Presley Motors is the new home of the King's cars at Graceland

Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum at Graceland. It was fun to see the cars and all, but it was a dark, impersonal place that didn’t allow flash photography. That all changed with the opening of the brand-new Presley Motors Museum. The museum is part of the new, $45-million “Elvis Presley’s Memphis” entertainment complex that just opened in March, and it is a much better venue to display the King’s cars. In addition to the car museum, you can see archived Elvis memorabilia, watch Elvis movies, browse several gift shops, eat a peanut and banana sandwich in one of the restaurants, or buy tickets to tour the Graceland Mansion.

1994-1996 Cadillac Fleetwood. Impala SS performance, complete with vinyl top and fender skirts

Most performance car enthusiasts look at the '90s with some level of fondness. Let's face it, even fast cars in the '80s usually weren't very fast, and if they had even a hint of performance, they usually used more fuel than what you got out of them.

Things improved greatly in 1992, when Chevrolet put the new 350-c.i. LT1 V8 in the Corvette. In Chevy small block history, this was a watershed moment. Corvettes were rated at 300-hp--a huge number at the time-- and people experienced fuel mileage in the mid-to-high 20s. That might not seem like that big of a deal now, but at the time, it was like a miracle.