The Drive Home - Final Chapter: LeMay Museum, Tacoma To 2016 Detroit Auto Show - On The Road With Steve Purdy +VIDEO
The Epic Drive Ends in Detroit; Three old cars driven from Tacoma to Detroit in the dead of winter
By Steve Purdy
Senior Editor
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau
To recap: Three vintage cars – a ’57 Chevy Nomad, a ’61 Chrysler 300G and a ’66 Mustang left their safe haven at the LeMay, America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, WA for a 2900-mile cross-country drive to help open the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The project, called “The Drive Home,” will promote the museum and the auto show while showing these great examples of Detroit iron are still competent. Journalists joined the drive at different points along the route.
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These three dirty old cars and their entourage arrived in Birmingham, MI (northern suburb of Detroit) right on time. Amazingly few problems confronted the intrepid team as they crossed the mountains and great prairies into the upper Midwest, plodding through heavy snow around Mt. Hood and intermittently slippery roads through the Rockies, sneaking by the Mississippi River’s historic flooding near St. Louis, stopping at Pontiac, IL (along with many other places) where supporters gathered to cheer them on. Then, through the greater Chicago area other stops allowed sponsors to be courted as well.
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Once in the Detroit area it seemed to be one reception and event after another. Sponsors, dignitaries and other supporters gathered at the elegant Townsend Hotel in Birmingham for a welcome celebration with the cars poised in the center of the ballroom. Eats, drinks and a few speeches proved a relaxing way to help the travelers wind down before continuing with the hoop-la.
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Even though they decided not to wash the cars they appeared a bit incongruous because another sponsor of the drive, Coker Tires, needed to have their original style bias ply tires with wide whitewalls mounted for this static leg of the journey. So here we have very dirty cars shod with sparkling clean and new white wall tires. But they look great anyway.
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Thanks also to a cadre of enthusiastic sponsors who understood the concept and the value of driving these charming old cars across the country in the dead of winter. Michelin, particularly, for tires that kept us on the road when the road got ‘greazy.’
Though I spent just three days on the road with this ream of dedicated bunch of folks it feels like I’ve known them all for years.
As Willie says "I just can’t wait to get on the road again".
©Steve Purdy, Shunpiker Productions, All Rights Reserved
On The Road With Steve Purdy - From Lemay Museum Tacoma To 2016 Detroit Auto Show
Chapter One - December 28, 2015Chapter Two - December 29, 2015
Chapter Three - December 30, 2015
Chapter Four - December 31, 2015
Chapter Five - January 2, 2016
Chapter Six Final Chapter - January 10, 2016
SEE ALSO: Official NAIAS Drive Home Coverage +VIDEO