1929

McKee Foods is best known for its Little Debbie snack cakes, and it's truly a pleasure to share real estate here in the Tennessee Valley with such an excellent company. They are located just up the road from us in Collegedale, Tennessee, and we recently struck a deal with them to display a very special car in our museum. It is a 1928 Whippet 6, a low-priced sedan that was manufactured by Willys-Overland for only a few years. Although it is quite rare to see a Whippet these days, they were not all that desirable in comparison to the Ford Model A of the same era. McKee Foods founder, O.D. McKee bought a 1928 Whippet sedan in 1931 to serve as a delivery vehicle for his bakery. He removed the rear seat and sold 5-cent snack cakes out of the back of the sedan. Fast forward nearly 30 years and McKee Foods is approaching its major turning point, when O.D. McKee's son, Ellsworth, created the "family pack" of Little Debbie snack cakes. As the company continued to succeed and grow, O.D. wanted to

If you've been to our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, then you've probably been to the museum. Inside the museum, we have a vintage airplane--a 1929 Mystic Lake to be exact. We bought it a few years ago, and hung it from the rafters. Originally, the experimental aircraft had a Henderson motorcycle engine, but it was later swapped for a 65hp Lycoming engine.

There's nothing like a good ole road trip with a few buddies, especially if you're behind the wheel of a vintage car! It's certainly an adventure, with the lack of technology, and the lack of horsepower, compared to our modern vehicles, but it's a lot of fun. A group of diehard Model A enthusiasts formed the "Crankin' A's of Daytona" club and they love having fun with old cars. They set out from Daytona Beach, Florida on October 16th, heading north, and they happened to stop by our place yesterday afternoon for a visit. [caption id="attachment_2243" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="The Crankin' A's of Daytona invade Coker Tire!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2244" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Two coupes, a Tudor, a Fordor and a Delivery...these guys have some cool cars!"][/caption] Our resident tour guide extraordinaire, Raime took the group through the Coker Tire facility, showing them our lobby, machine shop, service center and museum along the way. One of the guys even bought a set of tires while he was here, so we definitely appreciate that! These guys really know how to have fun with their vintage Fords, and we love seeing these long haulers because that means they're wearing out TIRES!!! We hope they come back and visit us again, but for now, let's take a look at their cars!