Savoy Automobile Museum’s New Woodie Wagon Exhibit Runs Through August
The Savoy Automobile Museum's new temporary "WOOD You Believe It?!" exhibit features rare wood-bodied vehicles from the Savoy Collection...
Savoy Automobile Museum announced the opening of its new temporary exhibit, “WOOD You Believe It?!”
It’s been decades since U.S. automakers sold real wood-bodied cars. Gleaming Ford woodie wagons, massive Chrysler Town & Country convertibles and elegant Packard Station Sedans remain an anachronism to their contemporary metal cars, a beautifully finished piece of fine furniture on wheels, museum officials stated in a press release. Everywhere you look on a woodie, there’s much to admire, like russet mahogany panels; honey-toned, birds-eye maple body framing; intricate finger joints; piano-hinged doors; and slatted wood headliners under burnished, tightly tacked boot topping.
Unlike simulated wood-paneled 1970s-era Ford Country Squires and steel-bodied Buick Roadmasters, real woodies are scarce because they required careful attention, much like a classic wooden boat. A three-season vehicle, typically the province of the very wealthy, woodies hauled weekenders to the Hamptons and along Philadelphia’s Main Line, noted the release. North of Boston, in posh “summer cottage” enclaves like Beverly Farms, they were called “beach wagons.”
Usually, the most expensive model in an automaker’s lineup, woodies served as class-crashing Country Club carryalls. Hollywood headliners like Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, and lesser luminaries like Hopalong Cassidy, Walter Pidgeon and Gene Autry all owned woodies. And a generation of primo California surfers snapped up used woodies in their last stages of roadability.
Now through August 2, 2026, the following vehicles from the Savoy Collection will be on display:
- 1930 Ford Model A, Savoy Collection
- 1939 Bantam Model 60, Savoy Collection
- 1941 Packard 1901 One-Twenty, Savoy Collection
- 1946 Mercury 69M, Savoy Collection
- 1947 Nash Ambassador Series 60, Savoy Collection
- 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline Aerosedan, Savoy Collection
- 1948 Chrysler Windsor Town & Country, Savoy Collection
- 1948 Packard Standard Eight, Savoy Collection
- 1950 Packard Standard Eight, Savoy Collection
- 1951 Crosley Super, Savoy Collection
- 1953 Ford Crestline Country Squire, Savoy Collection
- 2003 Club Car DS Electric, Savoy Collection
