Mopar Time Capsule Celebration Turns into Crass Cash Grab

Back in 1957, the city of Tulsa buried a brand-new Plymouth Belvedere in a vault beneath what is now its courthouse sidewalk, along with mementoes of 50s life and consumables such as oil and gasoline–“just in case those things aren’t around in the future” (be patient, guys, we’re working on that). The idea was that, as part of Tulsa’s centennial celebration, the high-tech cosmonauts of the year 2007 would resurrect the Belvedere to marvel over its quaintly obsolete internal combustion engine and to reminisce about a bygone era of earthbound cars that cruised the roads on inflatable rubber tires. While it might not end up being as meet-George-Jetson as all that, the exhumation is slated to go ahead on June 15th, but unfortunately, money-grubbing city bureaucrats have cast a pall over the event. Despite the centennial’s already ample taxpayer funding, they’ve decided to charge residents up to 25 bucks a head to witness the unveiling, and they even went so far as to refuse an offer from a local equipment-rentals company to haul the car for free (the city figures the company should pay them 5 grand for the exposure). Grumblers over at the H.A.M.B. are heralding a car-enthusiasts’ boycott of the centennial, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the best place to watch the exhumation will be online. If you haven’t seen it already, do go to the centennial’s site and check out the amazing vintage footage of the Plymouth being hosed down with Cosmoline and lowered into the vault, and swing by my ride page afterwards to vote on what kind of shape it’ll be in when it emerges.