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History purrs at WMM with curator Alton Freeman

Alton Freeman rattles off intricate details about great American muscle cars like a true Chrysler man, but he claims he isn’t one. Instead, he’s a General Motors man, said Freeman, who has managed Alexander City’s energy-charged auto museum for more than five years now. He didn’t know much about the Dodge dynasty when, at age 64, Freeman passed Tim Wellborn’s test and was hired to reopen and operate the iconic Broad Street showroom at Wellborn Musclecar Museum, but he hung on Wellborn’s every word and read whatever he could get his hands on. Today, Freeman is a true curator, pouring over technical specifications to authenticate vehicles, cataloging and maintaining each vehicle’s unique components and creating awe-inspiring visitor experiences through tours of the museum floor.

Freeman retired from military service with the U.S. Army and was working in security before a mutual acquaintance mentioned that Wellborn was looking for someone to help him reopen the museum he had founded in 2010. Wellborn closed the museum in 2016, following the death of his longtime friend and the museum curator, Phillip Love. When he was ready to reopen, he needed a curator.

A friend referred him to Freeman, and Wellborn offered the General Motors man a chance to show what he could do: He asked him to detail a Jeep.

“A Jeep!” Freeman laughed. “What was I supposed to do with a Jeep?”

Freeman tells that story in a Lake Martin Living magazine video at lakemagazine.life/lakemartinliving but said he got the job because he took an extra step when he was offered an opportunity.

“When you think you went as far as you can go, make one more step, and you’ll be surprised what it will do for you,” Freeman said. “If I had just washed that Jeep and set it out there, I wouldn’t be Curating History talking to you, but I went Facing Page: Alton that extra step and showed Freeman became curator what I could do. That’s how I got this job.” Still, being a GM man, Freeman didn’t know the at Wellborn Musclecar Museum because he took an extra step in showing what he could do; Above: He maintains each of the historical details of the iconic automobiles in the Chrysler MOPARs that collection in running order drove Wellborn to collect and knows the history of more than 80 significant each car in museum. representatives of the brand and become one of the world’s foremost muscle car collectors.

Chrysler was not a good quality, big-name automaker in the 1960s, Freeman said, and the company made only limited numbers of each model, depending on how many leftover parts they had on hand from previous projects. The company specialized in stock cars.

“That meant that the cars would race on Sunday, and on Monday, you could go to the dealership and buy the same car that you had watched in the race. It was a car that the dealer had in stock,” Freeman explained. “People bought these cars, so they could cruise down the street and go to the Dairy Queen and find someone to race with them.”

Wellborn was dedicated to the Chrysler because it was the car he had dreamed of owning as a young boy riding in the back seat of his father’s 1971 Tawny Gold Charger. Freeman knew he had a lot to learn.

“I would get with Tim and ask him questions about the cars; and then, when I had to do it on my own, I read everything I could find. I researched everything about these cars,” Freeman said. “When I had to give Tim a tour one day, we stood in the lobby with these two Cudas, a 1970 and a 1971, and I told him all about those cars: How

the gills were on the trim in the ’70, but in ’71, they moved the gills up to the side. And how the backup lights were in the taillights on the ’70, but they set them to the side of the taillights in the ’71. And the stripe on the ’70 was the hockey stick, but in ’71, they changed it to a billboard stripe, and they built 109 of them – 108 with a black billboard and one oddball that was made with a white billboard.

“Tim just stood there and listened, and when I was finished talking, he said I had told him things that even he didn’t know.”

Freeman learned everything he could about the cars in Wellborn’s collection through the manufacturer’s records and the stories of the cars’ previous owners. And it’s the stories he shares on museum tours that bring the cruise-in-a-musclecar era alive for museum visitors.

Caring for Wellborn’s cars is a passion for Freeman. His eyes light up and he talks faster 27 Colors, Cops and Changes Clockwise from Top: The Cuda was available in when he’s explaining the 27 colors, but only 25 are intricate included on the Paint details and Code wrapped car; The nuances of State police bought a muscle car for chasing down other muscle cars; The gills were moved to the side on the '71 model; And backup lights any of the vehicles on the museum’s showroom were integrated into the floor. And tailllights in the '70 car. he feels he

can’t say ‘thank you’ often enough to Tim Wellborn and his wife, Pam, for giving him the opportunity to curate the gift of their museum to the community and to tell the stories of one of the country’s classic automobile eras.

