’s the Cadillac of vintage auto collections.