News Room

Hershey, PA (November 27, 2012)  As Santa gets ready for the busy Christmas season, the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Museum must be on the “Nice” list this year as an early “gift” arrived this week just in time of the holiday season.    An Anonymous collector has donated a 1986 Rolls Royce Silver Spur factory Limousine to the Museum’s collections.   This particular Rolls-Royce was owned by famed music icon, the late Whitney Houston.   Houston was one of the most successful singers of all time having been nominated and winning several Grammy Awards including her first as Best Pop Vocal Performance, female in 1986 for “Saving All My Love For you” and again in 1988 for “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” then again in 1994 for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best pop Vocal Performance, Female for the original Bodyguard Soundtrack and “I Will Always Love You”.  Whitney Houston, often referred to as “The Rolls-Royce of soul voices”, purchased this car through her publishing company Nippy, Inc. and used it extensively for her daily activities for a number of years.  Among the cars features is a division window, TV/VCR, and a wet bar with crystal glasses.

In 1980, Rolls-Royce introduced two new cars to their line-up:  The Silver Spirit and the long-wheelbase version Silver Spur.   Although the bodies were completely new, the chassis was essentially identical to the previous Silver Shadow but with a new self-leveling suspension.  The factory offered even longer limousine versions of the Silver Spur such as this car.  The base price of this vehicle was $198,000 in 1986 and it was produced with a 6,750 cc V8 engine by Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd. of Crewe, England.

This Rolls-Royce takes its place in the AACA Museum along with several other vehicles with a celebrity heritage that are part of the Museum’s permanent displays: Betty White’s 1977 Cadillac Seville, The Lakeland Bus used in the award winning Forrest Gump Movie, and several vehicles used in the filming of The Good Shepherd and the series Boardwalk Empire.  Herbie the Love Bug from Herbie Rides Again is also on loan to the AACA Museum through the holiday season along with a1928 Ford pickup truck featuring every cartoon character from 1896–the present.

Looking for a unique holiday gift?  This particular vehicle is available for adoption.   The AACA Museum offers an adopt-a-car-program where individuals or organizations can contribute $500 (tax deductible) to help maintain the costs related to cars in the collection – insurance, any required mechanical work, detailing supplies, etc. to adopt-a-car for the year.   Adopting a vehicle helps the Museum, a 501 (c) 3 organization, to maintain the vehicles in the collection and provides contributors with the ability to have their name publicly associated with that display vehicle throughout the year along with year-round museum membership and complimentary guest passes.   Many vehicles are available for adoption including this new addition to our collections.

This is now on display at the AACA Museum and will be throughout the holidays.   The Museum’s holiday celebration includes more than 25 decorated holiday trees with themes ranging from a Snowman Tree to a Pez dispenser tree and everything in between.  Our display of vehicles includes several model train displays running daily through January 6th as well as the more traditional vehicles you might want for under your tree – Segways, motorcycles, hot rods, pedal cars and more.    Kids love Sammy the 29 ton Snowplow, the Great Grinch Escape scavenger hunt, and our interactive kids’ area.   Toys, Trees, Trains and tons of holiday fun await you at the AACA Museum this holiday season!

The Antique Automobile Club of America Museum, a member of the Smithsonian Institute Affiliations Program, displays beautifully restored automobiles, buses and motorcycles in unique life-like scenes representing the 1900’s – 1970’s in a cross-country journey from New York to San Francisco.   The AACA Museum, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, is one of the nation’s newest and largest automotive museums.  Special exhibits change several times a year and focus on a variety of eras and types of vehicles.  The AACA Museum is located just off Route 39, one mile west of Hersheypark Drive in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Regular admission $10, seniors age 61 and older $9, juniors age 4-12 $7, children age 3 and under are FREE.  The Museum is open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.   For further information, please call 717-566-7100 or visit www.aacamuseum.org.

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