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RenegadeMagazine.comBy Joshua Elzey
Another year passes by as the most anticipated Autorama was
held in Detroit over 3 days within the Cabot Center covering two
floors and boasting over 600 cars competing for coveted awards
and the attention of every magazine out there in print. Nothing
can beat walking into exhibitor area and seeing all the top build-
ers under one roof! The inspiration to spectators must be tre-
mendous as the snow is just melting and spring is just coming
around the corner ready for a summer of burnouts.
The top floor holds the Riddler 8 amongst other high end show
rods with more tricks then rabbit can handle covered in breath
taking paint. Behind this madness is the ‘affordable’ rods (puhhlll-
lease!!!) with a big come back in traditional period correct vintage
hopped up rods with 70’s muscle, custom trucks, gassers, mod-
ern rides, lowriders, and –let me catch my breath- well heck it’s
just too much to list as by your head will be spinning sidewise
as is. At this point you realize it will take 8 hours just to walk the
floors gazing at the art on wheels before you even take in all
the side action and determine some of the current trends
coming this year. Some of the crowd favorites were the
1957 two tone slammed olds, Jeff Norwell’s rod, an 1956
kustom Pontiac Safari, a sleek black 1929 Ford Altered
Street Sedan, an 1967 white Chevy C-10, and the 49 Ca -
dillac Convertible “Golden Empress’ just to name a few.
The bottom floor is where the real build it out of your ga-
rage vehicles reside amongst the entire artist group whip-
ping up drawings, graphics, metal work, and other mind
boggling displayed talent. This floor is dubbed as ‘The
Basement’ by those with a history to the legendary area
while newbies will follow the signs ‘Autorama Extreme’.
Gene Winfield was chopping Spark Plugs car clubs 1929
Ford Sedan live on the floor not far from the Rusted Crow
Spirits award winning rat rods. A 1948 Blown Injected
Ford Pickup built by Streetworks Hot Rods stole the floor
along with a bare metal 1941 Studebaker lead sled. This
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floor confirmed the trend of traditional hot
rods with era specific speed equipment,
vans, and gassers making a trend for the
year.
Again the Autorama delivered that perfect in-
jection needed to work up every enthusiast and
I’m sure loosen a few wallets in able to get a
jalopy ready to rip up the asphalt this season…
well at least after all the potholes are filled in!