Zoar Village
Millbury Classic Cars & Trucks Museum
Museum Exterior
In case you're in the market for one, the museum is selling these mannequins for $700 each.
The Mystery Machine from many of the Scooby Doo cartoons.
Batmobile from the 1960s TV Show
Herbie from the Love Bug and its sequels.
DeLorean from the Back to the Future Movies
This fellow greets you at the entrance.
Boss Hogg's Cadillac from the 1980s TV show Dukes of Hazard
Inside the Museum
1969 Yenko Chevell (aka Yenko Stinger)
1963 Nova Wagon
1965 Ford Mustang
1966 Pontiac GTO
1966 Plymouth Roadrunner
1960 Chevy Biscayne
1957 Chevy Bel Aire
1963 Corvette Stingray
1965 VW Minibus
1954 Chevy 3100 Truck
1970 Ford Torino
1967 Chevy Impala
Dayton Tires Sign
Delco Battery Sign
The Millbury Classic Cars & Trucks Museum isn’t in the village of Millbury, Ohio, itself but rather a bit outside of town nestled among fields. Housed in a large building, its exterior won’t win any architectural awards. Its interior, in contrast, is a place of beauty filled with custom-made mannequins (some on the odd side), brilliant neon signs for products of yesteryear, loads of old gas pumps, and classic cars as far as the eye can see. I spoke to its founders, Tammy and Mike Barlette, and they told me they have plans to add more space and cars, which is pretty ambitious considered that as of this writing, the museum has only been open for six months.
The vast majority of vehicles in its collection are from the 1950s to the early 1970s with a smattering of newer ones. If you don’t find classic cars all that exciting, the museum has something else to offer: nostalgia. Sprinkled among its collection are cars from classic television shows and movies that even the current generation has probably seen. Although these vehicles are replicas and not the originals, Mike told me that you’ll never be able to tell the difference.
Let’s start with the Mystery Machine from the cartoon Scooby Doo, which debuted in 1968 and continued to air in repeats throughout much of the 1970s in tandem with other Saturday morning Scooby Doo shows. The Mystery Machine was based on either the Chevy G-Body van or the Dodge A100 van. Newer Scooby Doo cartoons have updated the Mystery Machine, but the original is the best known version.
The vast majority of vehicles in its collection are from the 1950s to the early 1970s with a smattering of newer ones. If you don’t find classic cars all that exciting, the museum has something else to offer: nostalgia. Sprinkled among its collection are cars from classic television shows and movies that even the current generation has probably seen. Although these vehicles are replicas and not the originals, Mike told me that you’ll never be able to tell the difference.
Let’s start with the Mystery Machine from the cartoon Scooby Doo, which debuted in 1968 and continued to air in repeats throughout much of the 1970s in tandem with other Saturday morning Scooby Doo shows. The Mystery Machine was based on either the Chevy G-Body van or the Dodge A100 van. Newer Scooby Doo cartoons have updated the Mystery Machine, but the original is the best known version.
Near it you will find the Batmobile from the Batman TV series, the one that ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1968 and spawned a 1966 theatrical movie. When I watched it in reruns in the 1970s as a daily syndicated show, my child mind failed to recognize that it was a comedy. Of all the Batmobiles that have shown up on TV and in movies, none is as well-known as the 1966 version, which was based on a 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura concept car.
Another movie car found at the museum is the 1963 Volkswagen L87 Beetle that served as the sentient car Herbie in 1969’s The Love Bug. I remember first watching this movie in the 1970s and seeing its first sequel, Herbie Rides Again, in my school’s cafeteria via a 16mm projector. According to carsales.com.au, during the making of the original Love Bug movie, many VW Beetles were used as Herbie, one of which had a Porshe engine installed to give it greater power. This is appropriate considering that the man who invented the Porsche car, Ferdinand Porsche, designed the first VW Beetle, all be it for Nazi Germany. (Porsche himself was a member of the SS.) Porsche didn’t come up with the idea for the Beetle. That credit goes to Josef Ganz, who thought it up in 1929. Being Jewish, when the car went into production in 1938 during the height of the Nazi regime, he wasn’t give any credit. Indeed, the Gestapo had arrested him in 1933, then released him, so the next year he moved to Liechtenstein, then to Switzerland where he lived until 1949.
In The Love Bug, Herbie’s paint job was pearl white. Normally the interior would have been white as well, but it was changed to gray for the movie to avoid glare during filming. VW wanted nothing to do with the first movie, so the company isn’t mentioned in it. Success changed its mind, and it happily allowed its name to be used in sequels. Herbie’s racing number, 53, was picked by producer Bill Walsh because it was the number of one of his favorite baseball players, Don Dysdale.
