Area residents gear up to enter their vehicles in AUTORAMA
“This is the hot-rodders’ Oscars. It’s a weekend where there are the lights. There are awards.” Murray Pfaff, Royal Oak car enthusiast
For car enthusiasts, the first weekend of March will be the Oscars of car shows. Autorama, held at Huntington Place in Detroit, has everything the film awards ceremony has, says Murray Pfaff of Royal Oak.
“This is the hot-rodders’ Oscars,” he said. “It’s a weekend where there are the lights. There are awards.”
The March 1-3 event is the 71st annual Autorama. Vehicle owners must submit an application and be accepted into the show. Vehicles are honored in several categories.
Pfaff, a rendering and design professional, will have a new car in the show this year, a 1974 Meyers Manx SR, which he describes as a dune buggy built with the help of his 7-year-old son, Griffin, and his friends.
They come over once a week to work on the car.
“We feed them. We get to have some fun. As long as no one goes home bleeding, we can do it again.” Pfaff said.
The Manx is built from a kit. There were fewer than 300 made, Pfaff said.
This year marks Pfaff’s 10th anniversary of presenting the “D Lot” at Autorama, a collection of custom vehicles he has drawn for his clients.
After the cars are built from Pfaff’s work, he invites them to the show so people can see how the car came from the drawing.
This year’s display will include the Imperial Speedster that Pfaff designed, built and owned. It was featured in the first D Lot.
Every year, the D Lot raises money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Pfaff collects donations from automotive-related companies that are auctioned at the event.
Over 10 years, the D Lot has raised $300,000 for the charity, which gives trips and other wishes to seriously ill and terminally ill children.
This is Adrian Lewis’ first time entering a vehicle at Autorama. The Waterford Township resident has attended the show for years. This time, he decided to enter his 1991 Chevrolet Camaro RS convertible.
Friends asked him how he’s going to feel if he doesn’t win.
“I’ve already won,” he said, because being accepted into the show is an honor in itself.
“This is a big moment for me, to see my car under those lights.” he said.
Lewis has worked for General Motors Corp. for 17 years and loves GM cars.
His Camaro was a Southern car and hadn’t been exposed to snow or salt on Michigan roads. It was nearly perfect, he said.
“The interior looked like it had never been sat in,” he said.
It took Max Lunsford of West Bloomfield Township almost two decades to make his 1913 Ford Depot Hack road-ready. But it was a labor of love.
The Depot Hack, a Model T station wagon, has been almost completely rebuilt. He did about 80% of the work himself. It was displayed at Autorama last year and will be in the show again this year.
He began buying parts for it in 1972. In 1981, he started rebuilding. By 1989, it was ready to go.
“The family came first,” he said.
It still runs so well that he has taken it on trips as far as Louisville, Ky.
A Ford Motor Co. retiree, Lunsford said he has been a car enthusiast all his life.
Other Oakland County residents showing vehicles in this year’s show are:
• Albert Butlin of Birmingham will show his 1939 Ford Tudor;
• William Duren of Bloomfield Hills will show his 2014 Chevy Corvette;
• Lawrence Brown of West Bloomfield will show his 2022 Chevy Vette;
• Tony Karew of Orchard Lake will show his 1967 Pontiac Firebird;
• Rick Wallin of Farmington will show his 1966 Ford Fairlane;
• Alex Dellatorre of Farmington Hills will show his 1984 Ford race car;
• Geoff Hegel of Waterford will show his 2004 Pontiac GTO;
• Chad Kerr of Waterford will show his 1965 Ford Mustang;
• Mackenzie Smith of Commerce Township will show her 2011 Infinity G37;
• Thomas Dorr of Clawson will show his 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe;
• Billy Sohns of Clawson will show his 1967 Chevrolet Impala;
• Ryan Sucharski of Royal Oak will show his two-tone 1966 Plymouth Barracuda;
• Everett and Roxanne Mero of Madison Heights will show their 1971 Ford F-100;
• Dennis Lalovich of Madison Heights will show his 1964 Mercury Comet.