Taking a Peek of What Lies Within the American Muscle Car Museum
The American Muscle Car Museum houses the collection of Mark Pieloch, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who amassed a collection of over 250 valuable and interesting vehicles. Back in the 1970s, Mark founded several very successful veterinary supply companies. He started collecting cars in 1978 (beginning with a 1957 Ford Ranch Wagon) and as his pharmaceutical companies grew, so did his car collection. By the year 2000, Mark had collected 50 cars. By 2010, he had 145 vehicles. Today, Mark owns over 250 cars.
The new 123,000 square-foot museum facility houses Mark’s 40-year collection in a complex that includes 90,000 sq. ft. of vehicle display area, an 18,000 sq. ft. showroom and an adjacent 15,000 sq. ft. building that serves as an on-site maintenance and restoration facility.
The collection is focused on a wide variety of classic American 1950s to 1970s performance cars that Mark collected over the years. Mark says he chose not to sell any of his vehicles over the years because he had put so much work into them. He also says that he didn’t collect these cars to make money on them at some point in the future, but purely because he loves them so much.
The museum is literally a display of the “Who’s Who” of American Muscle cars, with 40 different Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars and Trucks, more than 30 Shelby-badged cars, over 80 first place national show winners, and the most extensive Yenko car collection in the world featuring at least one Yenko car for every make and model ever built.
Within the collection, there are over 60 cars with less than 100 original miles, 30 cars with between 100 to 999 original miles, and 25 cars with between 1,000 to 9,999 original miles. In addition to the cars, the collection also has vintage bicycles, auto related neon signs, antique gas pumps, jukeboxes, pedal cars, vintage soda coolers, motorcycles, and more related automobilia. It’s the kind of place any gearhead muscle car enthusiast would love to visit!
That’s where things get a little weird. The museum is operated by a non-profit organization that manages it as a private facility. This means that it will not be open to the general public on a daily basis at all. Rather, it will host non-profit activities and invitation-only car events exclusively. The stated goal of the new museum is “To provide charitable fundraising activities, car club shows and activities and education for the youth of this country.”
Although the museum is not open to the public, there are plenty of these charitable events scheduled that will give the public many opportunities to see the cars with a small donation to selected charities. For this reason, it’s critical that you check the event schedule when you’re in the eastern central Florida coastal region to see if you can coordinate a visit.
Contact the museum at (321) 914-4322 to see what events are scheduled, or check the American Muscle Car Museum website at www.americanmusclecarmuseum.com to see a full schedule.
After spending almost a decade in the aerospace industry, Scott Parkhurst chose to learn about racing engines by working in some of Southern California’s most respected engine shops. He took on the role of Tech Editor at Popular Hot Rodding magazine back in 1998, and was instrumental in the development of both the Engine Masters Challenge competition and Engine Masters Quarterly magazine. He was also the founding Editor of Street Thunder magazine and Author of the V8 Horsepower Performance Handbook before he arrived at Timeless Muscle.