Another movie car found at the museum is the 1963 Volkswagen L87 Beetle that served as the sentient car Herbie in 1969’s The Love Bug. I remember first watching this movie in the 1970s and seeing its first sequel, Herbie Rides Again, in my school’s cafeteria via a 16mm projector. According to carsales.com.au, during the making of the original Love Bug movie, many VW Beetles were used as Herbie, one of which had a Porshe engine installed to give it greater power. This is appropriate considering that the man who invented the Porsche car, Ferdinand Porsche, designed the first VW Beetle, all be it for Nazi Germany. (Porsche himself was a member of the SS.) Porsche didn’t come up with the idea for the Beetle. That credit goes to Josef Ganz, who thought it up in 1929. Being Jewish, when the car went into production in 1938 during the height of the Nazi regime, he wasn’t give any credit. Indeed, the Gestapo had arrested him in 1933, then released him, so the next year he moved to Liechtenstein, then to Switzerland where he lived until 1949.
In The Love Bug, Herbie’s paint job was pearl white. Normally the interior would have been white as well, but it was changed to gray for the movie to avoid glare during filming. VW wanted nothing to do with the first movie, so the company isn’t mentioned in it. Success changed its mind, and it happily allowed its name to be used in sequels. Herbie’s racing number, 53, was picked by producer Bill Walsh because it was the number of one of his favorite baseball players, Don Dysdale.
Another well-known vehicle you’ll see in the museum is the DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies. I recall watching the first of these in the theater and loving it. For reasons unknown, I saw the third movie in the trilogy (the one that takes place in the Wild West), but missed the second one. Recently I had the chance to watch it, and I wish I hadn’t. It didn’t age well. Despite this, I still love the movie’s characters and charm.
The DeLorean DMC-12 was designed by John Z. DeLorean, a former General Motors executive who left the company to make his own sports car. The first of the new car came off the assembly line on January 21, 1981. Few of them sold, the company barely lasted a year, and John DeLorean was arrested for selling cocaine to save his business. A jury determined this was entrapment and found him not guilty. He was then tried for fraud and beat that, too.
While looking online for some details about the DeLorean car’s history, I came across an “official” DeLorean website complete with two concept cars, neither of which I found impressive. The Alpha looks like a standard sportscar and has no distinctive features save for gullwing doors, and the Omega is just plain ugly. Neither have a stainless steel body. Nostalgia isn’t going to be enough to resurrect this vehicle unless someone makes near replicas similar to what Ford did with the Mustang and Dodge did with the Charger.
The rest of the museum is filled with classic cars and trucks with a few more replicas scattered among them including the 1979 Trans Am from the movie Smokey and the Bandit and several vehicles from the 1980s television show The Dukes of Hazzard including Boss Hogg’s Cadillac as well as the Bo and Luke’s General Lee. I watched Dukes of Hazzard as a child and at the time has no idea why Boss Hogg has that title. While in college I learned that in this context a boss is the head of a corrupt political machine.
As I wandered through the building what surprised me most was just how many vintage cars had air conditioning, power steering, fuel injection, automatic transmission, and power seats. So I checked to see when they were first added to American automobiles and was surprised by just how long they’ve been around. The first true air conditioned car was offered by the Packard Motor Company in 1939. The unit was located in the trunk, and you had to put the belt on yourself to make it work or to shut it off. Other car makers started offering a similar system in 1953. The first one that allowed you to control the temperature from the dashboard was introduced by Cadillac in 1964.
The DeLorean DMC-12 was designed by John Z. DeLorean, a former General Motors executive who left the company to make his own sports car. The first of the new car came off the assembly line on January 21, 1981. Few of them sold, the company barely lasted a year, and John DeLorean was arrested for selling cocaine to save his business. A jury determined this was entrapment and found him not guilty. He was then tried for fraud and beat that, too.
While looking online for some details about the DeLorean car’s history, I came across an “official” DeLorean website complete with two concept cars, neither of which I found impressive. The Alpha looks like a standard sportscar and has no distinctive features save for gullwing doors, and the Omega is just plain ugly. Neither have a stainless steel body. Nostalgia isn’t going to be enough to resurrect this vehicle unless someone makes near replicas similar to what Ford did with the Mustang and Dodge did with the Charger.
The rest of the museum is filled with classic cars and trucks with a few more replicas scattered among them including the 1979 Trans Am from the movie Smokey and the Bandit and several vehicles from the 1980s television show The Dukes of Hazzard including Boss Hogg’s Cadillac as well as the Bo and Luke’s General Lee. I watched Dukes of Hazzard as a child and at the time has no idea why Boss Hogg has that title. While in college I learned that in this context a boss is the head of a corrupt political machine.
