Memphis, Tennessee 2) The King’s chariots

Elvis loved cars and mechanical toys of all types, including motorcycles and airplanes.  He had the money to indulge his passions, and you can see many of his favorites right across the street from Graceland.  The Elvis Presley Automobile Museum displays over 20 vehicles owned (or which were once owned) by Elvis.  You can also see two of Elvis’ aircraft.

The collection  of classic cars includes Elvis’ famous Pink Cadillac, several Rolls-Royces, two Stutz Blackhawks, a Mercedes limousine, a Ferrari, and some of Elvis’ smaller motorized toys (go-cart, dune buggy, and so on).  While some of the photos in this blog are my own, I lost an SD card containing many of my images from this museum.  Many of the photos in this post were taken by my brother (Ottoman); I’m grateful that he shared them with us.

Here are some of Elvis’ cars from the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum:  

1) 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood, the pink Cadillac which Elvis bought for his mother, Gladys, and one of the only cars he never sold.

2) 1956 Cadillac ElDorado

3) 1960 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud (first Rolls Elvis owned)

4) 1962 Lincoln Continental

5) 1966 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud

6) 1969 Mercedes Benz 600 Limousine

7) 1970 Mercedes 280 SL Roadster (a gift from Elvis to Priscilla)

8)  1971 Stutz Blackhawk.  The first of Elvis’ beloved Stutz cars.

9) 1973 Stutz Blackhawk (driven by Elvis the night he died….)

10) 1975 Ferrari Dino

11) Assorted Mechanical Toys Elvis like to speed around on.  A number of them were customized to Elvis’ specifications.

12) Elvis’ Jets

A separate exhibit (an additional admission fee), but conceptually the same.  In his early years Elvis drove tens of thousands of miles between performance engagements in cars and buses.  I doubt many of us have spent as much time sleeping in cars as Elvis did in the 1950s).  As air travel improved and he could afford it, it made sense that he would move toward personal jet travel.

There are two planes Elvis owned in Graceland’s collection.  The prize of the collection is the “Lisa Marie” (named by Elvis in honor of his beloved daughter), a Convair 880 jet which he bought for just $250,000 in 1975.  Elvis then spent almost a million dollars upgrading it to his specifications (customized bed and seats, gold bathroom fixtures, great sound system).  It’s interesting to tour this now ancient seeming plane, but which in its day represented the height of luxury. 

A second aircraft is on display, a small jet he bought before the Lisa Marie called “Hound Dog II”.  It is a Lockheed Jet Star and was used in later years mostly by his manager and staff.  Compared to the Lisa Marie, it’s a pretty basic aircraft.

You can enter both planes and look around.