Hoods up, ride-alongs for ‘car-guy’ dads at museums

The Father’s Day celebration runs from June 14-23 at the LeMay- America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, with the fifth annual Hoods Up for Father’s Day event. Hoods will be up on 100 vehicles to showcase engines.

Hoods will also be up on cars June 18-19 at the America on Wheels Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The museum will offer free admission to dads with the purchase of an adult ticket.

The California Automobile Museum in Sacramento, California, celebrates with free rides in classic cars from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Father’s Day, when Dads and Granddads get free admission.

Father’s Day also marks the 10th annual Blackhawk Museums Father’s Day Car Show. Located in Danville, California, the show is open to collectible, rod, classic, or muscle cars, or dads can just bring their favorite ride. Car entrants receive free admission to the museum and a swag bag. A Father’s Day champagne brunch will be available inside the museum.

Also, free admission with one paid admission is offered at the Simeone Museum in Philadelphia while the NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, offers gift certificates for Father’s Day that can be redeemed for touring laps in your own car, hot-lap rides in one of the track’s Z06 Corvettes, or applied toward the high-performance driving school.

Car shows (with and without coffee):

This weekend, June 11-12, the British Motor Museum hosts its ninth Classic and Vintage Commercial Show featuring more than 400 vehicles built before 1997.

The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, holds its annual CARnival Car Show on June 18. Participation is open to all makes, models and years while the featured class consists of early SUV’s. Participants can also tour the museums “super-secret collection storage” building and take rides in an antique car.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana, holds Cars and Coffee on June 26 at the museum’s education and exhibit plaza.

The Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, plans Cars and Coffees for August 27 and October 15.

The National Corvette Museum celebrates its 22nd anniversary in conjunction with “R8C Museum Delivery” over Labor Day weekend. The anniversary and R8C include car shows, seminars, road tours, and the Corvette Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Bob Bondurant, Ralph Kramer, and the late Donna Mae Mims will be inducted.

The California Automobile Museum hosts “Cruise Fest on Fulton Avenue” on September 10.

And it’s not just cars:

The California Ag Museum in Woodland holds its “Tractors and Brews” fundraise June 16, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

June 18-19, the National Corvette Museum hosts a live feed of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in the museum theater with live timing and scoring along with refreshments and hourly updates from the Corvette race team. Registration is $100.

The Petersen Museum in Los Angeles has partnered with Michelin, Microsoft and Ford to launch the Forza Motorsport Membership Pass for the viewing of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 18. During the viewing, three-person teams will be able to compete in a three-hour endurance race in the Ford GT on the museum’s Forza Motorsport 6 simulators.

The Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio, hosts the Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance and its 4th annual FIRST Robotics Day on June 20.

The LeMay- Americas Car Museum will show E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial on June 25 as part of its drive-in movie series on the Haub Family Field. Parking for the show starts at 4:30 p.m. and the movie starts at dusk. The event is free but does not include Museum admission.

The World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville, Oregon, offers a “simulator race series” with the simulator set in Damage mode, meaning cars will behave and sustain injury as in real driving. Participants get a practice run and qualifying run June 30, July 28, August 25, and September 29 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Drivers with top qualifying race times advance to the finals on October 27.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum offers discounted admission to those who drive their classic cars to the museum on July 10 in celebration of Collector Car Appreciation Day.

October 21-22, the Simeone Museum hosts Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan and two-time Le Mans-winning driver Tommy Milner for a two-day celebration dedicated to Corvette Racing. Highlights include dinner, a meet and greet, Demo Day, memorabilia auction, and autograph session.

Educational opportunities:

Saturday, the Simeone Museum holds a themed demo day celebrating Ford’s Le Mans win 50 years ago by showing a 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II and a 1967 Ford Mk IV.

Also this Saturday, the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, offers Model T Ford driving classes. from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 1:30  to 4:30 p.m. The LeMay Marymount in Tacoma, Washington, features a Model T driving class July 9.

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Museum’s series of monthly “Sprint Car 101 forums” will be held at the museum in Knoxville, Iowa, on June 11 and July 16.

The next Science Saturday at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, is this weekend, focusing on “Roving Mars.”

On June 11, the Petersen museum holds a Lamborghini cruise-in followed by an unveiling and panel discussion. The cruise-in runs from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. followed by the reveal of the Lamborghini Centenario at 9:45 a.m. and panel discussion.

Sunday, the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum hosts its montly series, “if these cars could talk,” featuring a 1938 Packard 12 Convertible Victoria. The presentation begins at noon.

June 21, the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, opens  the hoods on some of the museum’s significant French automobiles, including the 1934 Bugatti Type 54, 1935 Hispano-Suiza J12, 1938 Delahaye 145 Coupe and 1902 Panhard et Levassor B1 Rear-Entrance Tonneau. The hoods-up event is set to run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bobby Rahal, winner of the 1986 Indy 500 and the first Indy driver to complete the 500 miles in less than three hours, is slated to appear at the Blackhawk Museum on November 12 as part of the museums Speaker Series.

Exhibits:

On June 18, the Kansas City Auto Museum showcases an invitational car exhibit from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Exhibit highlights include free admission, a raffle, silent auction, and ride-alongs in vintage cars.

The World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville, Oregon, celebrates the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 with its first major exhibit, which opens today, June 10, showcasing 33 Indy racing cars, including Mario Andretti’s 1981 STP car, Al Unser Sr.’s 1967 car and Al Unser Jr.’s 1984 car. The exhibit will include memorabilia from some of the Pacific Northwest’s greatest drivers and car engineers, including Art Pollard, Len Sutton, Rolla Volstedt and Parker Johnstone. Suits, helmets, shoes, gloves, models and photos will be featured, along with World of Speed’s complete collection of Indianapolis 500 race programs.

The National Corvette Museum also features an IndyCar exhibit in celebration of the 100^th running of the Indy 500. Held in the museum’s exhibit hall, the display will feature a number of IndyCars through the years and is set to run from today, June 10, through October 14, 2016.

The AACA Museum has a new exhibit, “Early Off-Roaders,” set to run through October 15. The exhibit celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Ford Bronco in addition to the 75th anniversary of the Jeep.

Running through September 11, the California Automobile Museum features “The Pickup Truck: Where utility meets the everyday.” The new exhibit looks at the transition of the American pickup truck from a work vehicle to a personal vehicle with examples from the 1920s through modern day.