From Richard Petty’s driving suit to the dash of an old ’57 Chevy, The New South’s Love Affair with the Car is sure to surprise you with little known facts and historic images documenting our longstanding relationship with automobiles. The exhibit explores four aspects of the South's relationship with the car —

• Emotions and attachments run long and deep between Southerners and their cars, as captured in vintage local photos, such as Central High students in a Ford at the Duke Mansion in 1941.
• Racing, dating back to the dirt track era and extending beyond Nascar to Legends racing, with images of the dirt track at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in 1957 and a Legends race car.
• Carolina automakers and their extensive history, including images from 1910 of automobiles being made in the Carolinas.
• And finally, what’s the cost of this love affair? A display created by Charlotte Area Transit System in 2000 exposes the challenges we now face.