As I wandered through the building what surprised me most was just how many vintage cars had air conditioning, power steering, fuel injection, automatic transmission, and power seats. So I checked to see when they were first added to American automobiles and was surprised by just how long they’ve been around. The first true air conditioned car was offered by the Packard Motor Company in 1939. The unit was located in the trunk, and you had to put the belt on yourself to make it work or to shut it off. Other car makers started offering a similar system in 1953. The first one that allowed you to control the temperature from the dashboard was introduced by Cadillac in 1964.
Canadian engineer Alfred Homer invented an automatic transmission in 1921 powered by compressed air. The first one to use hydraulic fluid was introduced by GM in 1930s, although one Oldsmobile offered that current ones are based on didn’t debut until 1948. Power Steering first appeared on the 1951 Chrysler Imperial. Fuel injection was used in airplanes as far back as the Wright Brothers. High performance cars began using it in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that it was standard on new cars. The first power seat appeared in the 1940s, and more versatile ones appeared in the 1950s.
I hadn’t gotten very far in museum when I came across a 1969 Yenko Chevelle accompanied by an information sign said it was “as close as you can get to a real Yenko without spending 300k.” Not being a gearhead, this was meaningless to me. I didn’t know if Yenko was a person, a shop or location. So I checked and found it was a person named Don Yenko. Born in 1927, he was a pilot in the Air Force and, upon leaving that service, he became a successful racecar driver. After retiring from this career, in the 1950s he started a shop at his family’s car dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, that turned ordinary cars into high performers.
The first ones were souped-up Chevy Covairs called Yenko Stingers. Some were made into race cars, and 100 were sold as street legal. The Corvair was a rear-engine air cooled vehicle meant to compete with the VW Bug. Produced from 1960 to 1969, it was a notoriously unsafe vehicle that Ralph Nader targeted it in one of the chapters of his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed.
I hadn’t gotten very far in museum when I came across a 1969 Yenko Chevelle accompanied by an information sign said it was “as close as you can get to a real Yenko without spending 300k.” Not being a gearhead, this was meaningless to me. I didn’t know if Yenko was a person, a shop or location. So I checked and found it was a person named Don Yenko. Born in 1927, he was a pilot in the Air Force and, upon leaving that service, he became a successful racecar driver. After retiring from this career, in the 1950s he started a shop at his family’s car dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, that turned ordinary cars into high performers.
The first ones were souped-up Chevy Covairs called Yenko Stingers. Some were made into race cars, and 100 were sold as street legal. The Corvair was a rear-engine air cooled vehicle meant to compete with the VW Bug. Produced from 1960 to 1969, it was a notoriously unsafe vehicle that Ralph Nader targeted it in one of the chapters of his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed.
When Chevy introduced the Camaro in 1966, Yenko found that a much better car to enhance. For one, he could replace its already impressive 396ci big block engine with the even more powerful 427 used in Corvettes. At first he swapped them out at his own shop, then he got Chevy to install them via its “Central Office Production Order” program. About 300 of these from the model years 1967 to 1969 came out of Yenko’s shop. Yenko also worked on Chevelles, a vehicle produced from 1964 to 1977, but he only made these for a year and produced about 100. He also modified some 1969 Novas. The last car he upgraded was the 1981 Camero Turbo Z. Twenty of these were made. Yenko died not of old age but in an airplane crash in 1987. He was the pilot.
One of the Novas he produced, a 1969 model year one, is in the collection. The Nova was first introduced in 1962 as the Chevy II Nova 400. The next year an eight cylinder version was sold. It became known as just the Chevy Nova in 1969. In 1973 a hatchback two-door Nova debuted, and from this point until its discontinuation in 1988, it was no longer a muscle car. In college I recall learning in my Spanish class that the Nova failed to sell in Mexico because no one realized that in Spanish “no va” means “it doesn’t go.” While a good story, it’s not true. The car did sell well there and in other Spanish speaking countries, and it turns out this was a joke similar to the one that says Ford stands for “found on road dead.”
Another car in the collection that caught my eye (there were so many!) was a 1965 Ford Mustang. Here’s the interesting thing about this car. Debuting in 1964 (making 1965 its first model year), the original was a Frankenstein’s monster. Ford executives, including Henry Ford II, weren’t enthusiastic about creating a sporty vehicle, especially after the spectacular failure of the Edsel, but the Ford Division’s newly appointed vice president and general manager, Lee Iacocca, thought it was a great idea. He convinced the other executives to allow its production after he reduced its cost significantly by using parts from other vehicles. The Mustang was a runaway hit.
