GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The GM Futurliner #10 is on its way to Washington, D.C. to officially become part of automotive history when it will be inducted into the recently created National Register of Historic Vehicles.
The red and silver vehicle, one of 12 built by General Motors Corp. in the 1940s to promote the company’s vision of the future, was restored in West Michigan by a crew of 30 volunteers between 1998 and 2005. Since then, it has toured auto shows from Canada to Florida and New York to California.
Fred Hoffman, a volunteer who has hauled the Futurliner to car shows around the country, plans to pull the Futurliner out of its garage on Grand Rapids’ West Side early Saturday, Nov. 8, and arrive in Washington, D.C. some 13½ hours later.
Although it is fully restored and drivable, the Futurliner rides on the back of a custom semi-trailer these days. The 33,000-pound vehicle faces backward lest a bird or stone damage its windshield, which cost about $10,000 to reproduce.
The tires, copies of the originals with GM’s “Parade of Progress” logo, are one-of-a-kind that costs thousands to reproduce.
A similarly restored Futurliner sold for $4 million at auction several years ago. Adding Futurliner #10 to the National Register will give it rare status that only a handful of vehicles have achieved.
The Historic Vehicle Association (HVA) is developing a permanent archive of significant historic vehicles within the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and a separate, newly created National Historic Vehicle Register, through a collaboration with the US Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Heritage Documentation Programs and the Library of Congress, according to George Ferris, a local car historian.
While at the nation's capital, the Futurliner also will appear in the Washington Auto Show in late January and the "Cars At The Capitol" show in late January, Ferris said.
For the volunteers who restored the Futurliner over six years in Paul Maynton's pole barn near Zeeland, the designation confirms the work they put in to restore the rusted hulk they found in a junk yard in southeast Michigan in 1998
“Actually, what happened is we saved a piece of history,” said Ed DeVries, one of the volunteer restorers who kept the Futurliner in his garage when it wasn’t being shown.
Hauling the Futurliner to Washington will be a familiar and weighty responsibility for Hoffman, an employee of Star Truck Rentals who will make the trip with co-pilot Paul Harrigan. He’s been the official driver for the Futurliner for the past 11 years.
While he’s confident of the equipment, the attention they attract along the road can be unnerving, Hoffman said. Drivers will pull alongside them on the freeway to take cell phone pictures. Some will motion them over to the next lane in hopes of getting a better angles, he said.
At rest stops, the trailer quickly draws a crowd, Hoffman says. After the inevitable “What is it?” question, the onlookers want to know where they’re headed, says Hoffman, who keeps a box of pamphlets handy to explain its history and restoration story.
After the visit to Washington, the Futurliner will be hauled to its new permanent home at the National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States in Auburn, Ind.
The museum, which owns the Futurliner, recently expanded to make room for the 33-foot-long Futurliner, Hoffman said. “They now have a door that’s big enough,” he said with a chuckle.
RELATED: Click here to visit the website for the Futurliner
Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.