Jim and Stacey Weddle Car Collection Visit

The Michiana Brits Fall Tour was a four day adventure, September 17-20, to Springfield, IL via Old Route 66. After a Friday visit to an outstanding Frank Lloyd Wright house and the excellent Lincoln Museum in Springfield, the club headed south on Saturday to explore Old Route 66 to the Mississippi River and to visit the Weddle Car Collection in St. Louis. Eight cars traveled along Old Route 66, and then south of Hamel, IL, six cars headed off to St. Louis while two cars continued along Old Route 66. The convoy of six stayed on local roads as long as possible but then had to hop onto Interstate 70 to get to St. Louis. Although we had to travel Interstates all the way to southwest St. Louis, the traffic wasn't bad and we hit slow moving traffic only once just as we got to the bridge over the Mississippi River. Our group arrived at the Weddle garage to find Jim & Stacy out front to greet each car. After exchanging greetings, we went inside the lobby where we saw an old post-WWII salt flats "Belly Tanker" racing car having a body made out of an aircraft fuel tank. Beyond the lobby is a very comfortable lounge area and office, and today a wonderful buffet lunch was waiting just for the Michiana Brits and some family visitors. But even better was a garage full of classic automobiles of which about half are British, it was as if we had gone on weekend breaks in England, rather than staying in the US. The club wandered about the cars and read the plaques describing each car and its unique history. Finally we broke away from the cars and sat down to a sumptuous hot lunch of pulled pork sandwiches, veggies, desserts and beverages.

After lunch and swapping some stories with Jim, Jim led the guys on a tour of the garage, while the ladies relaxed and chatted in the lounge area.  The first vehicle was a red 1963 Big Tank Corvette.  Only 119 of this model Z-06 were made, of which only 63 had the big 36 gallon fuel tank.  Next was a 1952 Bentley Special right-hand drive race car with a twin-supercharged engine.  This car is a real composite vehicle – it started life as a Mk VI, then was customized with a hand-formed light weight aluminum body and even an “aerodynamic” windshield from an MGB.  Near by are a 1960 blue AC Ace and a green 1970 Chevy SuperSport LS-6.  For fun time, Jim has a large race track for radio controlled minature cars.  The minature cars have a variety of bodies, such as a 60’s Lolas and Cheetahs and more modern Lamborghinis and Porches.  A red Shelby Mustang GT350 was viewed before we got to the red 1937 Auburn 812 Cord which has a pre-select gear shift.  The driver can set the desired gear and then by merely depressing the clutch the car automatically shifts to the pre-selected gear.  A real beauty is the 1970 yellow Ferrari Dino which won first place in its class at the Amelian Island Concours.  Setting next to the Dino is a red 1972 365GTB4 (Daytona) Ferrari and a red 1984 Ferrari GTO.  A green Jaguar XK120 is parked near a blue, unrestored 1963 Jaguar XKE that is in almost like-new condition.  Jim also has the one of four prototypes for the planned successor of the TVR - - a red 1967 Trident Clipper V8.  The Trident has a huge fastback style rear window.  A muscular black 427 Cobra with chrome side pipes and an open-cockpit begs you to hop in and put the pedal to the metal.  Parked next to the black 427 Cobra is a beautiful British racing green, right hand drive, 1952 Allard J2 race car.  Jim and his brother drove the open-cockpit Allard in rain and snow at the 2006 Colorado Grand.   Finally, we looked at a gorgeous black 2007 Ferrari 599.  During the tour, Jim described each of the vehicles in the collection (there are more cars than described above) while the club asked questions and enjoyed the beauty and uniqueness of each vehicle.  Unlike some vehicle collections, each and every vehicle in Jim and Stacey’s collection is driven periodically.

After enjoying the tour and lunch, and snapping as many photos as we could, it was time for the club to head back to Springfield.  Jim and Stacey hopped into the 1952 Bentley Special race car and led the group of six back to and along a portion of the nearby Interstate, to ensure we got headed in the correct direction.  As we were approaching the exit ramp that Jim took to return to the garage, his son-in-law passed our caravan in the Ferrari 599. Jim had fired it up in the garage and the 599 needed some driving to avoid a short-start.

Our trip to St. Louis and visit to the Weddle Car Collection was greatly enjoyed by all of the club members.  Jim and Stacey were wonderful hosts and made everyone feel very welcome and comfortable.  Hopefully Jim and Stacy will be able again to join the Brits at future British car events such as the Mad Dogs & Englishmen Show in Michigan.