There's something about willingly flying to Detroit, Michigan, in the dead of winter. Detroit, downtown Detroit at least, is a cold and gritty place. Detroit's Chamber of Commerce will curse me for the following description, but downtown Detroit has all the refinement of a chipped tooth on a bastard file. Mean-looking taverns tucked away in nooks and crannies forbid outsiders. Down-and-outers panhandle at nearly every corner. The salted roads melt away cars practically before the break-in period ends. It's an inhospitable place for flora, fauna, and ferrous metal alike, but believe it or not, things are changing for the better as of late (witness GM's Renaissance Center for proof).
Inhospitable environment aside, nearly 1,000 cars, more than 100 vendors, and roughly 160,000-plus people still migrate to downtown Detroit to celebrate one thing: the car. For three days at the beginning of March, hot rods, customs, racecars, stockers, imports, mini-trucks, and motorcycles rub elbows on several acres of Cobo Hall real estate. They vie for everything from simple recognition to class wins to a name on the big trophy: the Don Ridler Memorial Award. The latter, as a matter of fact, has evolved from a regional award--a curious and often misunderstood one at that--into a full-blown battle; to win it is to land oneself among a highly esteemed crowd of incredibly talented, creative, and, of late, wealthy people. Indict my memory as spotty or nave, but I cannot recall a higher honor for a show-car builder to aspire to. Ford roadsters and Mercedes Benz sedans alike fight for a spot on the trophy.
The trophy itself includes a $10,000 check, a GM Performance Parts crate mill, a ginchy trophy, and a jacket, but the real reward is tacit; it means you've made your mark on car show culture. Sure, some years' winners slip into anonymity after a year or so, but just as many have redefined what it takes to build a top-shelf show contender, and we'll always quote them while bench racing.
That said, builder Chip Foose and owner Ken Reister might have given us something to reference for years to come with their '36 Ford-inspired roadster. Instead of reworking vintage tin into another era, they started with a clean slate: a hand-formed body. Instead of subscribing to the "more-than" school of show cars and clobbering the masses with wild themes and attention-grabbing elements, they formulated a sublime design and shrewdly executed it.
What makes this car a winner isn't perfection. Believe us, it's as close to perfect as any Ridler winner, but it's the intelligence of the design that makes this particular car so spectacular. As with most show cars, this car features repeating elements--everything from the tire tread to the crossmembers to the headlights to the body-to-frame seam. It all follows a very distinct theme. Unlike most show cars, however, the individual elements elude recognition in certain situations. If there's an opposite to the four-headlight, frieze-clad, flake-sprayed show car of yore, this is it.
But here's the best thing: This car is not a swan song. While it seems impossible to outdo this sort of craftsmanship, there's always some talent and benefactor in our industry who can trump it. Even Chip showed that by outdoing two of his own creations: Wes Rydell's 2002 winning Grand Master '35 Chevrolet sedan and Ron Whiteside's 2003 winning '34 Mercury (Chip's creations won three of the last four years). Word at the time pegged each as milestones in the show car field. But I think even Wes and Ron would agree: This car represents a whole new level. And that's Detroit's big draw; there's a good chance someone will rewrite the rules at any given time.
But let's not forget that the Detroit AutoRama still boasts more than 900-plus cars, trucks, customs, hot rods, bikes, pedal cars, and racecars! This year the AutoRama featured Chrysler musclecars as the featured marque, and it seemed that about every top-flight lightweight or clone in the northern Midwest made an appearance.
Furthermore, the AutoRama featured two 50-year car club anniversaries--both the Mill Winders and the Spark Plugs. The Mill Winders started as a close-knit group of drag racers and eventually morphed into the AutoRama's patron club. The Spark Plugs feature quite a few long-term members and cars alike. They still have their club T-bucket that they built in the late '60s! They also maintain one of the more elaborate club displays we've seen.
Last year, the AutoRama crew tested the proverbial waters by admitting a small contingency of primered, elemental, and oftentimes aggressive cars. Apparently the masses approved; this year the Autorama admitted 100 bare bones--pardon the following term--rat rods. They acquired some additional 100,000 square feet of show space in, appropriately enough, the basement and dubbed the exhibit AutoRama Extreme. The AutoRama Extreme also featured the show's sport compact contingency, and to say it was amusing to compare and contrast the two seemingly disparate venues would be an understatement. It was a battle of old versus new, primered versus painted, and go versus show (although the latter proved sometimes indistinguishable). You'll undoubtedly hate me for saying it, but these two groups are doing essentially the same thing: modifying available (key: affordable) canvases to express a certain sentiment, whether it's speed or aesthetics. There, I said it. Fire away.
As if I haven't stirred the pot enough, consider the paradox of the preeminent indoor car show not only admitting 100 badass crates, jalopies, and beaters, but also celebrating them. Just think of it: The crowd that sneers at convention, repudiates authority, and prides itself in its delinquency (whether real or perceived) just found itself accepted as viable indoor car show material. Call it what you will, but I'll call it an ironic and rather cool coup. Now if we could teach the masses to call essential cars anything but rat rods ...
