2025 Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour Gallery – Part 2
Part 2 of the 2025 Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour starts in Wisconsin after four days of traveling north from Detroit, over the Straits of Mackinac, through the upper peninsula and into the Badger State. We pick up after a fun stop at Lambeau Field and into the town of Hartford where we visited the Wisconsin Automotive Museum.
Billed as Wisconsin’s largest auto museum, it features a great collection of Kissel vehicles, which were built in Hartford from 1906-1931, plus another Wisconsin-based brand, Nash. There was a good variety of other makes and models, too, and even a 1913 steam locomotive that’s still operational! The next stop to us to the heart of Milwaukee to check out the Harley-Davidson Museum and learn more about this iconic American brand. The beautiful museum has two floors tracing the history of the brand and showcasing significant examples dating back to Serial Number One from 1903, in addition to displays that explore Harley-Davidson’s cultural significance and ongoing legacy.
After the enjoyable two-wheeled history lesson the tour made a quick dip into Illinois to visit the amazing Roadster Shop facility in the city of Mundelein, just north of Chicago. This place is as cool as the company brand, with a spotless showroom, a spacious manufacturing area dedicated to building custom frames, and huge build shop with a variety of projects ranging from survivor-style chassis upgrades to complete high-end builds. It gave us plenty to talk about on our drive to Madison, Wisconsin for our overnight stop.
Day 6
The final stretch of our tour had us on a northwest trajectory toward Minnesota and North Dakota. It was a beautiful time to be in this part of the Upper Midwest, with cooler temperatures and leaves just beginning to change. The morning drive took us to the small, out of the way town of Spring Green in Wisconsin to visit the shop of Mike and Jim Ring, collectively known as Ringbrothers. Our tour group took over the town and the shop’s parking lot so we could take a peek at where the brothers’ mind-blowing creations are crafted, as well as the machining center where they whittle out production parts, one-off pieces, carbon fiber parts, and more.
A couple more hours of driving took the group to La Crosse on the Wisconsin border, where we paid a visit to the Dahl Automotive Museum. The museum celebrates the Dahl family’s involvement in the community as automotive dealers spanning more than 100 years and chronicles more than a century of automotive design, culture and performance. Our final stop before making our way to the Minneapolis area for the night was the Remlinger Collector Car Museum in Winona, Minnesota. Founded by Jim Remlinger, the collection showcases an interesting array of vintage and classic cars, racecars, motorcycles, bikes, memorabilia, and more
Day 7
The morning of our final cruising day began at QA1, for a tour of their expansive manufacturing facility. Everyone appreciates seeing parts for American performance cars being built in the U.S., and that’s exactly what we witnessed QA1’s facility in Lakeville, Minnesota. The company has been building performance shocks and suspension components for more than 30 years and promotes modifications that make cars and trucks handle better and more fun to drive. The tour through the manufacturing center, warehouse, and R&D facility was eye-opening and made us want to follow the company motto – go drive it!
From there, it was a short drive to the private Morrie Wagener Collection. Wagener is a car dealer and automotive entrepreneur who has amassed an astounding collection of rare classics, customs, hot rods, motorcycles, memorabilia, gas pumps, advertising posters and signs, and much more. Very few people get to see this place, and we counted ourselves fortunate to be able to explore it.
If there’s one lesson we’ve learned in recent years, it’s that any good road tour deserves a proper finale. The 2025 tour came to a celebratory conclusion on Saturday, September 20, with a finish-line fiesta at the Rydell Toy Shop, the private collection and shop of tour regulars Wes and Vivian Rydell in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The party gave our participants a chance to unwind, share stories of the road, and say proper goodbyes, all while enjoying great food, drinks, spectacular scenery in the form of the Rydell car collection. It was a fantastic way to wrap up a week on the road, and as a bonus, most of us were also able to take in the annual Rydell Car & Bike Show charity event the next day at Rydell Chevrolet.
Ready for a road trip? Find more information at: Goodguys Road Tours
