photos by: the author
A look at our 12 Favorite Muscle Cars from the 2016 Detroit Autorama
For car enthusiasts in the Snow Belt winter can be demoralizing, but for nearly 65 years the Detroit Autorama has provided a respite from the cold. It’s one of the oldest and most prestigious indoor car shows – a warm oasis of horsepower and gleaming paint, while ice floes drift outside Cobo Center in the Detroit River and salt trucks rumble through the city.
And while most of the cars at these types of events are customized creations, the Detroit Autorama attracts a fair share of restored and resto-mod muscle cars. It is the Motor City, after all, with Woodward Avenue’s starting point literally only about a quarter-mile’s sprint out the front doors of the convention center.
The show got its start in 1953 and was hosted by Michigan Hot Rod Association (MHRA). It was an immediate success and the proceeds from it over the next few years helped MHRA fund the construction of Michigan’s first official, sanctioned drag strip. It opened in 1957, in rural New Baltimore, Mich., northeast of Detroit, and was eventually called Motor City Dragway.
Motor City Dragway’s proximity to Detroit and the car makers meant plenty of magazine stories were shot there, including a Car Craft cover featuring a tire-smoking ’66 GTO. Suburban sprawl soon followed the track and it closed in 1978.
The Autorama has rolled on unabated – a wintertime ritual for the locals and a bucket list destination for enthusiasts from other cities. And with Detroit’s turnaround officially a thing, it’s another reason to visit the spiritual home of your favorite muscle car – even if it’s February. Here’s our look at a dozen of them that warmed our soul this winter.
1. 1969 MUSTANG BOSS 429
Tom Marcucci’s stunning Boss 9 Mustang – KK1365 – is one 857 produced that year at the Kar Kraft facility in Brighton, Mich. (there were also a pair of Boss 429 Cougars built) and is one of 93 in Raven Black. It’s a three-owner car with 33,000 original miles and is an early S-code car, which meant magnesium valve covers, a totally forged rotating assembly and minimal smog equipment.
2. 1970 CHEVROLET CHEVELLE SS 396
The 396 big block offered in the ’70 Chevelle actually displaced 402 cubic inches. It was essentially a 0.030-inch overbore of the 396, taking the bore from 4.096 inches to 4.125 inches. It was done for practical reasons rather than performance, so Chevy retained the popular SS 396 designation and the horsepower rating was unchanged. This example belongs to Steve and Shari Tracey and it’s a factory AC car built at the Van Nuys, Calif., plant. It was restored by Wings Auto Art, in Ionia, Mich.
3. 1971 PLYMOUTH ’CUDA
Joe Schiavone’s resto-mod Mopar is a great blend of classic style and contemporary power, with a late-model Hemi stroked to 426 cubic inches backed by a vintage 3-speed 727 TorqueFlite. The drivetrain has been updated, too, with a four-link rear suspension and big Wilwood disc brakes all around. It also wears Viper red paint, which looks perfect on the gorgeous E-body’s flanks. The car was built by Cuzie Customs.
4. 1970 OLDS 442 W-30
James Kryta is the co-founder of restoration parts manufacturer Inline Tube and has a thing for Olds muscle cars. His Sebring Yellow 1970 442 W-30 convertible is a rare one, too – one of only 96 built. The W-30 package included a number of lighter-weight components, including a fiberglass hood, red plastic inner fenders and an aluminum intake on the 455 engine. Kryta’s 4-speed car also has the W-27 lightweight aluminum rear end cover.
5. 1968 PLYMOUTH BARRACUDA FORMULA S
We love the “day two” styling enhancement a set of polished five-slot “mag” wheels gives to Chris and Donna Craft’s ’68 yellow Barracuda – it looks ready to make the loop between drive-ins on a Saturday night. Chris purchased the car in 1973. Under the hood is a 6-barrel-fed 340. 1968 was the first year for the 340 and only 2,857 Formula S fastbacks were built that year with the engine.
6. 1974 FORD MAVERICK
Mike Copeland bought this Maverick new and immediately turned it into a street/strip car, with a Paxton-blown 302. He blew the engine a few times before installing a 351, then sold the car in 1976. He found it by chance on Craigslist in 2011, purchased it and recently restored it with the style of a 1970s street machine. The engine is a 408-inch Boss 351 with 12:1 compression, a Weiand tunnel ram and a pair of Holley 660 four-barrels. All that’s missing is a Street Machine Nationals participant sticker in corner of the windshield.
7. 1970 CHEVROLET CAMARO RS/Z28
Roger Turpening bought this Daytona Yellow 1970 Z28 new at Jim Chumley Chevrolet, in Ypsilanti, Mich., and still owns it. He got himself a loaded car, with the Rally Sport package, a Posi rear axle with the LT1 engine, a center console, rear defroster, rear-seat speaker and more – all topping out just a couple of bucks under the $4,000 threshold – about $24,000 today, adjusted for inflation.
8. 1969 DODGE CHARGER
The 1968-70 Charger easily qualifies as one of the most sensuous body styles to emerge from Detroit and Mark and Jeannie Ferderber’s ’69 proves the point. They’ve updated the car with contemporary rolling stock and fitted a TREMEC 5-speed behind the numbers-matching 383 – which has been tweaked to produce 550 hp. They’ve also added four-wheel disc brakes and replaced the original vacuum-operated headlight door actuators with an electric conversion.
9. 1968 CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28 REPLICA
Adam Moore set out to build a replica of the Penske-backed Camaro driven by Mark Donohue and did a hell of job – thanks to fabrication direction from Ron Fournier, who worked with Penske all those years ago. It’s a faithful replication and even sports an authentic DZ-code 302 engine. Spooky fact: While building the car, Moore discovered he was born on the day Donohue died in 1975.
10. 1971 DODGE CHARGER SUPER BEE
Wow. Talk about rare! This is one of only 22 Hemi Super Bees produced in 1971 – and one of 13 with the automatic transmission. Garth Vancura’s father owned the car back in the 1970s and the family reacquired the car back in 2009. The original drivetrain is still in the car and it still wears its original paint and interior.
11. 1969 PONTIAC GTO ‘THE JUDGE’
There were 6,725 hardtop Judge models made in 1969, but we can only guess perhaps a handful may have been made in this combination: Carousel Red exterior with a Parchment vinyl top and interior. This one is owned by Anthony and Alona McNeil and features the numbers-matching Ram Air III 400 engine, Turbo 400 transmission and 3.55-geared Posi rear axle. Not surprisingly, it won the People’s Choice Award at the 2015 GTOAA Nationals.
12. 1965 PLYMOUTH SATELLITE
Robert Lemon’s Satellite is the car he thought Plymouth should have continued building – a 426 Max Wedge option for those who couldn’t afford or didn’t want the Street Hemi (1964 was the final year for the Max Wedge). The project started with an estate-sale purchase of a white, 318 Poly-engine car and Lemon spent the next 8 years building it into this gorgeous resto-mod muscle car.
Barry Kluczyk is a Detroit-based automotive writer and photographer with more than 20 years of experience contributing to magazines and Web sites, as well as authoring three automotive how-to books. He’s also a committed GM EFI enthusiast who’s previous projects included a nitrous-fed 1994 Z28, a rare L98/six-speed C4 Corvette and, most recently, a 2002 Camaro SS with a modified LS2.
