I'm here at the Studebaker Museum, and this is probably one of the coolest exhibits I've ever had here.

It's reel rides.

It's cars of TV and film, and I'm here with Kyle, who's curator.

Kyle.

I'm super impressed walking in here.

You know, when I heard about this and heard we were coming, I didn't realize that you'd have such an amazing collection.

I mean, you've done a really good job with this.

Well, thank you.

I can't take all the credit, but thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, but even as we look at the first one here, like the Gt40 replica because.

But we say replica.

But that's what they used in the filming for Ford v Ferrari.

Right, right.

And that's an interesting example of movie cars are kind of special in that, you know, they, they, they all have stories to tell.

Right.

So this is a replica Gt40 used in Ford v Ferrari.

So in the film it was wrapped in like a dark blue wrap.

Right.

And you see Christian Bale working under the car and that scene in the hangar.

He plays Ken Miles in the film.

And then obviously the owner much later took that wrap off.

We think that the current sort of, scheme on the car looks like it would have been.

Yeah.

Lemon in the late 60s, but, this probably was added, like as a promotional paint job, you know, after the film.

So, again, interesting car, interesting history.

You know, one of the vehicles in Ford was Ferrari, so which again, because I know that the real Gt40 would probably be worth a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah.

They tend not to use them in movies when they're kind of a mess, you know.

And these are props right there in the background.

And so they did want to have some authentic cars.

You know, meaning you know they're still movie cars you don't want always the real thing.

So yeah.

Now I know that behind me here, this yellow vehicle is a regular feature here at the museum.

It's been here before.

So can you tell me a little bit about who owns it?

And it's from The Color Purple, right?

Right.

Yeah.

So this is the Color Purple movie from the mid 1980s with will be Goldberg and Oprah Danny Glover.

This car was here for a while back.

Yeah, I think in the early 20 tens.

Right.

Okay.

This is Doctor George Vassos.

He's a friend of the museum.

He lives out in Massachusetts.

So he's been the owner of this car for several years.

It's a wonderful film.

It's a beautiful car.

It's just, it's a Studebaker model.

One of my favorite eras, kind of mid 1930s here.

And that yellow just really pops, so it really makes me want to lean into.

They don't make them like that anymore.

Friends, you know, that's when you know you're starting to get older when you start looking at it.

But I mean, it's just I mean, I don't know if everyone says that about every generation, but it's just magnificent.

It really is.

No.

This one, it's a really special time.

And I love the rumble seat.

And that's obviously pretty prominent in the movie too.

So yeah.

And I know here this, you know, we talk about the first car that we looked at was a replica.

But this Ferrari here, the Ferrari 308, this is a it's a real Ferrari.

There's no replica here.

This.

No, this is, this is one of my favorite cars we were able to bring in for the exhibit.

So we have three cars on loan to us from the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

They have a wonderful collection.

And they're in their vault, especially of movie cars.

And so obviously, many of us grew up or at least have seen Magnum Pi.

So this is one of the Ferraris used in filming season three.

My favorite bit of trivia for this car is they actually had to lower the frame a bit to fit Tom Selleck, so that's pretty fun.

Pretty tall guy, pretty small car.

So, and I know that the Ian Fleming Foundation is based up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, right?

Or I believe so.

And you have some vehicles here that were in bond movies, which.

Yeah, yes, we have a couple of vehicles here that were in bond films.

They were very generous in letting us, borrow some of these, many of their vehicles do kind of go to different museums for exhibits and other Museum of Science or one of the Chicago museums just had a James Bond exhibit.

Yeah.

But any case, we have, yeah, this Honda motorcycle here.

This was used in Skyfall.

One of my favorite, I think Daniel Craig, led bond films.

If you remember, toward the beginning of the film, there's this great motorcycle chase there.

Istanbul, I think, bond commandeers, just kind of a street bike.

And then the bad guy, commandeers this police bike here.

So this is one of those police bikes used in the film.

You know what?

I want to cause a ruckus with our audience.

But I think Daniel Craig is one of the best bond.

He's great, you know?

And I know he doesn't fit the the mold of what?

Bond.

You know, for some people, they all have their own special attributes.

Yeah.

So yeah, we got Thelma and Louise over here, which I mean, this is a really iconic vehicle right here.

I like to joke with folks like this is not the one that flew off the cliff at the end of this film.

Yeah.

This is again another vehicle on loan to us from the Petersen Museum.

Just a really neat vehicle.

If you've seen the film, really emotionally charged ending.

Yeah.

And something that's kind of neat about movie cars.

They obviously use multiple different, mostly identical cars for the film.