When Freeman accompanied the famed 1970 Grand National Champion K&K Insurance car to an event at Huntsville’s Space and Rocket Center, he learned how the car’s designers managed to break Ford’s seven-year win record. The car had been configured with the help of an aerospace engineer, and Freeman’s eyes were opened when engineers at the center explained the effects of certain liberties that were taken with the car’s construction.

“They made an air tunnel,” Freeman said, pointing out the innovative air intake positioned below the grill. “This would drop down, so no air could get under the car and lift it up.”

He opened the hood to display an interior shield over part of the engine compartment.

“This channeled the air to the engine,” he explained.

The fender vents were positioned to draw air up through the engine, keeping it cool as the car ran 200 miles per hour or more down the track.

Freeman said that the aerospace design also included a tall spoiler at the back of the car, presumably to provide access to the trunk.

“Now, why would a driver in a race need access to the car’s trunk?” he asked. “That wasn’t the real reason. The real reason is that the spoiler is an upside down airplane wing that could adjust the airflow, increase stability and reduce resistance.”

The reason the 1970 Plymouth Superbird on the next aisle is valued at $400,000 can be found in the engine compartment, Freeman said, but it has nothing to do with performance or the car’s race record. It’s the drivers’ signatures on the underside of the hood. Bobby Allison signed the car in 1992. Bobby Unser’s signature is there, too, among others.

Around another turn, he pointed out a 1972 Javelin, which Chrysler built for the State police.

“They needed something that could catch the guys in these other cars here,” explained Freeman. The State Department inspects the car every year, but so far, they haven’t given him permission to drive it.

The Hang 10 Dodge was painted with a wave stripe and outfitted A World Renowned Collection Top to Bottom: The extensive collection includes Richard with shag carpet, he said. In an effort to entice Petty's No. 43 car; Tim Wellborn's California’s surf collection includes more than crowd to buy a 80 vehicles and rivals any other car, every Hang collection of its kind in the 10 came with a world; The intrinsic value of this Superbird is under the hood - in the race car drivers' autographs; The cars, with their hockey stick stripes and Hemi motors, were surfboard that was painted to match the vehicle. The 1969 known to cruise city streets in Dodge Hemi, search of a race. once owned by

late Green Bay Packer Kevin Green, will be displayed as a tribute to the ballplayer, who was a friend of Wellborn’s.

In the garage, Freeman’s work-in-progress was the verification of the original, unrestored status of a recently acquired Charger.

“You cannot clone a Chrysler product. There are numbers engraved on a plate in the engine compartment, and each of the numbers corresponds with a number on a part in the car. Every part has a number, and you have to go through and check each number and make sure it is the same. If any part has been replaced and the numbers don’t match, you know it’s not original, unrestored,” he said.

“One day, I told Tim that the sign on the front of the building was not right. It says ‘musclecar,’ but all that was in here was MOPAR. Other manufacturers made muscle cars, too. So we brought some General Motors cars into the collection,” he added with a smile.

A silver Corvette Yenko, a 1970 Cutlass, the 1970 Pontiac – the Judge – a Chevelle that Wellborn sold in 2016 and bought back in 2018, and other GM muscle car models joined the treasury of automobile history in the building that housed Alexander City’s Chevrolet dealership in the 1940s.

Freeman has many more stories to tell, and visitors are encouraged to browse the display of vehicles and hear those stories on Oct. 2 when the museum hosts the ’70-’71 MOPAR Reunion. More than 200 cars will be on display in downtown Alexander City, each with a story as unique as the car itself. Admission to the 50th-anniversary event next month is free, and the Taking Liberties public is invited, Freeman The 1970 Grand National said. Champion K&K Insurance “This is really a great thing Tim has done for this community, to put these cars on display and car was able to close Ford's seven-year winning streak because of the aerospace technology applied by designers, let people come in and including an innovative see them and learn about wind tunnel to cool the this part of history. He engine. doesn’t have to do that, but he invites people to just come in and walk around. It’s a nice thing for him to do,” Freeman said. “I just appreciate that Tim and Pam gave me a chance to be part of it. I just want to thank them for allowing me to do this.”

Call 256-329-8474 to book a tour with Freeman and hear the real-life stories about these cars that shaped a generation – even if most of them are Chryslers and he is, after all, a GM man.

Wellborn Musclecar Museum on Broad Street in Alexander City is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment Tuesdays through Friday.