Detroit Autorama 2011

DETROIT AUTORAMA 2011
World’s Best Hot Rod and Custom Car Show This Weekend
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

It’s that time of year again – time for the hot rodders, custom car folks and auto enthusiasts of all stripes to head into downtown Detroit for the annual AutoRama – arguably one of the best winter shows in the country. Yes, it’s generally agreed that California is the center of automotive lust but Detroit is the home of the industry and our lust for automobiles is undeniable and palpable.

In Michigan, of course, we only have a limited number of months to drive our specialty cars without subjecting them to road salt and other treacherous conditions and we can only stand having our tops down for little more than half the year. So in the dead of winter we gather about a thousand special cars inside our largest exhibition hall and enjoy them with our pals – anticipating the day a few months away when we can be outside driving them.

The first AutoRama in Detroit was 1953 when the Michigan Hot Rod Association decided to put on a show to raise money for a drag strip. It only took a few years to reach that goal and the drag strip lasted many years. The AutoRama show is still going strong – in fact, so strongly that it has been duplicated all over the country.

The first few rows of cars inside the front doors of Cobo Center are the premium custom cars, many are contenders for the Riddler Award - one of the most prestigious custom car trophies in the world - which will be awarded at the end of the show on Sunday evening. To be eligible the car must never have been shown before. The competition and judging are intense.

Beyond that are row after row of every imaginable kind of rod, custom, bike, truck, and vehicles that defy categorization. Mixed in are a large automotive art display, an amazing array of vendors and much more to tempt the enthusiast.

By all means don’t miss what goes on downstairs. Another hundred-thousand square feet of the six-hundred-thousand square-foot Cobo Center is filled with tuner cars and my favorites, the rat rods. At least we used to call them rat rods, but I’m told that term is passé since the genre has become more safe and serviceable. The point is they are home-made, often in primer, unsophisticated machines made for the pure pleasure, and often humor, of the sport.

So, on this coldest of winter weekends you may want to bundle up and spend a day in the company of some of the most beautiful and innovative hot rods and custom cars imaginable.

Friday, February 25 – noon to 10pm
Saturday, February 26 – 9am to 10pm
Sunday, Feb 27 - 10am to 8pm
Admission: $18 adults, $5 kids 6 to 12

See you there.

© Steve Purdy