The Horsepower Hall of Fame

Honoring the Immortals of Horsepower and Selling Some Great Stuff
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel Detroit Bureau

You know, I’m pretty well connected and involved with the collector car community and the automotive art world but I did not know until this week about a fascinating resource less than an hour’s drive from me here in Mid Michigan. “We learn something new every day,” we’re fond of saying. Well, today we discovered and explored the Horsepower Hall of Fame in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

Just a short distance from the famous Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club, (about an hour north of downtown Detroit) where the PGA hosts the Buick Open, is a large house, or small commercial building. It’s hard to categorize it. It looks sort of like a big house that was added onto to make a large banquet hall. It’s clean, new and inviting. A small marquee out front has my name on it. “Welcome Steve Purdy,” it says. “Nice touch,” I say to the young PR guy,

My accomplice, Joe, and I met in the main hall of the facility with creator, owner and benefactor, Jack “Doc” Watson, who entertained us with story after story of the glory days of horsepower. Around us were special cars - a Hurst/Olds and a sexy black ’57 Chevy fuelie, for example - and a lot of art, books, memorabilia and displays honoring inductees. Here’s a fellow that has been right in the middle of all the action since the 60s and never threw anything away. One story led to another, and another, and another.

Doc Watson began his career with the famous Hurst Performance company, purveyor of high performance shifters, without which no performance car was complete in the early days. He became George Hurst’s go-to guy for special projects, including trucking around the country with a trailer full of tools and shifters, fixing, selling and promoting Hurst Shifters. He designed and built special racecars - like Hurst’s Harry Oldsmobile, a wild, two-engined, 4-wheel-drive, exhibition dragster built to create drag racing awareness along with the famous Hemi Under Glass Baracuda - for the OEMs when racing was publicly frowned upon. And, he was a co-inventor of the Jaws of Life rescue tool as well as the creator of the Hurst/Olds vehicle program that has created legendary collectibles. He seems to know everyone who is anyone in the muscle car era.

The Horsepower Hall of Fame and its accompanying Web site honor not only those who designed, built and raced cars but those who recorded those efforts as well. Journalists and artists are part of the mix. In fact, you’ll see featured more than 50 artists for whom automobiles are a central theme and dozens of authors whose works chronicle our lust for automobiles and horsepower. Many of the artists are the very ones you’ll see at Meadow Brook and Pebble Beach, members of the Automotive Fine Art Society, like Ken Dallison, Bill Couch, Jr., Camilo Pardo, Ken Eberts and Jason Bliss.

While the Horsepower Hall of Fame is not open to the public on a daily basis, everyone is welcome. One just needs to call to make arrangements for a visit. It is also a popular place for groups who are involved in the industry or just love automobiles to have meetings. Phone: 810-695-9200.

Whatever your automotive interest you’re likely to find art, books and memorabilia to egg you on. Go to their site and browse around. You’ll love it.