The 53rd Annual Detroit Autorama

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.