One of the Novas he produced, a 1969 model year one, is in the collection. The Nova was first introduced in 1962 as the Chevy II Nova 400. The next year an eight cylinder version was sold. It became known as just the Chevy Nova in 1969. In 1973 a hatchback two-door Nova debuted, and from this point until its discontinuation in 1988, it was no longer a muscle car. In college I recall learning in my Spanish class that the Nova failed to sell in Mexico because no one realized that in Spanish “no va” means “it doesn’t go.” While a good story, it’s not true. The car did sell well there and in other Spanish speaking countries, and it turns out this was a joke similar to the one that says Ford stands for “found on road dead.”
Another car in the collection that caught my eye (there were so many!) was a 1965 Ford Mustang. Here’s the interesting thing about this car. Debuting in 1964 (making 1965 its first model year), the original was a Frankenstein’s monster. Ford executives, including Henry Ford II, weren’t enthusiastic about creating a sporty vehicle, especially after the spectacular failure of the Edsel, but the Ford Division’s newly appointed vice president and general manager, Lee Iacocca, thought it was a great idea. He convinced the other executives to allow its production after he reduced its cost significantly by using parts from other vehicles. The Mustang was a runaway hit.
Of all the muscle cars every produced, the Pontiac GTO may be the most iconic. Considered the first of its class, it made its debut in 1964 as an upgrade for the LeMans. The GTO was created by an engineering team led by none other than John DeLorean. The GTO became a separate vehicle rather than an upgraded LeMans in 1966. As it evolved over the years, its engines became more powerful. In 1972 the car was again only offered as an upgraded LeMans. The third generation model, which was made from late 1973 to late 1974, had a far less powerful engine. Although sales improved, this was the last year the car was produced until it was briefly revived from 2004 to 2006. Sales of muscle cars of all types plummeted with the onset of the oil crises of the 1970s, although GTO sales were in decline well before that, mainly because of competition with rival muscle cars.
One of which was the Plymouth Road Runner. Wanting a muscle car of its own, Chrysler assigned the task to develop one to Jack Smith. The actual car was designed by Elwood P. Engel. The idea to name it after the iconic cartoon character was thought up by Gordon Cherry as he watched Saturday morning cartoons with his children. Rights for the character were secured from Warner Brothers for $50,000, and someone engineered a horn for this vehicle that went “Beep! Beep!” It debuted in 1968 and its production lasted until 1980. Plymouth hoped to sell 2,500 in its first year. To its delight, 45,000 were sold, in part because of the car’s powerful engine and its relatively low cost.
One car model I wasn’t familiar with that I saw examples of it was the Chevy Biscayne. It debuted in 1958 and was produced until 1975. A full size car, it was at the low end of the market and meant primarily as a fleet vehicle. What it lacked in features such as power windows it made up with its powerful V8 engine. The example in the museum is a 1960 model that has aftermarket air conditioning.
One of which was the Plymouth Road Runner. Wanting a muscle car of its own, Chrysler assigned the task to develop one to Jack Smith. The actual car was designed by Elwood P. Engel. The idea to name it after the iconic cartoon character was thought up by Gordon Cherry as he watched Saturday morning cartoons with his children. Rights for the character were secured from Warner Brothers for $50,000, and someone engineered a horn for this vehicle that went “Beep! Beep!” It debuted in 1968 and its production lasted until 1980. Plymouth hoped to sell 2,500 in its first year. To its delight, 45,000 were sold, in part because of the car’s powerful engine and its relatively low cost.
One car model I wasn’t familiar with that I saw examples of it was the Chevy Biscayne. It debuted in 1958 and was produced until 1975. A full size car, it was at the low end of the market and meant primarily as a fleet vehicle. What it lacked in features such as power windows it made up with its powerful V8 engine. The example in the museum is a 1960 model that has aftermarket air conditioning.
Even those who have zero interest in cars will have heard of the 1957 Chevy Bel Air. As a child I thought the shorthand term “’57 Chevy” meant this was the only car Chevrolet made that year. In fact, Chevy sold five different car models that year plus a truck and the Suburban. Of these cars, many variations were available for the Bel Air, the One-Fifty and the Two-Ten. One could, for example, buy a Bel Air as two door sedan, a two door sport coup, a four door sedan, a four door sedan sport hardtop, a wagon (two variations), and as a convertible.
