This 1948 Ford Dunesmobile, now fully restored, was entered in the popular Beach Car Class at the 2014 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

In the summer of 1948, a young Frank Hagerty had a summer job taking tourists on rides in the “Number 9” car at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, near Traverse City, Michigan. When it was discovered that Frank did not have a chauffeur’s license, he was let go from the job after only one week behind the wheel.

But Frank couldn’t let go of the memories of the Dunesmobiles from his youth. After becoming an insurance agent and then founding Hagerty Insurance, he yearned to get his hands on that Ford that had long disappeared.

In 2011, after years of searching, Frank learned that “Number 9” was in a car museum in New Mexico. He subsequently purchased the vehicle and returned it to Northern Michigan where it was reintroduced to the community at last year’s Fourth of July Parade.


LINKS:
Autoweek article: Finding Number 9
Sleeping Bear Dune Car Number 9