News

National Packard Museum’s 18th motorcycle exhibit to feature engines

Michelle Liew

January 4, 2018

Photo credits: Thunder Press

The National Packard Museum takes its annual motorcycle exhibit up a notch this year. According to Mary Ann Porinchak, Executive Director of the museum, the theme is ‘a bit of a depature’.

“Instead of featuring a type of bike, we are looking specifically at engines,” said Porinchak as quoted from Vindy. “I got a major education this year.”

The exhibit this year – in its 18^th year- will be titled “The Motor” and takes place on Saturday and runs through May 20. The show will be featuring 30 vintage American, European and Japanese motorcycles built between 1902 and 1978. Nine other different motorcycle motors will also be displayed.

Photo credits: Thunder Press

Among the show-stunners would be the 1902 Sylvester & Jones, 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead and the 1957 Ariel “Square 4” with two crankshafts.

Now in its 18th year, the show will feature 30 vintage American, European and Japanese motorcycles built between 1902 and 1978, along with nine different motorcycle motors.

“It starts around a table with a pitcher of beer,” said Porinchak. “I throw questions out: ‘What is most unusual?’ ‘What is the average person going to want to see?’

Photo credits: Groupon

“The guys who work on this have a wide radius of friends,” she continued. “They put the theme out and start asking questions at meets. Somebody knows somebody who knows somebody. It comes together magically.”

“We always try to feature something different,” she added. “We never did a show on the engine before, and we have some very beautiful and really unusual ones. Motorhead guys will be very happy with it, and our regular visitors will be amazed at the ingenuity that went into them. It’s almost as amazing as a car engine, and maybe more so. They tried a lot of different things over the years. One of them must be 3 feet wide.”

The evolution will also trace the evolution of the motorcycle engine and make a comparison of the old and the new. Stay tuned for updates regarding the event.