About Us

 

In the early years (1948 to 1970) the club members would meet at a restaurant on Fenkell in Detroit called "The Cardinal Hut" named after the Cooley High School Mascot on a monthly basis and discuss upcoming car events, drag racing and invent new ways of holding car events that would feature their hot rods in some form of competition. When the membership started to increase they needed a new location that would hold a larger group of members so they made an arrangement with the Detroit police department to meet in the basement of the department’s 16th Precinct. At that time the membership had grown to over one hundred members and included some well known names in the hobby such as Ron and Gene Logghe (dragster frame builders and famous race car owners and operators), Bob Larivee Sr. (Autorama promoter and ISCA founder), Angelo Giampetroni (Gratiot Auto Supply Owner), Al Bergler (First Ridler award winner and famous dragster builder, owner and operator), Mike and Larry Alexander (famous show car builders and recipients of the Ridler award) and Frank Burrell (Pioneer hot rodder and innovator). A favorite activity after meeting was to go out to Northwestern Highway which did not have a speed limit and run top end, the McCulloch Blown Caddy and Olds powered rods usually won. In 1952 the Michigan Hot Rod Association (MHRA) was formed and it is a combination of 7 car clubs which included MMAC. Once the car clubs joined together it was decided that racing on the street was too dangerous and the desire to form a safe, organized way to hold car competitions was needed. The MHRA opened the Motor City Drag Way in 1957.

 

1970 to 1980 - Throughout the 60’s and continuing into the 70’s MMAC was heavily involved with the newly opened Motor City Drag Way and at the same time supporting the Detroit Autorama which was held in order to generate income for the drag strip. Over the course of 10 years the Detroit Autorama grew to become a larger focus then even the drag strip and much of the MMAC members time had been and is still devoted to the show. Throughout the 70’s the drag strip and Autorama were all consuming with the MMAC members either showing their cars or racing them. MMAC also started into the 4wd world where many members would prepare and race 4wd jeeps and sand rails.

 

1980 to 1990 - Along with all of the drag racing, Autorama, sand racing etc, the hot rod and street rod world was heating up with many outdoor shows being held across the country. MMAC and the MHRA were right there too being actively involved in the shows. The MMAC would road rally to the long distance shows. The movement was so strong that the MHRA saw a need to help hot rodders as they travelled to the shows so they opened up a travelling Rod Repair Shop so the hot rodders have a way keep their vehicles on the road going to and coming from shows. Many of today’s MMAC members still work with the MHRA Rod Repair Shop and travel to these shows supporting hot rodders from across the country. MMAC members dedicating their time and effort to the Rod Repair Shop are as follows; Rick Banister, Art Silver and Al Cook.

 

1990 to 2000 - In 1994 the MMAC started designing and selling tee shirts at the Detroit Autorama. MMAC contracted well know cartoon artist Dave Bell to design a cartoon style shirt that would pull in some of the top cars and different memories from throughout the year in hot rodding along with promoting the Detroit Autorama. The shirts were sold at the Detroit Autorama and were a huge hit! The shirt was designed to have bright colors and all of the Detroit Autorama Ridler award recipients printed on the back of the shirt. The shirts were sold from 1994 through 2002 and eventually turned over to Championship Auto Shows (CASI) where they would be designed in a fashion to better coordinate with the other Autorama shows across the country.

 

2000 to Current - As the tee shirt sales moved to CASI the MMAC decided to try to design and sell a novelty model car at the Autorama. The car would be a new design each year with a unique paint scheme, unique style of hot rod, unique Detroit Autorama logo on the back and be labeled in a series that could not be found on any other model car. Sales were great but each year the model car manufacturers would continue to increase the cost and the minimum qty’s to the point where it was not feasible to continue the sales of the cars. The cars were sold from 1997 to 2012 and are a well sought after collector series today. Currently the MMAC hosts a fall color tour each year and raffles off a large prize. The color tour has been held for 3 consecutive years and has grown each year. Our 2015 fall color tour had 179 cars in attendance and approx 400 people!