So this was used for a lot of the driving scenes with Geena Davis.

And oh, who's the other actors I'm forgetting?

Don't ask me.

Is it on here?

It's probably Susan Sarandon.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

Of course.

Yeah.

So, just a wonderful car.

I mean, who doesn't love a mid 60s Thunderbird?

It's just a cool car.

I mean, convertible again, they don't make them like this anymore.

It's just so beautiful.

Can you imagine?

They're driving around South Bend on a summer evening on this.

It's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

So as we kind of get into the museum here.

Yes.

There's one question that I'm curious about.

How do you get all the cars up here?

We're on, like the one second or third floor, right?

No, it's not magic.

It's, So in the corner of the gallery, this building is, we're lucky to have an elevator that goes all three floors.

We can fit pretty much every vehicle in the collection, okay?

And we can move them around, so.

And, do you ever get nervous?

Like.

I mean, just thinking about, like, making sure you just have to take such good care of them.

I mean, just parking them all.

I feel like I'd freak out a little bit.

That's what we do, right?

I know, I know, I know, yeah.

So you.

And so our team here, obviously we do this quite a bit.

And so we have a pretty good handle on moving moving cars around.

Sometimes we're threading the needle a little bit, but but we always make it work.

And so when you talk about this reel rides and it's happening, how long are all these vehicles going to be here on time.

Yeah.

So this just opened on Friday October was a 25th, 2424.

Thank you.

And so they'll be here all the way through Memorial Day next year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So it's about an eight, 7 or 8 month exhibit.

So you have some time, you know, come, come, you know, this winter free weekend, you know, check it out.

And there's a lot of other great stuff to see here at the Studebaker Museum.

And I do like it that you know, there's there's vehicles that represent nearly like every era or every age group of people like, I see, you know, Little Miss Sunshine vehicle over here, which is so cool.

But, you know, it seems like it hits kind of every generation, even with the Ford versus Ferrari, obviously.

And that was one of my our goals here I was for going to do a movie car exhibit.

But let's do something that appeals to to many different people.

Yeah.

And so the Little Miss Sunshine, van was one of my favorites.

We have, the Hornet from the man with the Golden Gun, another bond vehicle.

So, yeah, I mean, just hitting a lot of those different audiences.

Is there any.

I noticed the fire vehicle over here with South Bend Fire Department.

So is that just kind of an extra added in, or is that from an actual movie or.

Oh, so yeah, the real rides exhibit is kind of in the center part of our are here.

All the other vehicles you're going to see on the on the upper level of the museum are part of our collection.

Okay.

And so we, you know, Studebaker built, service vehicles, vehicles.

And so that's a great example of a late 1920s fire truck.

So.

Okay.

And so is there any vehicle here that is part of reel rides, like if you had to pick one that we haven't looked at yet that you think is just super iconic, which one would you go with?

Well, there is a, there is a pretty special car here.

That that kind of, prompted us to do this whole exhibit and that is, the return of the 1951 commander from The Muppet Movie.

Yeah.

Which is also on display downstairs in our in our atrium.

So and so I know that was a big project because that vehicle I know was kind of just sitting out.

I mean, nobody was a lot of these vehicles are almost better kept than some, like they're like people's babies, right?

And they're so well kept.

Right.

But with that vehicle, it was kind of just out in the parking lot.

Right?

Well, we've had that car for about 20 years now.

We got it just before we moved into this, into this building.

But what happens?

Is it kind of going back to your earlier point about movie cars?

A lot of times they're when they're done filming, they're kind of left in a warehouse or left out on the studio backlot for a while, and then, you know, the elements will get to it.

And that car went through a couple different owners and it was outside some more.

And so a lot of that paint scheme, if you've seen the movie, you know, it's got that wonderful psychedelic rainbow paint scheme from Doctor Teeth.

And so but it was all pretty much faded, washed away.

The car didn't run, you know.

And so we had it on display.

And did you guys put all that effort into making it back to work?

Well, we worked with a lot of people.

We were fundraising for it to really make the restoration possible.

And we finally kind of hit our goal 3 or 4 years ago now.

And, ended up working with, a shop down in North Carolina, Razor Fly Studios, they did the restoration work.

Wonderful job.

I mean, the car looks like it just drove right off off the movie, so.

All right, well, you got plenty of time, but don't wait.

Just come and see it.

Real ride's the exhibition.

Congratulations on all the work.

I think this is really cool.

And I hope it's one of the biggest exhibits that you have here at the Studebaker.

I hope so too.

Yeah.

Come see it.

Yeah.

Thank you.