WAAAM West, aka Cars by Ron Wade
On Saturday, February 11th, members and guests of the Jaguar Owners Club of Oregon visited the WAAAM (Western Antique Automobile and Aircraft Museum) West facility, otherwise known as “Cars by Ron Wade.”
The tour was lead by JOCO Board member Matt Nowak, who set the tour to begin just as the Museum/collection opened at 10 AM. JOCO also hosted British car enthusiast and Sports Car Market writer and Austin Healy expert Reid Trummel and his lovely bride. (Several of you probably receive his “Reid’s List” e-mail which is an encyclopedic listing of upcoming car events throughout the Northwest.)
We toured and enjoyed a fabulous, eclectic, and rather personal collection of motorcars and related accessories. Everything from Mr. Wade’s personalized McLaren 720 (a daily driver!), to classic cars from the ’30’s, to hotrods (including a pair of wildly overpowered Ford Thunderbirds form the ’50’s). The Cadillac Eldorado with a stainless steel roof is a truly rare item, along with the unusual post-war Messerschmitt “bubble car.” (Perhaps that is one Messerschmitt that would be too easy to get behind with your Mustang?)
The collection is, for now at least, housed in a former automobile dealership just off of exit 4 from Interstate 5, and just a bit east of US 99 in Vancouver, Washington. It is easy to walk around, and we were privileged to be able to “go behind the ropes” to view these exquisite motorcars as closely as we wanted to (just don’t touch). While there are several marques in the collection, it appears that, overall, Mr. Wade was a “Ford Guy.” At least if one gauges from the “preponderance of evidence.”
For those that wanted to, lunch was available at the Crave Grille (also in Vancouver). About 14 of the tour members enjoyed everything from bacon and eggs to French Toast (or some variation thereof) for a rather hearty lunch to travel home on.
Many thanks to Matt Nowak for being the steward for this event. It was most enjoyable and quite educational.
