Detroit Autorama 2023 Gen 3 Coupe #59

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It’s Monday morning after a long and tiring weekend attending and showing the Coupe at the 2023 Detroit Autorama at Huntington Place (formerly Cobo Hall) in downtown Detroit, Michigan. As of late last night, the Coupe is safely back in our home garage. Cut to the chase – managed to score another first-place award in the 1400.0 Handbuilt Sports class. That’s twice for the Coupe. The first time was three years ago just after it was finished and not driven or legal. Fun to show it again as a driver, although pretty sure its Autorama days are over. But it was a good run. Here’s a recap and observations from the experience.

Late last year I began to think about doing Autorama for the fifth time and possibly taking the new truck build. The cut-off for the application was the end of January. The truck paint wasn’t complete and since the application includes sending a number of pictures that just wasn’t going to happen. So I decided to take the Coupe again and submitted the application. In hindsight, although now almost fully painted, the truck wouldn’t have been ready in time. Several weeks later, received notification the Coupe was accepted. Our move-in was Wednesday night before the weekend of the show. It was a cold, icy, and snowy day (like much of the country) but we got in relatively quickly, found our assigned spot, and got back out in just over the hour time limit. Friday morning I arrived early, finished the setup, and settled in for three days. I was given a great spot this year. Near show center and toward the front. Just steps away from the crazy high-end builds including the eight finalists for the Riddler award. You can see the winner, announced late Sunday, here https://www.motortrend.com/events/19...troit-autorama. Move-out was somewhat crazy as usual. Not choreographed like move-in. But we waited our turn and got home by around 10:00 PM.

I don’t have any insight regarding actual attendance numbers and how they compared to previous years. But seemed very busy to me. Especially through most of the day on Saturday when the aisles were pretty much clogged with attendees. There were often people 4-5 deep in front of the Coupe waiting for their turn to get closer. Lots of questions, discussions, and pictures. Of course, the usual “Is it real?” and the occasional less than complimentary “It’s just a kit car…” And the “experts” who guessed it was a Ferrari, Jaguar, Cheetah, etc. Even a couple who asked if it was an Opel. Um, no. I made a point of having my “What is it?” sign displayed along with my diecast of what the original looked like. But for most a verbal explanation worked better when needed. Overall, the reception was incredibly positive. I would frequently watch people approaching the Coupe with a smile. Even though obviously not the original blue and white, everyone loved the candy red color. The Coyote power also received a lot of attention and compliments. I showed it with the driver door open so people could see inside. Which led to the usual "Will I fit?" and "How do you get in and out?" Dozens of people said this was on their bucket list to build. Overwhelming positive comments about Factory Five in general. (Still waiting by the mailbox for my commission check…) So overall a very positive and enjoyable experience.

Now that it’s over, I’ve found myself considering how my humble little homebuilt kit Coupe belonged in the same show as the huge number of automotive art masterpieces. They really are incredible. How could attendees walk through those displays and then come to mine and be so complimentary and impressed? I’ve concluded that it’s probably mostly a matter of accessibility. While it’s amazing to see those high end builds, for most it’s never going to be something they can personally own or experience. For sure including me. But they see a Factory Five build as something they could possibly attain so have a more invested interest. I had a number of people comment that they had never seen a Coupe, or a Factory Five for that matter, in person. And were impressed. Which led to several discussions about cost. My build cost is my business. But I would always explain the general kit costs, options, etc.

Enough babble. Here are pictures from the show. I’m not a huge fan of pictures of myself. Usually avoid them. But included a picture with the award at the Coupe right before the show closed. Also included a picture of the award next to a small poster I made of the time I met Peter Brock several months ago. What an honor that was.











And if that wasn’t enough, I did a six minute walkaround video before the show started on Friday. I did a similar video three years ago which probably some of you have seen. But the audio was terrible so tried again. Still not very professional. But this one is better. https://youtu.be/wlfgw0vDo-8

Final comments, in conclusion, about the Handbuilt Sports class. In past shows I’ve attended, there were always several Cobras, an occasional Coupe, even a GT40 one year. I didn’t see any of those this year. Other than mine of course. I didn’t see every car in the class. But the ones I did see were homemade versions of other cars, like a couple of MG’s. There was one completely original ground up homemade build that on first sight I decided was going to knock me out of contention. Talked to the older (I can say that, right?) gentleman that built it. It was a multiyear project that he’d been driving unpainted for 10 years. After getting it painted, he decided to show it at least once. Something he’d never done. He said he was just happy to be there and didn’t care whether it won any awards. That’s good because it didn’t place. I was surprised but didn’t look too closely. Apparently the judges did. But still an interesting build so here’s a picture. My props to anyone who can accomplish this.



That’s it. Back to finish the truck build and then on to the next project.