The Bel Air was produced from 1950 to 1981. What makes the 1957 model year so desirable today is its unique features that set it apart from the similar 1955 and 1956 models. For the 1957 model, a buyer could pay more to have a fuel-injected V8 engine installed. Also available were features normally reserved for luxury vehicles such as air conditioning. Power steering and power brakes came standard, and you have to option to purchase one with optional power seats. Best of all for Chevy, the Bel Air outsold Ford’s equivalent vehicle, the Ford Farlaine 500. Bel Airs were often used as a police cars because of their reliability.
No car museum would be complete without a Corvette or two. The museum has a couple, one of which is a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. The Corvette debuted in 1954 with 300 being made and just 183 sold. (Today a 1954 Corvette sells from between $143,000 to about $247,000 depending on its condition.) Despite continued poor sales, Chevy kept making them. The company redesigned the 1956 model and put into it a powerful fuel-injected V8 engine. The String Ray, the Corvette’s second generation, debuted in late 1962, making 1963 its first model year.
Not all the vehicles in the museum’s collection are muscle cars or replicas of famous vehicles. In a room of its own you will find a 1975 Volkswagen Minibus that was built in Brazil. Containing twenty-three windows, it’s a perfect match for the vehicle favored by Hippies. Originally conceived by Dutch importer Ben Pon back in 1947, the first Minibus went in production in 1950. It was built upon a Type 1 Beetle chassis. Like the Beetle, it had an air-cooled engine and a rear wheel drive. Versatile, it was a popular low cost type of transportation that could be repurposed for other things such as a camper a school bus. When all its seats were in place, it could transport eight people, although the ride was by no means comfortable.
Many consider this vehicle a deathtrap. It often oversteered because most of its weight was in its back end. If you hit something head on, there was nothing between you and the object impacted other than a flimsy sheet of metal. The headlights would also jam into your legs. There were no seatbelts, its brakes were insufficient, and you were lucky to get up to 59 MPH. It also had a tendency to tip over.
VW stopped selling the Minibus in the United States at the end of the 1970s because it didn’t meet new safety and emissions standards. Production continued abroad, and the last one rolled off a Brazilian assembly line in 2013. Minibuses still can be seen on U.S. roads, and in the summer I see one where I live. But unless you’re professional stunt driver, it’s probably best not to use one as your daily vehicle.🕜
The Bel Air was produced from 1950 to 1981. What makes the 1957 model year so desirable today is its unique features that set it apart from the similar 1955 and 1956 models. For the 1957 model, a buyer could pay more to have a fuel-injected V8 engine installed. Also available were features normally reserved for luxury vehicles such as air conditioning. Power steering and power brakes came standard, and you have to option to purchase one with optional power seats. Best of all for Chevy, the Bel Air outsold Ford’s equivalent vehicle, the Ford Farlaine 500. Bel Airs were often used as a police cars because of their reliability.
No car museum would be complete without a Corvette or two. The museum has a couple, one of which is a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. The Corvette debuted in 1954 with 300 being made and just 183 sold. (Today a 1954 Corvette sells from between $143,000 to about $247,000 depending on its condition.) Despite continued poor sales, Chevy kept making them. The company redesigned the 1956 model and put into it a powerful fuel-injected V8 engine. The String Ray, the Corvette’s second generation, debuted in late 1962, making 1963 its first model year.
Not all the vehicles in the museum’s collection are muscle cars or replicas of famous vehicles. In a room of its own you will find a 1975 Volkswagen Minibus that was built in Brazil. Containing twenty-three windows, it’s a perfect match for the vehicle favored by Hippies. Originally conceived by Dutch importer Ben Pon back in 1947, the first Minibus went in production in 1950. It was built upon a Type 1 Beetle chassis. Like the Beetle, it had an air-cooled engine and a rear wheel drive. Versatile, it was a popular low cost type of transportation that could be repurposed for other things such as a camper a school bus. When all its seats were in place, it could transport eight people, although the ride was by no means comfortable.
Many consider this vehicle a deathtrap. It often oversteered because most of its weight was in its back end. If you hit something head on, there was nothing between you and the object impacted other than a flimsy sheet of metal. The headlights would also jam into your legs. There were no seatbelts, its brakes were insufficient, and you were lucky to get up to 59 MPH. It also had a tendency to tip over.
VW stopped selling the Minibus in the United States at the end of the 1970s because it didn’t meet new safety and emissions standards. Production continued abroad, and the last one rolled off a Brazilian assembly line in 2013. Minibuses still can be seen on U.S. roads, and in the summer I see one where I live. But unless you’re professional stunt driver, it’s probably best not to use one as your daily vehicle.🕜