A centerpiece exhibit in the new Museum of Utah, located inside the new North Capitol Building, is the Mormon Meteor III, a vintage race vehicle once driven by Ab Jenkins to set land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Records obtained by Utah Political Watch show the state agreed to pay $20 million for it, split evenly between taxpayer money and a corporate donation. This is the first time the purchase price has been made public. Lawmakers approved the taxpayer half of the funding with almost no public discussion.
The deal
In May 2023, the Utah Cultural and Community Engagement Foundation (CCE Foundation) signed a purchase agreement with the Price Automotive Museum, also known as the Price Museum of Speed, to buy the Meteor along with associated artifacts, including a bust of Ab Jenkins, his goggles, timing watch and original steering wheel.
The contract spreads the $20 million purchase price across five installments running from 2023 through July 2027. The deal moved much faster than the paperwork suggests: the state made its $10 million down payment in 2023, and Rio Tinto Kennecott covered the rest with a $10 million donation that same year.
Asked about the $20 million purchase price, Heidi Tak, deputy commissioner of the Department of Cultural and Community Engagement, called the Mormon Meteor III "priceless."
“There’s no other car like it in the world,” Tak said. “The Price Automotive Museum recognized the significance of this car belonging to the people of Utah and sold to the state for the $20 million agreed-upon price.”
“The Museum of Utah team has been partnering with community members for years to create a space that will reflect the history, art, and culture of our state,” Tim Glenn, director of the Museum of Utah, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to secure this incredible piece of history on behalf of the people of Utah.”
Where the money came from
Half of the Meteor's purchase price came from a massive budget bill approved on the final day of the 2023 legislative session (SB3, Item 128), which sent $3.8 million from the General Fund and $8.2 million from a restricted capital account to the Utah Heritage and Arts Foundation, a nonprofit created by the Department of Cultural and Community Engagement. Intent language attached to the $12 million said it would match private donations for art and artifact acquisition and build an endowment for the new museum.
None of that appropriation was publicly linked to the Mormon Meteor. Lawmakers never discussed what the $12 million would actually buy beyond the vague "match private donations…for art and acquisition" language buried in the bill text.
No appropriations committee discussed the funding during the 2023 session, and it never appeared on any committee's list of priority funding items.
The appropriation first surfaced publicly on Feb. 24, in a list of consolidated budget motions from the Executive Appropriations Committee, the Legislature's top budget panel. That proposal included only $8.2 million, shifted from the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity to the Museum of Utah. The money was to be used by the museum to acquire art and artifacts and could only be used as a one-to-one match with private funds.
At the committee's March 2 meeting, the motion was revised to add another $3.8 million from the General Fund. The committee didn't discuss the item and approved it unanimously. The full Legislature passed the budget the next day.
Rio Tinto Kennecott announced its $10 million donation in a November 2023 press release that made no mention of the Mormon Meteor or that the money would help buy a vintage race car for a state museum.
The state didn't publicly disclose it had acquired the car until a Sept. 3, 2025 press release, which made no mention of the price.
Even state officials were kept in the dark about the purchase or the details of Rio Tinto Kennecott’s donation until last month. Internal communications obtained by Utah Political Watch show them scrambling to track down documents and piece together the details of the deal.
In an email containing the purchase documents, Assistant State Comptroller Patricia Nelson noted that two payments had already been made toward the purchase.
"It's only been through oral discussion that the additional $10M was going to be paid by private donations from Rio Tinto," Nelson wrote.
The contract also required a three-person Mormon Meteor Committee to oversee the car's care, maintenance and display: one member chosen by the Price Museum of Speed, one by the Utah Historical Society, and a member of the public with experience in vintage automobiles.
Tak says the committee has been formed and meets at least annually, but no recordings or minutes from those meetings are available.
How Utah got the car in the first place
In 1943, Jenkins sold the car to the State of Utah for $1, on the condition that it be kept indoors, maintained and displayed to the public at the Capitol. He retained the right to remove it for land-speed record attempts, which he did twice between 1949 and 1951.
In 1971, the car was taken from the Capitol for a local parade and left outdoors afterward, where it was vandalized and damaged by exposure to the elements. It was eventually returned indoors.
In 1996, Marvin Jenkins—Ab's son—took possession of the Meteor, claiming the state had broken the agreement by failing to maintain it properly. After Marvin restored the car, Ambassador John Price and the Price Museum of Speed acquired it in 2007. The purchase price was never disclosed.
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