Classics, hot rods and gear-heads hit the streets

By Terry Oparka
C & G Staff Writer

It’s summertime in metro Detroit — and that means there’s a car show nearly every day.

Some are held in parking lots of bowling alleys, restaurants, trade centers and car care shops. Others are held in city and county parks.

One is even held amid the backdrop of a historic 110-room, Tudor-style mansion.

And it’s not just about the cars themselves. Car people enjoy mingling with other car people.

“I go to three (shows) a week,” said Warren resident Glen Richardson, 50. A tool-and-die maker for a manufacturer of car moldings, he’s currently laid-off. He brought his blue ’68 Chevelle and a lawn chair to enjoy the music of the band Boogie Dynamite at Dodge Park in Sterling Heights during the Kool Kar Rally July 16.

He goes to the shows to get different ideas, and he prefers customized restorations to original restorations.  But he likes seeing restored original details, too. “I love the little things,” he said. 

“I like to go to different shows, so you don’t see the same people,” he said. “I love cars. This is the Motor City.”

He noted that the city-sponsored show held each year in Dodge Park is free.

Sterling Heights residents Jean Duynslager and Annette Fobare also enjoyed the sounds of Boogie Dynamite in the park during the show. They sat in the shade near Annette’s husband Larry’s 2007 custom Shelby 380 GT.

She explained that when her husband worked at Ford Motor Co., he had some custom work on the car done in Las Vegas.

“(Racecar driver and automotive designer) Carroll Shelby signed the visor,” Annette said.

She said that she and Duynslager had no advance plan to come to the Kool Kar Rally that evening and that it was their first time at the annual show held in Dodge Park.

The Fobares have attended car shows at Metro Beach, in downtown Utica and at CJ Barrymore’s.

She said that the crowds this year seem just as large as in the past, although her family has not been immune to the economic downturn. Larry recently lost his job with Delphi.

“We’re trying to hold onto the Shelby and come out with the car as much as we can,” she said. “It’s fun just to sit.”

“We meet a lot of nice people,” Duynslager said.

Warren resident Tony Prano is a member of the National Street Rod Association and the Michigan Hot Rod Association. He tries to make a couple of shows each week with his Model T. He’s owned five pre-’48 street rods and six original Model Ts.

“I love them,” he said of the Model Ts. “They’re unique.”

He pays to attend some local car shows, but said he looks for the free ones. “Free is good,” he said.

Fred and Charlene Giles of Troy make the rounds at a number of free rallies at locales such as the Gathering Place, Peoples State Bank and Kim’s Restaurant in Troy, and Coyote Joe’s in Shelby Township, with their black ’64 Chevelle.

Fred said that back in the day he used to drag race on Woodward. And while he takes part in some of the Woodward Dream Cruise and he loves car people, he’s not crazy about the huge crowds during the cruise. 

Henry Gabbert, 65, of Sterling Heights also drag raced back in the day. He owned an auto mechanic business at one time and retired from Chrysler as a truck driver. He and his buddy Tony D’Aguostini raced at Detroit Dragway, Milan Dragway and Motor City Dragway, and in Ohio and Canada, until he was drafted into the Army in 1965. “It took me about 18 years to get back into it,” he said.

These days, however, he takes his ’63 Impala Z-11 to invitation-only shows, such as the Meadow Brook Concours D’Elegance — at the grand Meadow Brook Hall mansion in Rochester — via a trailer. He also recently attended the Bearing Burners Show held at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren.

He explained that only 50 of the Z-11 Impalas were made and that there are only 14 left. “It’s a very rare car.”

He is making history of sorts at the high-end, top-of-the-line Aug. 2 Concourse D’Elegance show, known as a venue for historic, vintage cars.

The first time he was invited, in 2006, was the first year that the show included a drag-racing or factory-built lightweight car in the show.

“I really didn’t fit in,” he said. “But it was an honor.” 

He and his Impala were invited back for a second time in 2008, and his car was part of a circle of five drag racers.

This year, Gabbert presented the Concours committee with 12 drag racers from among his friends and acquaintances. “They took them all,” he said. 

“It was very exciting for them (Concours committee) to have called me,” he said. He’s happy to see the drag racers included in the Concours D’Elegance, saying the cars generated a lot of excitement at the show last year.

“These cars are beautifully restored,” he said. “They are the real cars.”

But as is the case with other car lovers, it’s not just about the cars for Gabbert.

“It’s also about the people,” he said. “The people are fantastic. You cannot find a nicer group of people. They’re a special breed.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Terry Oparka at toparka@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1054.