Video: Time Travel in Style in Tupelo

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) –America has always had a love affair with the automobile and Tupelo has a place you can relive the glory days of the car.

“Once he got that bug he just kept collecting them, and realized he had a few more cars than most people”

That understatement is now an undertaking to grow one of the best car collections in the nation at the Tupelo Automobile Museum. The late Frank Spain is the man whose hobby became a passion one that relied less on flash and more on function

“He wanted to not only discover to all the different design elements and mechanical elements but also wanted to make sure that every purchase would be not common but rare enough that people would enjoy seeing them”

The museum opened in 2002 and was the cornerstone of Tupelo’s downtown rebirth. The museums reputation is growing across the country with glowing reviews from Tripadvisor and other travel focused groups. Jane Spain loves the praise from the professionals but thrives on the one on one reactions

“Now it has an entirely different feel people who come here and visit us comment on how vibrant and progressive Tupelo seems. They don’t expect that I guess in this part of the country; it just continues to grow.”

This Lincoln fulfills the almost mandatory homage to Elvis but it’s cars from another Mississippi musician that are rapidly becoming crowd pleasers

“We have you would expect a Rolls Royce, but an amazing El Camino, that just somehow tells you more about B.B. King than you might have known. The little “b” notes on the side of the door, that’s been popular”

One way to keep the museum relevant is the strategy of bringing in different exhibits about ten times a year to give the patrons a fresh look but at the end of the day the key to success is simple

“What these cars represent are memories for people they are like songs you remember. You see a car from your youth you remember what you were doing who you were with.”

Spain says one of the rarest and the most popular car at the museum is the Tucker. That’s the car that inspired a movie but was never commercially available.