Autorama 2018, Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI March 4 (Day Two), 2018
There was just so much going on at Autorama this year, that I couldn’t even get close to capturing enough of the cars to do it justice. So, I came back on Sunday to get more shots, and also feel like I saw the whole show.
I haven’t done both Saturday and Sunday for several years. There was just so much to see, one day wasn’t enough. I hadn’t planned for it, so, I was pretty focused on getting good shots of the better cars that were there. I wanted to be systematic about getting the shots I wanted, so as soon as I entered I made a right face and went to the first aisle.
One of the builds that I enjoyed From Saturday, was this ’54 GMC 5700 COE with modern Duramax and Allison trans. It’s also 4WD. OK, 6WD. I had to make sure and get better shots of it. There was nobody there at the time, an no real information, but I found a Facebook page from Legacy Innovations that details the build.
The very next stop was a really nice ’65 Olds 442 owned by Glen Ross. Really well done, not overdone.
There was a collection of vintage drag cars, that I remember from back in the day. It’s very cool to see the actual cars that I used to drool over as a kid in person, and maintained in such a fine state of readiness. They don’t race any longer, I think they just start and run long enough to drive in and out of events.
Everyone that knows me, knows I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Mopar guy, and also a Ramcharger guy. I had to stop and get some shots of this cherry ’87 Ramcharger owned by Jim and Jenny Heater (Actually, I think it’s Jenny’s truck). It turns out they’re members of the same Ramcharger group on Facebook that I am. I chatted with Jim for a while, always love to shoot the breeze with another Mopar head.
Since we’re talking about Mopars, at the Roush display is the Engine from the 1974 UOP Shadow DN5 car. From a lifelong LA engine mopar guy, this thing is mostly unrecognizable. I only noticed because of the spark plug orientation. Chevy water pump, crank triggered ignition, distributor drive runs the fuel injection–that’s pretty advanced technology for 1974. I had to look it up when I got home, you can hear it right here.
More Mopar content (Yay!). This is an FCA-Owned Belvedere with a hellcat engine. Aside from the mill being anachronistic in comparison to the fenderwells, I was amazed at the tidy way it fit in there. FCA produces an entire swap harness for this. This will be handy since an alarming number of Hellcats don’t make it more that a few miles from the dealership before completely wadding themselves up.
The featured image on this post is the 2018 Ridler Award winner “Imagine” owned by Greg and Judy Hrehovczik from Alamosa, Colorado. The Ridler award is the most sought after award in the custom automotive industry. This was a high achievement, to win this coveted awards, with a 57 Chevy, since this platform is so common, a winning candidate has to bring something special to the competition.
