Paul Fraughton | Salt Lake Tribune
The Mormon Meteor I, pictured Wednesday, May 23, 2012, in front of the
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, is one of 19 classic cars that will be
featured in an upcoming exhibit at the Salt Lake City museum.
Workers
unload artwork from trucks at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on a regular
basis, and people on the surrounding University of Utah campus take
little notice.
Most of the artwork, though, doesn’t weigh 2
tons. It also doesn’t roar like the engine inside the Mormon Meteor I,
the 1935 Duesenberg SJ in which Ab Jenkins set early speed records on
the Bonneville Salt Flats.
That car and 18 other classic automobiles were unloaded this week at UMFA, where they will make up a new exhibit, "Speed: The Art of the Performance Automobile," on the museum’s first floor starting Saturday.
Unloading the Mormon Meteor I drew more than a
dozen spectators on Wednesday morning, with people snapping photos on
their camera phones of the pale-yellow torpedo with Jenkins’ signature
and the block-letter "DUESENBERG" name in gleaming chrome.
It’s not a new idea to put cars in a museum
setting, said Ken Gross, guest curator of the exhibit, who notes that
the Museum of Modern Art in New York had an automotive display in 1951.
Gross and his team handle the cars like fine
art, wearing white gloves to keep the vehicles as immaculate as
possible. But it’s these artworks’ bulk that can make the logistics a
challenge.
The corridors of the Marcia & John Price
Building, which UMFA calls home, were just a bit wider than the widest
car in the show, "The Beast III," the 1952 streamliner built by Chet
Herbert. What’s more, "The Beast" has its wheels almost completely
enveloped by the car’s aerodynamic body, and very few surfaces where
someone can place a hand to push. Ultimately, Gross had to get into the
driver’s seat and steer the massive car himself.
To move the Mormon Meteor I, John Carefoot —
who curates the private car collection of the Meteor’s owner, Ohio
banker Harry Yeaggy — discussed with Gross and Webb Farrar, the
"automotive exhibition consultant" overseeing the exhibit’s staging,
about where workers can and cannot push the car. The windshield supports
are too delicate to push, while the massive chrome exhaust pipe that
runs down the Meteor’s right side will be too hot to touch.
Carefoot climbed into the driver’s seat and
revved the engine, sending up a loud roar and a belch of exhaust. He
then slowly drove the car toward the museum’s double doors, with Farrar
guiding him in, pointing left or right to make small adjustments. Once
the car crossed the threshold, Carefoot cut off the engine. It would be
moved by hand from there.
Gross said the Meteor I is to be placed
prominently in the exhibit, facing grille-to-grille with the Mormon
Meteor III — on which Jenkins set many records in the 1930s at the
Bonneville Salt Flats, a dozen of which still stand today. Gross said he
was inspired to place the two Meteors facing each other, emblematic of
two other famous vehicles in Utah history: the locomotives No. 119 and
Jupiter that met at the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
The full list of classic cars in the "Speed" exhibit won’t be unveiled until next week, but some of the cars in the show are:
• The 1957 Jaguar XK-SS once owned by movie star Steve McQueen.
• The 1952 So-Cal Speed Shop Belly Tank Lakester, another record-setter at Bonneville.
• A 1965 Cobra Daytona Coupe.
• A Ferrari 375MM once owned by filmmaker Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman.
• A Mercer Raceabout, a racing vehicle made about a century ago.
The cars are owned by collectors and museums
from around the country. Some are owned by Utah businessman and former
ambassador John Price, whose family’s foundation is the exhibit’s title
sponsor.
