Year of the Car Part 6: The Mainstays of Autopalooza August

A celebration of vehicular power and beauty, the 30th annual Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance leads off the “Autopalooza”

with events starting Thursday, July 31, and concluding with the main show Sunday, Aug. 3. This year’s event will include displays of classic V16 powered cars, such as the luxurious 8-litre Bentleys from the 1930s, plus displays to celebrate the centennials of GM and the Model T.

The Tudor-styled Meadow Brook Hall was once the home of Matilda (Dodge) Wilson, the widow of automotive pioneer John F. Dodge who founded the car brand with his brother Horace. The mansion and land are now part of Oakland University.

Celebrating its 14th year, “the Woodward Dream Cruise is the largest single automotive event in the world,” said Gary R. Familian, managing director of MotorCities National Heritage Area. “Last year, it drew an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 special cruisers and an estimated 1.4 million spectators in one day.”

Originating as an event for Detroit area baby boomers who longed for the days when “cruisin’ Woodward” was a coming of age event – and an unofficial test bed for automotive designers and engineers for impromptu street races, the Dream Cruise has evolved with corporate sponsored events along with car club barbeques. Officially it remains a one-day event on Saturday, August 16, that covers 16 miles from the Michigan State Fairgrounds to Pontiac.

Among the participants in the cruise will be Linda Vaughn, well-known among hot rodders and cruisers as Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. More recently she has been semi-retired, but still works as a spokes person for GM at various automotive events around the country.

“The

first time I saw Woodward Avenue was with Bunkie Knudsen and John DeLorean in a Pontiac (with a Hurst shifter),” Vaughn said. (Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen was DeLorean’s superior and rival at GM during the 1960s. He briefly became president of Ford Motor Co. but was fired after a year by Henry Ford II).

“I’m from Georgia originally and never lived in Detroit, but I was there so often people thought I lived there,” Vaughn said. “America is the automobile and America needs this… I will do anything and everything to help the spirit of America.”

GM is looking at the possibility of running a motorcade up Woodward from its headquarters at the Renaissance Center to join the Dream Cruise, said Freiman.

Ending “Autopalooza August” is the Detroit Grand Prix on Labor Day weekend. After a six-year hiatus, the open-wheel race returned to Belle Isle in 2007, thanks to the instrumental