If you love muscle cars like I do, then get ready to have your “pistons blown off” at Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum.   Floyd Garrett is a nationally known muscle car expert with over 40 years of hands on experience with these high performance vehicles.  When it comes to answering questions about muscle cars, he probably knows the answer.

Floyd Garrett built up a highly successful trucking company that hauled wood chips from local lumberyards to paper mills in Fernandina Beach, Florida.  Once he was financially secure, he started collecting vintage muscle cars that he loved from his youth.  He focused on the rare and unusual, starting with the first car in his collection, a black 1970 Chevelle that he bought in 1975.

As Floyd's collection of muscle cars grew, he wanted to share his love of these high performance machines with the public.  Eventually he moved to Tennessee and after collecting a number of muscle cars through the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, he opened Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum on April 26^th, 1996.  The museum is located in Sevierville,  Tennessee in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Floyd's collection has grown to over 90 cars that are worth over $7 million.  Besides muscle cars, there are also cars of beauty, distinction, and style from the ‘40s and ‘50s. 

The museum is Nirvana for anyone who loves American muscle cars.  It is definitely one of the finest collections of such vehicles anywhere.  The museum has rare cars, early drag cars, factory race cars, and even some celebrity owned cars which all make for a fascinating collection.  The first automobile that you'll encounter as you enter the museum is Elvis Presley's first limo, a 1960 Lincoln.  The cost for the limo new was a whopping $10,544!

But muscle cars are Floyd Garrett's true love and passion.  Some of the cars in the museum are vehicles that most of us have only read about in magazines.  Among them are a 1971 Cuda convertible, a 1969 ZL1 Camaro, a 1971 Dodge 440 Superbee, a 1962 409, and a 1969 Boss 429 Mustang.

1962 Chevy Impala 409

1971 Dodge 440 Superbee

1971 Cuda Convertible

In addition to the breath taking vehicles on display, the museum also includes a display of rare racing engines, a collection of racing memorabilia, and a gift shop with various souvenirs for automobile junkies.  Touring the museum will take about 45 minutes to an hour for visitors to take everything in.  Floyd owns many of the cars in the museum but the majority of classic vehicles are on loan from other car collectors.  All automobiles have been restored to immaculate, running condition.

The museum is also home to a couple of ‘60s-era Pontiac drag cars, as well.  One of the classics is a “Swiss cheese” 1963 Catalina two door Sedan.  There is also a an amazing black '62 Super Duty 421 lightweight that was campaigned in the early ‘60s by dealer Ted Ware Pontiac. 

If you love race cars from yesteryear, Garrett's museum has some of these, too.  There is Dyno Don Nicholson's '65 Comet A/FX car and early NASCAR is represented by an unusual 1957 Chevy convertible originally driven by Joe Lee Johnson, winner of NASCAR’s 1959 National Convertible Championship.

There is something for everyone with more than 90 ground-pounding, fire-breathing examples of human engineering.  The museum is open all year except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from April to December and and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from January to March.  Adults tickets are $9.75, ages 8 to 12 are $4.00, and under 8 years old is no charge (taxes not included).  The museum is located at 320 Winfield Dunn Parkway in Sevierville, Tennessee. 

By Carson Honaker

Carson is a computer engineer and personal trainer as well as a freelance writer.

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