Five Remarkable Vehicles at the 2024 Greenfield Village Motor Muster

From the hundreds of exceptional vehicles at this year’s Motor Muster at Greenfield Village, here are five that especially caught our eye.

 

We’ve been covering the annual Motor Muster at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan for more than a decade now, where we never fail to brag on the show’s tremendous variety. Cars and trucks, commercial and professional vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, and military vehicles, all dating from the ’30s through the ’70s, you’ll find them here on Father’s Day weekend each year. From all these exceptional vehicles, here are five that, for whatever reason, especially caught our attention.

 

Vintage car enthusiasts like to call the spectacular fastback body style on this 1941 Cadillac a Sedanet (often spelled sedanette) but at General Motors, Sedanet was officially a Buick name. At the Cadillac division it was simply a Coupe, but the teardrop styling is no less distinctive. Introduced in 1941, the streamlined Coupe was Cadillac’s biggest seller that year.

 

When this Indian Chief was new in 1947, there were two great American producers of big V-twin motorcycles, Harley-Davidson and Indian, and each marque had its fierce loyalists. The Indian V-twin was distinguished by its deep-skirted fenders and its unique control layout. On a Chief, the gear selector is on the right side of the fuel tank and the throttle is on the left handlebar grip, the opposite of the setup on a Harley V-twin. The last of the original Indian Chiefs was produced in 1953.

 

With their stainless steel tiaras, the ’55-’56 Crown Victorias are among the most collectible of the ’50s Fords, but our own fickle personal preference is for the less flashy ’56 Fairlane Victoria. For 1956, the Fairlane Victoria received the Crown Vic’s lower roofline (also shared with the Mercury Montclair) but without the bright-metal B pillar and roof band. The same pillarless hardtop body style with low sillhouette was also offered on the mid-range Customline that year.

 

Most Americans have probably never seen a 1957 Piaggio Ape in the flesh, but the dinky three-wheeled delivery vehicles are a familiar sight in Italy. The Ape (Itlalian for bee, pronounced in two syllables) is essentially a three-wheeled version of a Vespa motor scooter with a tiny cabin for protection from the elements. Under the seat of the 1957 models was a 150cc two-stroke single running on gasoline/oil premix. Introduced in 1948, the Piaggio microtrucks are still in production today.

By 1936, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was broke and nearly out of business, but the Buffalo, New York car maker was still producing magnificent automobiles—for example, this model 1601 Sedan (below). Gliding on a luxurious 139-inch wheelbase and powered by a silent 385 cubic-inch straight eight, this Pierce has a physical presence that is at least the equal of its Packard, Lincoln, and Cadillac peers. But unlike the other luxury makes, Pierce didn’t offer a low-price, high-volume model, and its 1936 production amounted to fewer than 900 cars. The company was liquidated in 1938.

 

2 thoughts on “Five Remarkable Vehicles at the 2024 Greenfield Village Motor Muster

  1. Good grief! How could you ride a Harley and then get on an Indian or vice versa? That would require some concentration!

  2. That final evolution of the Pierce-Arrow headlights-on-fenders shape makes me wonder how they would’ve adapted to the era of flat fronts with headlights spaced wide apart as the norm.

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