Of the Detroit Three carmakers, Stellantis is the only one that does not have a car museum in the United States; okay, technically GM doesn’t have one either, but the GM Heritage Center is the closest thing to it even though it’s not open to the public.
While Stellantis does operate several car museums in Europe—such as the Stellantis Heritage Hub and Alfa Romeo Museum in Italy and the Peugeot museum in France—it does not have a similar museum in the U.S. focused on its American brands.
Thankfully, that may change in the near future as Stellantis is reportedly considering finalizing older plans to transform a former Dodge Viper plant into a car museum.
Conner Center Could Finally Open Up to the Public
Stellantis
The Detroit News has learned about this possibility from Tim Kuniskis, Stellantis’ Head of American Brands for North America Marketing and Retail Strategy.
“We have a pretty cool car collection in Detroit that we’ve had many debates about,” Kuniskis recently told the paper. “Should we be opening that up to the public and things like that? TBD if we’re going to do that, but I’m pretty sure people would (come).”
Kuniskis was referring to the former Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit, which built Viper sports cars until 2017. Long used to store many cherished cars from the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands, the site is not open to the public—although it sometimes hosts events like new-vehicle presentations for the media.
Kuniskis added: ”Can you imagine if (Conner Center) was full of all of the stuff that we have?” As an example, he said the carmaker has “beyond hundreds” of Easter Jeep Safari vehicles built over the years spread in various locations. “I think people would love to see those all in one place at one time,” the executive argued.
Stellantis Design Boss Does Not Want It to look Like a Traditional Car Museum
Stellantis
Stellantis’ Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles had hinted at a similar plan last month and was more direct about it on a media tour of the automaker’s North American headquarters in Auburn Hills.
“There’s a few details we have to fix with the building for fire code, because it was set up as a plant, not a public space,” Gilles told reporters. “So we’re doing that this summer, and we’re hoping to obviously have select events to start the process of opening it.”
He added that the current collection parked in rows inside the largest part of the plant would be expanded with more vehicles, noting that he doesn’t want it to look like a traditional museum.
Stellantis
Mind you, Stellantis later issued a more general statement that did not include specifics of the plan to open up Conner Center to the public. “We are actively exploring opportunities to welcome visitors to our Conner Center in the future and hope to share more details as our plan evolves,” company spokesperson Dale Jewett said in a statement to The Detroit News.
The vehicles currently in storage at the former Viper plant are varied and include classics such as a 1948 Chrysler Town & Country and 1951 New Yorker, an IndyCar pace car, movie cars like the Jeep Wrangler from “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” and even the automaker’s late-CEO Sergio Marchionne’s personal Dodge Challenger SRT Demon.
In total, there are currently over 400 vehicles in storage at Conner Center, about 85 of which are on display.
Stellantis
