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Making the Scene: Traditional Hot Rods & Customs Steal the Show at the 2017 Detroit Autorama

Forgetting for the moment that Motown reached a record high of 70 degrees F on the opening day this year, the Detroit Autorama has been the hot rodder’s oasis amid the snow and usually bitter cold of Motown’s notorious winters for 65 years.

The Michigan Hot Rod Association (MHRA) hosted the very successful inaugural event in 1953 and quickly handed the show’s reigns to Don Ridler, a local promoter. The Autorama mushroomed over the next few years, and ticket sales supported MHRA’s quest to build Michigan’s first official, sanctioned dragstrip.

After Don Ridler’s death, a memorial award was created in his honor, and the first one was bestowed in 1964 to Al Bergler’s AA/C race car, dubbed More Aggravation. In the ensuing years, the Ridler award grew into one of the hot rodding world’s most prestigious trophies, ranking with the Grand National Roadster Show’s America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award. It is awarded only to vehicles that debut at the Detroit Autorama, which guarantees a fresh show every year, with the latest creations from industry legends and up-and-comers alike.

Anyone who’s tracked the Ridler award and the batch of finalists known as the Great 8 over the past few years knows that today’s contenders are cost-be-damned rolling sculptures. They’re gorgeous, inspiring, and flawless. They just don’t have much in common with traditional hot rods. Well, mostly.

There were a couple of surprisingly traditional entries under the bright lights this year, including Great 8 finalists Ted and Colleen Hubbard’s ’30 Ford and—not surprisingly—a Deuce Tudor from George Poteet. The Ridler award was bestowed on a ’33 Ford-based custom rod built by Steve’s Auto Restoration for Marcy and Buddy Jordan.

While the Ridler contenders represent the upper echelon of project car spending, the rest of the vehicles on display convey decidedly more down-to-earth approaches to personalization and performance. It is the quintessential blue-collar city, after all, and that’s reflected in most of the hot rods under the lights.

The Detroit Autorama is definitely a bucket list event. And for those who slog through dark, cold, and slushy winters, it’s a warm respite providing a glimpse of the warm-weather car season that’s not too far away.

By the way, MHRA got their track. The pavement was laid, the timing tower erected, and the venue, which would be called Motor City Dragway, finally opened for time trials in 1957. MHRA board member Bob Larivee was tasked with managing the strip, which was located in rural New Baltimore, northeast of Detroit. In 1959, he founded Promotions, Inc. to promote car shows, which lead to the formation of the International Show Car Association (ISCA) by 1963.

The Motor City Dragway track succumbed to suburban sprawl in 1978, but its roots were in the Autorama that continues to thrive.

Former Ridler winners Ted and Colleen Hubbard were contending again in 2017 with their neo-traditional ’30 Ford five-window dubbed Afterthought. It is a stunner, built on aftermarket, modified ’32-style framerails featuring handmade cross members and custom, scratch-machined wishbones. The blown, Ardun hemi-headed flathead adds to the car’s carefully crafted “as cast” color/appearance theme.

The A-bone artisans at West Virginia’s Hilton Hot Rods gave Ralph and Linda Miller’s ’30 Tudor their characteristically spot-on stance. The chopped body (with a ’32 firewall) rests on a ’32 Ford frame that also houses a Ross Racing Engines–built early Hemi, trimmed with a 4-71 huffer, a quartet of Ford 94-series carbs, and a Vertex mag. Sixteen-inch chromed steelies complete the period-perfect look.

Jeff Knudsen’s true barn-find ’36 Ford Club Cabriolet was found in western Michigan, and the only thing he’s done to it is lower it and add rear fender skirts. It was last repainted probably sometime in the early 1960s, and its original engine was changed to a later flathead, too. “No more changes or updates,” Knudsen told us. “It’s done.”

John Cassiol painstakingly restored and maintains Jim Oddy’s ’48 Austin-based AA Gasser, from locating the same type of Fiat seats used originally to replicating the old Sapphire Mist paint. Power comes from a blown, gas-sipping 392 Hemi. Buffalo-based Oddy found the car on Grand Island, New York, south of Niagara Falls, quickly built a race car out of it, and became one of the East Coast’s fiercest competitors. The car makes appearances regularly at nostalgia drag events.

Don “The Egyptian” Boeke’s ’55 Lincoln Nadine is chopped, shaved, frenched … you name it. It also remains Lincoln-powered. The pearl-yellow paint job features darker fogged highlights around the edges and is complemented by yellow-and-white upholstery. The roof is a very pale yellow with intricate cobwebbing that must have taken ages and a bottomless reserve of patience to complete.

The nose-up attitude of Kevin Doolittle’s straight-axle ’29 Ford pickup D/Gas tribute is remarkable for its attention to detail and the fact that it’s Ford powered. A balanced, blueprinted, and tunnel-rammed 289 helps light off the pie-crust cheater slicks via a 3.90-geared 9-inch axle. The authentic 23-karat gold-leaf graphics were handled by Dick Briggs, while Hillside Hot Rods did the truck’s body and chassis fabrication.