Back upstairs, Yosemite Sam Radoff hosted the second annual and newly expanded Pinstripers' Jamboree. Yosemite's crew busily stripes, paints, and brushes artwork onto just about anything that crosses their paths (skateboards, skulls, toilet seats, etc.) and then auctions off the final products. Here's the kick: All proceeds go directly to Rainbow Wish Connection, a Rochester, Michigan, nonprofit group.
While it might be cold and inhospitable in Detroit in the first week of March, Cobo Hall is anything but; the show's hospitality and the heated race to the top award really warm things up. If you ever wanted to experience an indoor car show in its finest setting, the Detroit AutoRama surely won't disappoint.
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And to the winner go the spoils. Ken Reister commissioned Chip Foose to build something that looks more like a manufacturer's concept car than a show car. It features a hand-shaped Custom Metal Shaping body, and Foose's proprietary wheels. |
If Steve Tracy's Deuce roadster looks like it took a chrome bath, it's by no accident. Steve owns Nashville, TN's Advanced Plating. He started by chroming a Jesse Greening chassis, a Tiger quick-change, and didn't stop until he chromed just about everything on the big-block Chevrolet mill. The roadster includes more than 900 hand-fabricated fasteners and represents 3,890 man hours in plating alone on 2,473 pieces. The roadster snagged Best Upholstery, Best Detail, Best Engineering, Best Chassis, Best Altered Rod, and Best Engine. |
Father Joe Stuban (Bonita Springs, FL) and son Dale Stuban (Versailles, KY) both made Great Eight status this year. Both dad's '37-style... |
...and kid's '32-style Fords feature big-inch rollers, air-spring suspension, inset side trim, and similar paint schemes. |
Gai Wilson strutted his Bobby Alloway-built Deuce roadster right alongside a color-coordinated big-twin bike. Despite the heavy rake, contemporary flames, and big-inch rollers, this is a pretty traditional car. It features a transverse leaf-sprung tube axle, a DuVall-style windshield, and commercial-style headlights on a dropped bar. |
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then what do you call faithful recreations? Dave Shuten cloned Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's long-lost Mysterion show car right down to the triple-bubble, blue-tinted top using nothing more than the Rod & Custom cover it appeared on, Revell-model box tops, and a few grainy show photos. Fritz Schenck went into full emulation mode and emerged with the all-new Roswell Rod. While it's a current car, it features '60s goodies like Radir wheels, piecrust slicks, and, of course, a Lucite bubble. |
Alex Test and George Lusk shared space with two bitchin' '60s creations. Alex's started as a '64 Galaxie, but it now features '54 Mercury headlight rings fore and aft for headlight and taillight rings, and white-clad buckets with a T-bird back seat... |
...George's '60 Chevy hardtop featured wild silver-and-purple flake Watson-style panel graphics and tunnel-slot taillights. Both cars ran Astro Supreme wheels. |
OK, here's a bit of history for you young'uns (myself included). Most of us have heard of Harry Westergard; he practically defined the Northern California postwar custom look. But check this out: it's Harry's personal '40 Mercury custom. Jack Walker and Ed Guffey now share this piece of history--a piece which showed at the first Sacramento Autorama in 1950. |
If you could get paint to stick to it and it ended up in the Pinstripers' Jamboree, it more than likely left with a few more adornments. These cats striped and brushed all weekend to drum up auction dough for charity. Anyone who asked more than two questions usually ended up with brush in hand and spreading color within minutes. |
We live in fortunate times; we get to rub elbows with the people who defined our little subculture. One of those mavericks, Bill Hines, trekked from California--via car, naturally--to sign autographs and regale us greenhorns with stories. |
We'd fight over going for groceries if we got to get 'em in Wally Abela's '63 Tempest wagon. He built it as a tribute to Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick and his Grocery Getter Pontiac Tempest wagon. This car is righteous all the way down to the rag tires, the Ford-style hood scoop, and the Sun Super Tach. |
If you wondered where all the '60s Mopar sedans went, here's a good clue: The survivors are usually Super Stock clones. Ed and Cathy Strzelecki's '64 Plymouth Savoy Hemi clone runs a cross ram, headlight deletes, and steel wheels. The only thing the car misses is the alloy front sheetmetal. |
Robert Genat brought two good books to promote at a hot rod- and Mopar-related show: The Birth of Hot Rodding, Mopar Muscle, and Hemi: the Ultimate V-8. Each is outstanding in its own right. He took the opportunity to hang out with high school pal Gordon Leslie over the weekend, too. |
OK, for anybody from California, David Ziolkowski's Dodge Shadow is an anomaly: It's an '80s econobox endowed with a 528ci wedge, rear drive, and ... current registration! I think I could even fall in love with a few later-model cars if we didn't have to submit to the emissions Gestapo. Odd, yes. Cool, definitely! |