Chevrolet dealer, Corvette collector opens museum in Ohio

Source: Hemmings Daily Blog

(July 9, 2014) Corvette collector and long-time Chevrolet dealer Bob McDorman has opened the Bob McDorman Automotive Museum in Canal Winchester, Ohio, southeast of Columbus.

“I wanted to have it ready for my retirement from the dealership,” McDorman said of the museum that he announced two years ago at his induction into the Corvette Hall of Fame. “I’ve got about 14 months until my 50th anniversary as a dealer, and then I’ll be done at the dealership after that.”

McDorman, 82, said he’s been collecting cars since before he bought the dealership in 1965 and moved it to its current location in 1968. He also sold a number of collector cars at auction — once in 2005 and again in 2007 — before the headline-making all-no-reserve 2010 sale of 160 cars, parts, and automobilia that netted $7 million, which he said was necessary to keep the dealership running. In 2011 he sold a majority of his dealership, though he plans to keep a 15 percent stake through 2015.

The new museum has enough space for about 50 cars, McDorman said, and while visitors at the grand opening on Friday saw 38, McDorman said he has another dozen to fill it.

The museum isn’t just Corvettes, either, with an assortment of Chevrolet cars and trucks and other GM vehicles inside, including cars as old as a 1936 Chevrolet coupe with dual sidemounts and as new as the sixth-generation Corvette. Perhaps the highlight of the museum is McDorman’s 1953 GM trifects — a Cadillac Eldorado, a Buick Skylark, and an Oldsmobile Fiesta — accompanied by a 1953 Corvette.

McDorman said the museum is not a non-profit museum, but he hopes only that he can get his expenses out of it and maybe turn a little profit. He told the Canal Winchester Times that he plans to keep a few cars on consignment in the collection. “If I sell anything out of my collection, it’ll be so I can buy something of the same year but rarer,” he said.

McDorman said more than a thousand people visited the museum at its grand opening last week. The future hours of operation will be Wednesday thru Saturday 1p.m. to 5p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for Military and Seniors 65 and older, children 12 and younger free.

For more information on the museum visit Facebook.com/BobMcDormanMuseum.

Photos courtesy Bob McDorman Automotive Museum