Chris and Donna Schlaff’s Brookville-bodied Deuce highboy makes a big statement with understated and timeless style. The luscious black roadster complemented with red guts sports a BopTop removable convertible top that stows in the trunk. It also runs a Chevy 348 and rolls on polished, 15-inch Real Rodders “small kidney beans” wheels.

Ed Roth would be proud of how Frtiz Schenck’s Baja Bandeeto channels the whimsy of his imagination. Illustrator Jimmy Smith penned the design, and Schenck took it from there. He made and painted the one-off, hand-formed fiberglass body, with a Plexiglas canopy, which rests on a scratch-built chassis that’s home to a VW 1600 engine. The bubble-topped interior is trimmed in white “Big Foot fur,” natch.

Mark “Topes” Thompson hawks his hot rod art out of an old, home-built ’55 Pontiac Starchief-based camper. Its crap-tastic execution belies a surprisingly warm and period-appointed cabin. Check out the artist’s work by searching Topes Art on Facebook.

Designer Brook Stevens, who designed the original Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, also conceived this radically altered ’41 Chevy coupe, which was originally commissioned by an Oscar Mayer exec in 1959. Dan, Don, and Janet Tonielli are the current caretakers, after rescuing it from a barn. Look closely and you’ll the see its long nose, low-slung proportional influence in one of Stevens’ later design projects, the ’62 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk.

The ElDorodder ’32 Ford Tudor was a show car built in the 1950s by Bill White, who was the president of the ElDorodders car club. It wasn’t quite finished when it was shown in 1959 at Darryl Starbird’s show in Wichita, Kansas. White died later that year, and the car went into storage. Vern Gray purchased the still-unfinished hot rod in 2015 and saw it through to its natural, period conclusion. That’s a 390 Cadillac mill between the fenders.

The story on Tommy Wahl’s barn-find T-bucket is that the owner/builder passed on a long, long time ago, and the car simply sat. His widow finally decided to sell it, and Wahl caught wind of it via a Craigslist ad. It is reportedly as-built from the late 1950s, including the ’57-vintage 283 small-block.

The legendary, 89-years-young Gene Winfield held class in Detroit, demonstrating top-chopping on a ’50 Ford.

Silver Cloud was another time-worn show car at the Autorama. Originally built by Doug Mattox in Texas, the ’60 Edsel Ranger was fitted with ’64 Chrysler headlamps, layer upon layer of silver metalflake lacquer, a 331 Hemi, chromed chassis components, and a thoroughly customized, Thunderbird-based interior. The car was even featured in a 1966 edition of 1001 Custom Car Ideas.

In 1953, Chevrolet built the Corvette in Flint, Michigan, and that’s also where the Tini Home camper was built. Weighing only 1,400 pounds and stretching a mere 14.6 feet in length, it’s indeed a diminutive domicile on wheels. And forget about the original engine and trans. This thing is packing its original stove, furnace, and icebox.

With all the black and suede hot rods out there, Rudy Duperron’s ’34 Ford three-window is refreshing for its classic, flame-licked red exterior. It’s a simple yet effective presentation powered by a simple yet effective small-block Chevy.

We didn’t get too much data on Nathan Stewart’s Y-block-powered ’31 Ford coupe but liked what we saw, from the channeled body and Deuce grille to the pinstriped steelies. The louvered visor was matched with a louvered deck lid, too.

There’s a school of thought that a 6-71 blower on a flathead is aesthetically unpleasing and overkill for performance, but it’s hard to argue with the effect of this one on a prepped 8BA. It helps that the huffed flattie is nestled in a vintage ’59 Chassis Research K88 dragster.

Bill Kellogg’s ’glass-bodied Willys was built to suggest a barn-find Gasser, including coating the exterior with 3M spray tack and blowing dust onto it for a permanent patina. The engine is a blown, Isky-cammed 392 Hemi backed by a Turbo 400 that sends torque to a 4.56-geared, spool-equipped 9-inch axle.

Metal-shaping supplier Fournier Enterprises, which also hosts metalworking classes, was on hand demonstrating its products. We happened by when one of its experts took time for more personal instruction for a couple of next-generation enthusiasts. We’ll be looking for their builds in about 20 years.

Chris Evans’ sharp Blue Bayou roadster (BLUBYU reads the license plate) was an AMBR contender at the Grand National Roadster Show last year. It’s an all-steel car powered by a ’54 331 Hemi built with a mix of traditional and contemporary speed parts, like the “Strombergs” on the engine that are actually EFI throttle bodies.

The ’59 Ranchero’s long, low lines make a surprisingly strong foundation for a mild custom, especially when it’s hugging the concrete like Kyle Raetz’s. The 3-inch lowering is complemented by the contrasting color scheme that visually lengthens the Rancho. Note the ’59 Cadillac taillights, too. Under the hood is the original 292 Y-Block.

An Edelbrock aluminum intake draws fuel and air through a sextet of Holley/Ford 94-series carbs to feed the small-block Chevy powering Patrick Hampton’s ’30 Model A.

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