For those who prefer gloss to satin (or rust!), the big room upstairs displays cars of the highest magnitude. In one section of the show, SO-CAL Speed Shop had a large exhibit set up, as the company had been named the 2006 Builder of the Year (next year's honoree will be Gene Winfield). SO-CAL's display included cars from its past (including the original Pete & Jake's coupes as well as the SO-CAL belly tank) along with the crew's present project-their 180-mph Ecotech streamliner and a deep black LS7-powered '67 Chevelle.
With this year being the 75th anniversary of the '32 Ford, parking for dozens of Deuces was provided in another part of the show. One of those '32s, Fred Dudek's black highboy roadster, was picked by STREET RODDER as the winner of the Driven Award, sponsored by Lokar Performance. The Driven Award is presented to an owner of a vehicle that has put a few miles on the odometer, and Fred qualifies: He's rolled up more than 33,000 miles on his highboy, reinventing its appearance along the way the past few years. The current early lakebed racer approach was spot-on, and made us all wish we had a car in the garage just like it.
And in what has become a staple of some of the larger rodding events, a pinstripers' show and panel jam was also organized by Yosemite Sam Radoff and included a charity auction of the artwork created on site. Several auctions happened over the three-day period, and they raised more than $55,000 for the Rainbow Wish Connection (www.rainbowishconnection.org) charity. More than 200 pinstripers arrived at the Autorama on their own dime to participate-a great example of them going the extra distance to make sure the charity gets the help it needs.
On Saturday morning, the 11th annual Circle of Champions brunch was held, and more than 300 people attended the function. The Circle of Champions is basically the Autorama's Hall of Fame, and the brunch started off with SO-CAL Speed Shop's Pete Chapouris stepping in for its founder, Alex Xydias, who was unable to attend. Pete provided a slide show of the company's history as Alex created it, with many never-before-seen vintage images.
Special honors were bestowed at the event too, including The Preservation Award, given to a vehicle that has been restored to its former glory. This year's prize went to Steve Timoszyk for his Prock & Howell '33 Willys AA Gasser race car, which ran the quarter in the low 8's at 180 mph back in its heyday.
Brunch attendees were then introduced to each Great 8 finalist before the induction of three individuals into the Circle of Champions. One of the benefits of winning the Don Ridler Memorial Award is that you are automatically inducted into the CoC the following year after winning, which is what happened to Kevin and Karen Alstott, owners of last year's Ridler winner-which has gone on to win the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award at the Grand National Roadster Show earlier this year. (Editor's note: Eric Geisert, the senior editor of STREET RODDER, was the other Circle of Champions inductee and was recognized for his involvement and continued support of the Detroit Autorama, a show he has been covering for the magazine for more than 15 years.)
The rest of the days were filled with celebrity autograph sessions (with various sports figures and cartoon characters), a chance for the kids to pose with one of the more famous vehicles in the country today-Mater, the tow truck from the Disney/Pixar film "Cars"-and multiple visits to the Toy-A-Rama swap meet and the Hot Rod Heritage fine-art show. The Autorama, with its several hundred cars and special attractions, only cost an adult $16 to enter-a bargain recognized by the thousands of Michiganites who set attendance records this year.
The speculation grew throughout the weekend as to who would have the honor of being named this year's Ridler winner. It was finally announced late Sunday evening that Ross and Beth Myers of Boyerstown, Pennsylvania, received the show's top prize for their '36 Ford three-window coupe, built by Troy Trepanier and his crew at Rad Rides by Troy. Ross received $10,000 in cash, a new GM Performance Parts engine, a custom trophy and jacket, plus his name engraved on one of the most prestigious prizes in hot rodding: the Don Ridler Memorial Award.
Even after 55 years, the Detroit Autorama is still going strong, and, based on the quality of cars entered in this year's show and comments from the folks who attended, it will be around for some time to come.