AutoWorld
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AutoWorld was an indoor theme park in Flint, Michigan, built to make the town attractive to tourists. The theme park, which opened in July 1984, was originally set up as a Six Flags amusement park venture, but went bankrupt and closed during its first year. The building was demolished in 1997 and the land sold to the University of Michigan-Flint.
Autoworld's first area was located inside a big dome. The insides were designed to look like Flint long ago. The first display that one encountered was a small cabin. Inside was a mannequin. When one pressed a red button on the outside of the cabin it kicked on a film that projected onto the mannequin's face. The mannequin was supposed to be Jacob Smith, founder of Flint. It would welcome the visitor to AutoWorld and talk about the beginning of Flint. In the center of the dome was a Ferris wheel, and nearby was a carousel.
Out of the dome was an area with a giant car engine, rides that featured robotic puppets, an IMAX theater, cars and exhibits about cars.
AutoWorld was featured in the 1989 movie Roger & Me by Michael Moore. Footage of AutoWorld being demolished was shown in the 1997 film The Big One, also by Moore. The site is now home to offices for the University of Michigan-Flint.
AutoWorld is also a car museum in Brussels, Belgium, which is owned by a private car collector and holds more than 200 cars from different epoches, beginning with the first European automobiles at the end oft the 19th century until the 2000s.
