Every year I look forward to Autorama. This event is the most uniquely, purely Motor City Event in existence. More than 800 custom and restored vehicles worldwide converge on Huntington Place for Meguiar’s Detroit Autorama 2024. This year marks the 71st go-around for this event. The first Autorama happened in 1953 with just 40 cars at The University of Detroit Memorial Building. The show would spend its next seven years at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum. The next home has been Autramam’s home ever since: Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place). Did you know Bob Seger played Autorama several times in the late ’60s and early ’70s? You can learn more about the history of Autorama HERE. You can find out more about the weekend’s event’s HERE.
The First Floor of The Detroit Autorama 2024
I love the first floor of Autorama for the latest and greatest, the specialty items (5 generations of Batmobiles), and the Great Eight Showcase. The Great Eight are the finalists for the Ridler Award. You ask any car enthusiast, the Ridler Award is at the top of the heap for prestige. Every Ridler Award winner is listed on the Autorama website. Here’s an excerpt from the website explaining what the Ridler Award is about: it emphasizes creativity, engineering, and quality workmanship. Anyone building a vehicle for the Ridler competition should post these words on their garage wall.” Scroll down to see the winners from 2023 and 2022 displayed at Autorama along with some of the other great things you can see at the Detroit Autorama 2024!
The Basement of The Detroit Autorama 2024
Next, may I draw your attention toward the escalator in the back-left corner of Autorama? Back in the ’90s, when I first started attending Autorama, I didn’t even know about the basement. There’s so much to see on the main floor, I figured how much could be down there? I was missing out. The basement is where you find all the rat rods and funky cars. It’s known as Autorama Extreme. The basement always has a variety of jaw-dropping creative rat rods. Another thing I love, you never know what the gear shift will be made of or what is in the trunk when you’re in the basement. I love it. There’s a deep sense of community and a good party to be found any time of the day at Autorama Extreme. It’s also where live bands play and the Pinup Girl contest takes place.
